Atomic Absorption Spectrometer for Assessing the Inorganic Contaminants in Processed E Waste

Abstract

E-waste handling appears to be national agenda towards hazardous waste management. The annual e-waste gen- eration in India is approximated to be 4.1 million metric tonnes. In India, Bengaluru, Karnataka is popularly called as Silicon Valley of India as it hosts many software industries. The annual generation of e-waste at Bengaluru is 9,118.74 metric tonnes and expected to escalate at a rate of 2.25 tonnes/year. It is understood that e-waste comprises of obsolete electrical and electronic items. They are collected and transported to e-waste handling units. At the handling unit, they are segregated, dismantled and separated into plastic and metal items manually. Worn out copper cables, wires and printed circuit boards (PCBs) are shredded and pulverized to extract the metals. This results in generation of processed e-wastes such as Floor dust, Pulverized Epoxy Powder, PVC Cable Granule and PCB metal powder. These processed e-wastes contain inorganic and organic contaminants and it requires safe handling and disposal. Inorganic contaminants such as metals are expected to be higher in the processed e-wastes which needs to be examined for their levels. The present study attempts to investigate metals such as Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Nickel (Ni) and Lithium (Li) in the processed e-wastes. As the processed e- wastes are expected to contain good metal residues, their levels are compared with statutory limits to comment on their toxicity. Further, existing methods of metal recovery are discussed along with their impact on environment upon disposal.