MODULE V

E-WASTE MANAGEMENT

E-Waste: Introduction, sources of e-waste, Composition, Characteristics, and Need of e waste

management. Toxic materials used in manufacturing electronic and electrical products, health
hazards due to exposure to e-waste. Recycling and Recovery: Different approaches of recycling
(separation, thermal treatments, hydrometallurgical extraction, pyrometallurgical methods, direct
recycling). Extraction of gold from E-waste. Role of stake holders in environmental management
of e-waste (producers, consumers, recyclers, and statutory bodies).

Self-learning: Impact of heavy metals on environment and human health.

E waste:

All electronics and electrical items which is discarded on completion of their useful life together
is called as E-waste

Sources of E-Waste:

1. Computer peripherals: monitor, keyboard, mouse, motherboard, laptops, CDs etc

2. Telecommunication device: phones, cell phones, routers, pagers, fax machine etc.
3. Household appliances: washing machines, vacuum cleaners, toasters, drying machines,
refrigerators, irons, air conditioners etc.

4. Industrial electronics: sensors, medical device, automobile device etc.

5. Electrical devices: switches, wires, bulbs etc

Composition

1. E-waste contains about 65% of iron, steel, and other metallic materials including costly
metals like platinum, gold, silver, and toxic metals like lead mercury, cadmium,
chromium etc.

2. E-waste contains about 21% of polymeric non biodegrable materials including PVC (poly
vinyl chlorides), polychlorinated biphenyl and brominated flame retardant plastics.

3. E-waste also contains about 11.8 % of CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) and LCD screen and
other materials like glass and ceramics.

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Characteristics of e Waste
 E waste contains hazardous substances such as lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs),
polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), mercury, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs),
brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and toxic metal like mercury, lead, cadmium,
chromium as well as valuable substances such as iron, steel, copper, aluminum, gold,
silver, platinum, palladium, and plastics.

 Hazardous substances like plastic, lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic etc. pose health
hazards on the human being to the most when treated in uncontrolled condition via air,
water and soil. The people engaged in the recycling and recovery from the e waste are
severely affected with chronic and acute diseases like cancer etc.

Need for E- waste management

 E waste is a complex mixture of metals, nonmetals, organics, and ceramics. Disposing of
this mixture in land fill can cause environmental issues. This results in serious
environmental problems due to passing of dangerous chemicals into soils, water, air and
human beings.

 Also it results loss of metals whose quantities are limited in the earth’s crust. Due to these
facts, proper efficient E-waste management is required for the recovery and reuse of
components of E- wastes

 E- waste contains hazardous and non-hazardous substances. Hazardous substances are

toxic and affect the quality of ecosystem and also the human health. Hazardous
substances include lead, mercury, cadmium, zinc, yttrium, chromium, beryllium and
nickel.

 Organic compounds like chlorofluorocarbon, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,

polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), brominated
flame retardants (BFRs) etc.

TOXIC MATERIALS USED IN MANUFACTURING ELECTRONIC AND

ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS // HEALTH HAZARDS DUE TO EXPOSURE TO E-
WASTE
Toxic materials used in manufacturing electronic and electrical products are hazardous. Hazardous
substances are toxic and can affect the quality of ecosystem and have harmful effects on human health.

These include
1. Heavy metals like Cd, Cr, Pb and Hg
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2. Organic compounds like CFC (chlorofluorocarbons), ployacyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,

(PAHs), Poly chlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) etc.

Constituents sources Health effect

Lead Solder in Damage to central and peripheral nervous system,
printed circuit blood system, kidney damage, effect the brain
development of children
board, glass,
gaskets in
computer

monitor panel

Cadmium Chip resistors Accumulate in kidney and liver, causes nerval damage
and

semiconductors

Mercury Relays and Chronic damage to brain and respiratory system.

switches,
printed circuit
board
Plastic Circuit board, Burning produces dioxin. It causes reproductive and
including cabinets and development problem. Immune system damage
cables
PVC
Beryllium fond in carcinogenic and causes lungs cancer, skin
motherboard diseases

RECYCLING AND RECOVERY OF E-WASTE

In e-waste, among various components metals contribute to the significant economic value and
efforts are focused on extracting the metals during recycling operation.

DIFFERENT APPROACHES OF RECYCLING

SEPARATION &THERMAL TREATMENTS

The recycling of e-waste is initiated with physical or mechanical pre-process.

 The first step involves physical removal of toxic materials and unwanted components

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 Manual dismantling and separation of components such as PCBs, monitors, batteries etc into
various fractions like metals, ceramics, plastics, wood and paper using hammer, screwdrivers
and conveyer beds for disassembling.

 In second step shredding of materials mechanically through crushers or grinders to collect

fragments of metal bearing components. Metals such as aluminium and copper can be
separated from non-metallic components from eddy current method.

