Estimation of Potential E-waste Generation in Jordan

E-waste coming out from the electronic sector of the entire world is harming the world's environment. There has been a pattern of a substantial increase in the production of E-waste worldwide. This is as a consequence of population increase, industrialization, urbanization and economic activity. Since the last decade, the rate of consumerism has been found to be very high due to higher economic growth, which has resulted in increased E-waste production. Almost all countries are recycling more and more E-waste, but a million tonnes of E-waste still coming out. Experts believe that the rise of E-waste is due to our rapidly changing lifestyles. We have started adopting new electronic devices coming into the market, trying to make life more convenient. In India, electronic waste is growing at 10% per annum. The trend of urbanization has played a significant role in the enhancement of E-waste generation. The population living in urban areas was 27.67% in 2000, 38.03% in 2018, and is expected to reach approximately 42% in 2025. As the population increases, the amount of E-waste will also rise to an alarming situation. This review paper provides the present scenario of E-waste and its management practices and legislation in the present Indian context. This would help all the stakeholders involved in the production of electrical equipment to gain better understanding of E-waste.

The problem of e-waste disposal is a very well-known fact, and its generation is increasing exponentially every year. In 2015, 54 million tons of e-waste was generated, whereas it has been predicted that around 50 million tons of e-waste will be generated worldwide by 2018, by the UN report. Another source predicts that e-waste generation will be 72 million tons by 2017. This anomaly exists due to the different methodologies adopted in prediction of e-waste. The most common method used so far to calculate the amount of e-waste generated is as follows. The amount of EEE sold by manufacturers is collected first. The average lifespan of an EEE is known. Thus, applying the average lifespan of the EEE on the amount sold per year, the amount of e-waste is calculated. However, this method is not free from flaws since a sizable portion of the EEE, once the average lifespan is over, does not directly become e-waste. They land in the second-hand market and are resold, and are again used for more number of years. Hence, the process of becoming e-waste for these recycled products is delayed. Once an EEE leaves the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), the lifecycle of an EEE begins. After a certain time of use, the user may discard it for several reasons, which then becomes Used EEE (UEEE). One can exchange this UEEE for a newer and upgraded models (or cash) via authorized or unauthorized resellers, in which case also the UEEE lands up in the second-hand market. The original user can also discard the product completely so that it lands up as e-waste. From the e-waste, precious metals are recovered through recycling process and the discarded parts mostly end up as landfill. In this paper, a model has been proposed based on the lifecycle of EEE. Based on this model, an attempt has been made to predict the amount of e-waste generation in India. Standard data available from the data bank of EU has been used for this purpose. The work has been carried out using Vensim software. The results have been compared with the real-life data.

A review on properties evaluation of bituminous addition with E-waste plastic powder

Electronic and electrical waste or e-waste is rapidly emerging as a leading waste category, constituting approximately 8% of municipal waste. In 2019, around 53.6 million metric tons of e-waste were generated. Projections indicate a surge up to nearly 74 million metric tons of e-waste by 2030. Recycling and recovery of metals and other constituents from e-waste have become pivotal issues, raising significant environmental and socioeconomic concerns.

