E-waste Dismantling Community Toward Circular Economy with Ineffective Hazardous Waste Management: A Case Study in Buriram Province, Thailand

Abstract

Thailand situation on Electronic wastes (E-wastes) management is one of critical issue nowadays due to the fact that the legislation of Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) using the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principle is on consideration process. However, the existing WEEE in Thailand is expected 414,600 ton/year, and this must require an effective dismantling system. It was observed that the wastes generally find in the second hand stores and household WEEE dismantling. In this research, estimated annually amounts of plastic, steel, aluminium, copper, and alloy were 27.74, 35.68, 2.78, 0.05, and 3.44 tons, respectively using data of June 2019 as based month that effectively recycle followed circular economy. In addition, the results showed that average monthly income of sampling population (301.09 USD/capita) was comparable to database from local government officer (550.25 USD/household or 166.68 USD/capita), which show higher income than the average monthly income of people in Buriram province. Increasing revenues are related to the amount of secondary feedstock in circular economy, especially valued metals and recyclable plastics which in turn promotes the better quality of life. The 7 kinds of WEEE, which were television, fan, refrigerator, washing machine, rice cooker, iron, and kettle have been collected the content of vendible wastes. The challenges on non-value waste management is confronting, especially a large amount of broken CRT monitors, insulated rigid PU foam from refrigerators, and burned plastic shell of cable wire in opened dump site.