Dynamic leaching test of personal computer components

Abstract

A dynamic leaching test (DLT) was developed and used to evaluate the leaching of toxic substances for electronic waste in the environment. The major components in personal computers (PCs) including motherboards, hard disc drives, floppy disc drives, and compact disc drives were tested. The tests lasted for 2 years for motherboards and 1.5 year for the disc drives. The extraction fluids for the standard toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) and synthetic precipitation leaching procedure (SPLP) were used as the DLT leaching solutions. A total of 18 elements including Ag, Al, As, Au, Ba, Be, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ga, Ni, Pd, Pb, Sb, Se, Sn, and Zn were analyzed in the DLT leachates. Only Al, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn were commonly found in the DLT leachates of the PC components. Their leaching levels were much higher in TCLP extraction fluid than in SPLP extraction fluid. The toxic heavy metal Pb was found to continuously leach out of the components over the entire test periods. The cumulative amounts of Pb leached out of the motherboards in TCLP extraction fluid reached 2.0 g per motherboard over the 2-year test period, and that in SPLP extraction fluid were 75–90% less. The leaching rates or levels of Pb were largely affected by the content of galvanized steel in the PC components. The higher was the steel content, the lower the Pb leaching rate would be. The findings suggest that the obsolete PCs disposed of in landfills or discarded in the environment continuously release Pb for years when subjected to landfill leachate or rains.