Estimation of electronic waste using optimized multivariate grey models

Electronic and electrical industry is the largest and fastest growing manufacturing industry because of tremendous growth in both software applications and upgraded hardware. The past two decades have seen an exceptionally strong growth in the electronic equipment market. Electronic and electrical products become electronic waste (e-waste) when the products or items used lifecycle being ended. Electronic products are made up of many materials like plastics, heavy metals (lead, mercury, gold, platinum, silver, copper, zinc, selenium, cadmium, chromium and many more), dioxin, furans and others which require special end-of-life handling. The estimation of Global e-Sustainability Initiative is that about 320 tons of gold (8% of the total gold supply in the world) and throughout the world, 7,500 tons of silver are being used in the electronics manufacturing industry. Around 30-50 million tons of e-waste is produced every year and the production trend is overwhelming. By the end of the decade, the e-waste recycling market is going to touch $44.3 billion, which is more than four (04) times from its existing size. There are three concerns that arise for the crisis of e-waste. The first is the total volume of units of obsolescent electronic items. The second fact is the global problem as the generation of e-waste in vulnerable amount since everywhere there are people. And the third fact is that, the rate of obsolescence of electronic items i.e. 5 -10% yearly. The developing world has forecasted that by the year 2030 the developed country should discard the use of twice numbers of Personal Computers (PC) than developing countries. Moreover, in developing countries the e-waste is processed either by informal sector or being resold or refurbished and resold recycled in an unsafe manner using unskilled labours. Environmental pollution and occupational health hazards are frequently observed due to informal recycling of e-waste. In developed countries, e-waste is collected to recover some precious metals and safely rid of the toxic metals as they have contained but in developing countries, e-waste is collected mainly to recover a few metals of value and the rest are dumped in nearby areas. In developing countries, the laws for restricting hazardous waste are flexible by which the developed countries export their e-waste to developing countries because of low labour wages and the availability of second-hand market.

e-waste: the problem persists after recycling

Background: "Electronic wastes" are discarded electrical or electronic devices which includes used electronics which are destined for reuse, resale, salvage, recycling, or disposal [1] Per year approximately 20-50 million tons of Electronic Waste are disposed of globally [2]. The effects of these electronic materials are far worse in counties liked India where most of the people are having poor economic status that leads to engagement in picking up and recycling of trash cans and other dumps and they are not equipped with any proper protective measures [3]. Electronic waste is emerging as a serious public health and environmental issue in India. India is the "fifth largest electronic waste producer in the world"; approximately 2 million tons of e-waste are generated annually and an undisclosed amount of e-waste is imported from other countries around the world [4]
 Objectives: 1. To assess the awareness on ill effect of electronic waste among general population of selected urban community. 2. To associate the awareness on ill effect of electronic waste on health among selected urban community with a selected demographic variable.
 Material and Methods: Research Approach: Quantitative Research Approach.
 Research Design: Descriptive Research Design.
 Setting of the study: The study was conducted at Aarvi Naka, Wardha. Population- General population of Aarvi Naka.
 Sampling Technique: Non-Probability Sampling Technique.
 Sample Size- 100.
 Result: The result shows that 18% of the general population had poor level of awareness score, 38% had low level of awareness, 30% had average level of awareness and 14% of general population had high level of awareness score. Mean awareness score was 9.51±3.98 and mean percentage of awareness score was 47.55 ± 19.94. While dealing with the association of awareness score with their demographic variables, age in years of general population from selected urban community is statistically associated with their awareness score (p=0.05). Conclusion: In this study the findings of the study shows that there is no significant association of awareness level on ill effect of electronic waste on health with the demographic variables like gender, educational status, religion, occupation, monthly family income, marital status and home ownership; but there is a significant relationship with age of the corresponding samples.

The bacterium Chromobacterium violaceum is known for producing an antimicrobial agent called violacein. But C. violaceum offers more than medical applications. The bacterium might be capable of recovering precious metals from the massive quantities of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) generated around the world. People tossed out 44.7 million metric tons of e-waste in 2016, a figure that’s on the rise. If scaled up, specially designed bacteria could offer an environmentally friendly cleanup alternative. Image credit: Shutterstock/aquatarkus. C. violaceum is one of several potential e-waste–processing microbes. Some bacteria produce chemicals that leach metals from electronic scrap. Others bind or absorb the metals. Researchers say these methods could be more sustainable than other extraction techniques, such as heating e-waste to high temperatures or adding toxic chemicals. So-called bioleaching is “a green process,” says Yen-Peng Ting, an environmental chemical engineer at the National University of Singapore. Yet bacteria aren’t perfect recyclers. Often, microbes can’t extract as much metal as heating or chemical processes do. “With the bacteria, generally the process is slower,” Ting acknowledges, citing research challenges. But genetic engineering of the right traits could help. And some scientists are already confident enough in the approach to commercialize it. Without question, e-waste is a huge problem. People tossed out 44.7 million metric tons of e-waste in 2016, and the figure is expected to reach about 52 million metric tons in 2021 (1). More people are buying electronic gadgets, and consumers tend to use some devices such as mobile phones for a short time. This rampant consumption, researchers wrote in a 2013 article, “has resulted in the generation of a torrential electronic waste stream” (2). Although the handling and processing of e-waste are hard to track, government documents and scientific reports suggest that only 20% of it is being properly recycled worldwide …

