ELECTRONIC WASTE
Electronic technologies that once powered markets reach obsolescence and are evidently discarded. The outdated remains of this technology that once use to run electronic networks for households, work places, educational institutions and public domains linger in assorted stages of disposal.
So where do this electronic waste go?
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GLOBAL WASTE TRADE
Electronic Waste is regularly exported by developed countries from the global north like USA, Japan, Western Europe and Australasia to developing countries in the global south like Africa, India, Latin America, Southeast Asia and China, often in violation of the international law.
The increasing ‘market penetration’ in the developing countries, ‘replacement market’ in the developed countries and ‘high obsolescence rate’ make e-waste one of the fastest waste streams. This new kind of waste is posing a serious challenge in disposal and recycling to both developed and developing countries.
Inspections of 18 European seaports in 2005 found up to nearly 47% of waste destined for export was illegal.
How did this trade evolve?
In the 1990's, governments in the EU, Japan and US set up e-waste recycling systems, but with the constant evolution of technology, the growth of e-waste was vast and many developed countries didn't have the capacity to deal and safely recycle or destroy the e-waste generated. Hence, developed countries began to export masses of e-waste to developing countries where laws to protect the environment and workers were inadequate or enforced.
There have been numerous international responses to the complications associated with the global waste trade and multiple attempts and large-scale operations to regulate this issue for over 30 years. This hazardous waste trade has proven difficult to regulate as there is such a large amount of waste being traded, 20 to 50 million metric tons disposed yearly, and laws in developing countries are often inadequate or not enforced at all. The loopholes within the international agreements allows for countries and large corporations to dump this waste illegally with no consequences.
The most notable attempt to regulate the hazardous waste trade has been the Basel Convention
BASEL ACTION NETWORK
A two year investigation by the Basel Action Network investigated the exportation of e-waste by many businesses within the US. This organisation put 200 geolocating tracking devices inside old computers, televisions and printers and then dropped them off nationwide at donation centers, recyclers and electronic take-back programs. Many of these companies publicly advertised themselves as 'green', 'sustainable', 'earth friendly' and 'environmentally responsible'.
During this study Basel Action Network discovered about a third of the tracked electronics were exported overseas to countries like China, Pakistan, Mexico, Taiwan, Thailand, Dominican Republic, Canada, Kenya and most frequently to rural Hong Kong.
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Many countries are introducing laws on whole electronic imports to protect and prevent the importation of e-waste. The Chinese government has had a crackdown with the help of the "Green Fence" operation which
stops the importation of electronics entering the border, this banning was introduced in 2000 however, China has discovered that these laws are not working and e-waste is still arriving in Guiya of Guangdong Province, the main centre of e-waste scrapping in China.
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Chinese workers are employed for $8 a day to strip the illegally imported electronics of their plastic and collect metal, copper, gold and liquid solder etc. Despite the hazardous health risks (which many workers are not aware of), they opted to continue to work in recycling factories as it was one of the only job in their region that paid a living wage.
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A study of the environmental damage on Guiyu found the landscape to be toxic which has consequently left a permanent scar across the country. Guiyu has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world, pregnant women are six times more likely to suffer a miscarriage and seven out of ten children have too much lead in their blood from this e-waste exposure.
RECYCLING
E-waste recycling is the reuse and reprocessing of electrical and electronic equipment of any type that has been discarded or deemed as obsolete.
The process of recycling e-waste is labour intensive and requires many steps to strip each layer of the electrical item for reuse and recycle.
Step-by-step process of recycling:
1. Picking Shed
When the e-waste items arrive at the recycling plants, the first step involves sorting all the items manually. Batteries are removed for quality check.
2. Disassembly
After sorting by hand, the second step involves a serious labour-intensive process of manual dismantling. The e-waste items are taken apart to retrieve all the parts and then categorized into core materials and components. The dismantled items are then separated into various categories into parts that can be re-used or still continue the recycling processes.
3. First size reduction process
Here, items that cannot be dismantled efficiently are shredded together with the other dismantled parts to pieces less than 2 inches in diameter. It is done in preparation for further categorization of the finer e-waste pieces.
4. Second size reduction process
The finer e-waste particles are then evenly spread out through an automated shaking process on a conveyor belt. The well spread out e-waste pieces are then broken down further. At this stage, any dust is extracted and discarded in a way that does not degrade the environmentally.
5. Over-band Magnet
At this step, over-band magnet is used to remove all the magnetic materials including steel and iron from the e-waste debris.
6. Non-metallic and metallic components separation
The sixth step is the separation of metals and non-metallic components. Copper, aluminium, and brass are separated from the debris to only leave behind non-metallic materials. The metals are either sold as raw materials or re-used for fresh manufacture.
7. Water Separation
As the last step, plastic content is separated from glass by use of water. One separated, all the materials retrieved can then be resold as raw materials for re-use. The products sold include plastic, glass, copper, iron, steel, shredded circuit boards, and valuable metal mix.
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E-cycle components re-use
1. Plastic.
All the plastic materials retrieved are sent to recyclers who use them to manufacture items such as fence posts, plastic sleepers, plastic trays, vineyard stakes, and equipment holders or insulators among other plastic products.
2. Metal
Scrap metals materials retrieved are sent to recyclers to manufacture new steel and other metallic materials.
3. Glass
Glass is retrieved from the Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) mostly found in televisions and computer monitors. Extracting glass for recycling from CRTs is a more complicated task since CRTs are composed of several hazardous materials. Lead is the most dangerous and can adversely harm human health and the environment. Tubes in big CRT monitors can contain high levels of lead of up to 4 kilograms. Other toxic metals such as barium and phosphor are also contained in CRT tubes. To achieve the best environmentally friendly glass extraction, the following steps ensure a specialized CRT recycling:
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Manual separation of the CRT from the television or monitor body
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Size reduction process where the CRT is shredded into smaller pieces. Dust is eliminated and disposed in an environmentally friendly way.
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All metals are removal through over-band magnets, where ferrous and non-ferrous components are eliminated from the glass materials.
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A washing line is then used to clear oxides and phosphors from the glass
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Glass sorting is the final step whereby leaded glass is separated from non-leaded glass. The extracts can then be used for making new screens.
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4. Mercury
Mercury containing devices are sent to mercury recycling facilities that uses a specialized technology for elimination for use in dental amalgams and metric instruments, and for fluorescent lighting. Other components such as glass and plastics are re-used for manufacture of their respective products.
5. Printed Circuit Boards
Circuit boards are sent to specialized and accredited companies where they are smelted to recover non-renewable resources such as silver, tin, gold, palladium, copper and other valuable metals.
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6. Hard Drives
Hard drives are shredded in whole and processed into aluminum ingots for use in automotive industry.
7. Ink and Toner Cartridges
Ink and toner cartridges are taken back to respective manufacturing industries for recycling. They are re-manufactured while those that can’t are separated into metal and plastic for re-use as raw materials.
8. Batteries
Batteries are taken to specialized recyclers where they are hulled to take out plastic. The metals are smelted is specialized conditions to recover nickel, steel, cadmium and cobalt that are re-used for new battery production and fabrication of stainless steel.
Batteries are taken to specialized recyclers where they are hulled to take out plastic. The metals are smelted is specialized conditions to recover nickel, steel, cadmium and cobalt that are re-used for new battery production and fabrication of stainless steel.
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(All e-waste recycling information from 'Conserve Energy Future')
