Material flow, economic and environmental life cycle performances of informal electronic waste recycling in a Thai community

Abstract

The informal e-waste recycling sector has potential for both harmful environmental releases and environmental benefits associated with avoided emissions from recovered materials. Four household appliances (washing machine, refrigerator, Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) television, fan) were selected for a combined Material Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis of their end-of-life treatment. Data collection took place in an informal e-waste recycling community in Thailand, recording the weight of materials recovered for each appliance, along with the number of each appliance recycled for one entire village. The LCA determined the avoided emissions and damages (human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resource use) per kg material recovered, per product, and for an entire recycling community, with a benefit of 2.7 to 25.4 kg CO2 eq avoided per product piece. Informal e-waste recycling appears relatively efficient in material recovery and economically beneficial. Recyclers recovered 93% or more of the original mass of the products. Just over 460,000 kg of waste devices were processed each year, with a net value added of 2.1 million Thai Baht. Each year, the normalized environmental net benefits amount to 0.2 DALYs for human health, 60,000 kg CO2 eq in climate change impacts, and nearly 400,000 MJ in avoided resource damages each month. Informal e-waste recycling was found to have net benefits in terms of avoided emissions, in particular due to recovery of PCBs, copper, steel and plastic with the exception of improper disposal of hazardous materials of lead in landfilled CRT screens and burned cables.