Recycling of WEEE: Characterization of spent printed circuit boards from mobile phones and computers

Indonesia generated an estimated 2 million tons of e-waste. This is expected to increase to 3.2 million tons by 2040. Printers as one of electronic waste (e-waste) can be harmful to the environment, then to reduce the environmental impact of printer disposal and the amount of e-waste that ends up in landfills, printers should be recycled before they are disposed of. This involves disassembling the printer and recycling parts and components. The disassembly process more challenging to plan and execute due to returned product type may vary from product that have been at end-of-life or damaged. Disassembly planning is the first step is to plan the disassembly process, which is important for optimizing the recycling process. Small repair shops are at the forefront of this endeavor, so ensuring their activities run smoothly is of utmost importance. The classic aggregate planning was introduced in disassembly process, considering its capability to coordinate and plan resource to satisfy customers’ demand. The research took place at RCM Komputama, a small printer repair shop in Depok. This research aimed to implement classic aggregate planning in disassembly process, so the repair shop could maximize the number of disassembled units as well as minimize the costs of the disassembly process. After implementing disassembly planning using aggregate planning approach, the processing time needed decreased while satisfying the demands.

Electronic waste recycling: A review of U.S. infrastructure and technology options

E-waste flows, resource recovery and improvement of legal framework in Pakistan

Electrical and electronic waste is scrap and generated out of various sources which include data processing equipment, household equipment, and other devices. These wastes of electrical and electronic equipment comprise several precious metals and toxic, heavy metals. In India, we generate over 50 million tons of E-waste each year excluding imports and it is expected that it would double up in the next few years. Over 90% of E-waste is recycled by methods like backyard recycling, open burning, and acid leaching. These primitive, informal methods can cause huge effects on the environment, and human health while the hazardous materials react with the atmosphere or water. Parallelly, in formal recycling, the materials of a different nature are sorted properly and treated with appropriate methods, as it does not affect our surroundings. Hence, this waste can be collected by setting campaigns and practicing extended producer responsibility or other take-back systems for formal recycling. Then, dismantled properly to reuse the precious metal and to cautiously recycle the toxic and radioactive metal with advanced methods like biological leaching, thermal plasma treatment, and converting it to energy. E-waste has a larger influence on the economy of our country, as it is composed of huge metal resources. Urban mining from electronic waste mitigates the need for mining plants to obtain metal ores. This study encompasses the best methods to dispose and recover electronic waste, its pros, and cons, and the impact of the electronic waste on our environment and well-being while disposed it to informal sectors or dumping it in landfills.KeywordsWaste electrical and electronic equipmentE-waste managementRecyclingMetal toxicity and environmental impact

Electronic waste or e-waste is one of the emerging problems in developed and developing countries worldwide. It comprises of a multitude of components with valuable materials, some containing toxic substances, that can have an adverse impact on human health and the environment. Previous studies show that India has generated 0.4 million tons of e-waste in 2010 which may increase to 0.5 to 0.6 million tons by 2013–2014. Coupled with lack of appropriate infrastructural facilities and procedures for its disposal and recycling have posed significant importance for e-waste management in India. In general, e-waste is generated through recycling of e-waste and also from dumping of these wastes from other countries. More of these wastes are ending up in dumping yards and recycling centers, posing a new challenge to the environment and policy makers as well. In general electronic gadgets are meant to make our lives happier and simpler, but the toxicity it contains, their disposal and recycling becomes a health nightmare. Most of the users are unaware of the potential negative impact of rapidly increasing use of computers, monitors, and televisions. This review article provides a concise overview of India’s current e-waste scenario, namely magnitude of the problem, environmental and health hazards, current disposal, recycling operations and mechanisms to improve the condition for better environment.