 Next the waste is passed through electrical separators to separate metallic and nonmetallic
components.

 Magnetic separator is used to ferrous metals.

 Gravity separation is used to separate Al metal.

 Finally, after physical separation, various chemical treatments are employed to recover
metals.

HYDROMETALLURGY METHOD
There are 3 stages in metal recovery by hydrometallurgy method
1. Pretreatment stage
2. Chemical treatment stage
3. Metal recovery stage
1. Pretreatment stage
In the pretreatment step, E- waste is manually dismantled to separate various fractions like
metals, ceramics, plastics, papers and wood. The technique such as gravity separation,
electrostatic separation, magnetic separation and eddy current separation are used to separate
metals from other fractions.
2. Chemical treatment stage
In this method metals are leached into solutions by treating with different leaching reagents.
The techniques are given below
a. Cyanide leaching
Even though cyanide solutions are toxic, they are mainly used to leach gold metals. Sodium salts of 3-
nitrobenzene sulphonic acid with KCN in the presence of oxygen are used to extract gold.

b. Acid and alkaline leaching;

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Nitric acids, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acids are used for leaching of targeted metals. Organic acids
such ascorbic acid acetic acids and citric acids are used to leach light metals from batteries and mobile
devices.

c. Thiosulphate leaching

Thiosulphate is used as alternative leaching agent for the recovery of precious metals like gold and silver.
Ammonium thiosulphate solution is used to solubilize gold, silver, platinum and other precious metals in
form of anionic stable complex. This reagent is safe nontoxic, non-corrosive and metal can be recovered
from the complex.

d. Thiourea leaching

Thiourea forms a cationic soluble complex with target metal.Thiourea gives quick rates of leaching less
interference of ions, is environmentally friendly, and has low cost. In printed circuit boards, the gold and
silver selectively forms a metal-thiourea cationic complex.

e. Halide leaching

Chloride, bromide and iodide ions can be used to leach gold from the PCB waste. They are cheaper,
selective to the target and ideal leaching agent

3. Metal recovery stage

In the last step metal is recovered from leach solution. Varieties of methods like electro
deposition, solvent extraction, ion exchange, adsorption, precipitation and cementation are used
to recover metals from leached solution.

a) Solvent extraction
In this method leaching solution is treated with an organic solvent in a separating funnel. it
results in two phase system. Metal is extracted from leached solution phase to organic phase.

Different extractants such as anionic, cationic, or solvating type are employed.

Example: Diamine extractants is used for platinum and palladium.
Anionic type amide extractants is used for gold, iridium and tungsten.

b) Electrodeposition:

In this method pure metal is obtained from leached solution by electro deposition. Pure metal is
used as cathode and inert metal is used as anode is dipped leached solution. When current is
applied pure metal is electrodeposited on cathode.
Example: lead, tin and copper from PCBs can be recovered by electrodeposition.
c) Adsorption
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Metal can be leached from the leached solution by adsorption on appropriate adsorbemt.
Activated carbon is founf to be effective adsorbent.Example: Adsorption of gold complex on
activated carbon is effective, cost effective process.

d) Ion exchange

This is improved version of solvent extraction method. Solvent extracting reagents are
impregnated on polymer beads. The functional groups of reagents act as chelating groups and
selectively bind to the metals. This method is used for selective recovery of the desired metal
ions. Ion exchange resins have found effective in recovering gold from cyanide and thisulphate
leach solutions

PYROMETALLURGICAL PROCESS
Pyrometallurgy process is used to extract pure nonferrous and precious metals from e-waste. The
methods require high temperature to reduce /extract metals. Smelting, incineration, combustion,
pyrolysis, and molten salt process are the main pyrometallurgical methods employed for
recovery of metals of e-waste .

1. Smelting
Copper smelting is commonly used for recovery of nonferrous metal fractions from e-waste.
The processed scrap after preliminary stage contains mainly Iron, Aluminium, Copper, Lead,
Tin, antimony, Zinc and precious metals as metallic constituents. The mixture is fed to high
temperature furnace of copper smelters. The copper metal is converted to liquid copper. The
impure copper undergoes electro refining process to get pure copper (99.99 %). The precious and
valuable metals like Au, Pt, Lead, Tin and antimony are recovered from sludge with high
recovery rates of 90% using hydrometallurgical process. Here iron, silicon and aluminium are
not recovered but are collected as slag.

2. Combustion
It is a low technology, low-cost method which focuses on recovery of precious metals. The
ewaste is subjected to open burning in uncontrolled manner which releases all sorts of pollutants
into atmosphere. The method is highly dangerous for the environment and also increases the
health risk of all the workers involved in it.

3. Incineration
It is a controlled combustion of waste with suitable emission units. The incinerator has two
connected furnaces. In first furnace e-waste is burnt at temperature 800oC and in second furnace
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for gaseous products of the first incinerator are further oxidised at 1110oC. Heavy metals and fly
ash are collected at the bottom. Hydrometallurgical process is used for further recovery of
metals. These methods are not advisable due to pollutant gas emission and low metal recycling
performance.

4. Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition of e-waste at higher temperature in an oxygen free
environment. During pyrolysis irreversible thermal decomposition reactions takes place leading
to the formation of low molecular weight products (gases and Liquids) at temperature between
450oC and 1100oC. The gases, chars and oils produced have an economic value and can be used
as fuel. The metallic components can be separated by separation. The process also involves
release of toxic halogens along with flue gases into atmosphere.

5. Molten salt Process

In this method inorganic salts such as potassium hydroxide (KOH)-sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)
are used at different temperature between 3000C and 1100oC in a furnace depending upon the
requirement. E-waste is fed with the salt and salt is melted at desired temperature in an inert
atmosphere. The organic part decomposes in salt forming carbonate and silicates and gets
trapped in salt. Halogens are converted to alkali metal halides which remain in molten salt.
Molten salts dissolve glasses, oxides and to destruct plastics present in wastes without oxidizing
the most valuable metals. This method is efficient for recovering a copper-rich metallic fraction.
A large quantity of hydrogen is produced and might be used as fuel gas. The metallic component
is collected at the bottom of the furnace after removing the molten salt by washing with hot
water. The metal is further processed to get pure metal.

DIRECT RECYCLING OF E-WASTE

In this process the electronic components are harvested directly from e-waste without breaking
them further into small components. The harvested materials are further processed with healing
methods to regenerate recycled materials. The regenerated materials have performance
equivalent to originally manufactured materials. Thus, in this method the complicated chemical
and metallurgical steps involved in conversion of e-waste components into chemicals are
avoided. The process requires less energy and is eco-friendly. There are certain problems related
with this method. Direct regeneration of components depends upon state of health of used
electronic materials. Defects and impurities accumulated during usage could affect the quality of

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refurbished active material. Presently direct recycling of lithiumion batteries is studied. Here
battery is discharged first to ovoid short circuiting and selfignition of battery and dismantled to
separate anode, cathode, electrolyte and separated.
These components are not dismantled further. Here each component is regenerated using
appropriate process to recover its function. These components are reassembled for reuse.

EXTRACTION OF GOLD FROM E-WASTE:

Gold metal has good electric conductivity and chemical stability and hence it is used for making
integrated circuits of electronic devices, coating for contacts and connectors. E-wase contains 10
times more excessive concentration of gold compared to gold ores. Among the E waste PCBs are
rich in metals. It contains around 35% of Cu, 0.16% Ag, and 0.13% gold by weight. Several
methods are pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, biometallurgy, microwave treatment etc are
employed to recover precious, metals from E-waste. Among these, recovery of metals
hydrometallurgy is more economical.

Hydrometallurgy method of Extraction of gold from E waste

There are 3 stages in metal recovery by hydrometallurgy method\
1. Pretreatment stage
2. Chemical treatment stage
3. Metal recovery stage
Pretreatment stage
In the pretreatment step, e waste is manually dismantled to separate various fractions like metals,
ceramics, plastics, papers and wood. The technique such as gravity separation, electrostatic
separation, magnetic separation and eddy current separation are used to separate metals from
other fractions.

Chemical treatment stage

In this method metals are leached into solutions by treating with appropriate chemical reagents.
Several leaching agents such as thiosulfate, alkaline cyanide, and many acids such as
hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid and nitric acids can be used to leach gold into solution. Cyanide
leaching is the most common method used to extract gold metals. Sodium salt of 3- nitrobenzene
sulphonic acid with KCN in the presence of oxygen used as leaching agent. A water soluble
dicyanoaurate gold complex is obtained in the process

4 Au + 8CN- + O2 + 2H2O 4 Au (CN)2 - + 4 (OH) -

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Metal recovery stage

In the last step metal is recovered from leach solution. Varieties of methods like electro
deposition, solvent extraction, ion exchange, adsorption, precipitation and cementation are used
to recover metals from leached solution. In electro deposition method, gold is extracted by
electro deposition of gold from dicyanoaurate gold complex. Pure gold metal is taken as cathode
and inert metal is used as anode is dipped leached solution. When current is applied gold is
electrodeposited on cathode.

ROLE OF STAKE HOLDERS IN ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT OF E-WASTE

(PRODUCERS, CONSUMERS, RECYCLERS AND STATUTORY BODIES)

The e-waste management program is designed by statutory government regulatory bodies. The
members of the body frame the policies and execute it for protection of the environment. To
achieve the plan of management of e-waste a green tax is collected from consumer through
manufacturer. Penalties are implied on manufacturer and consumers when green tax is not paid.
Manufacturing units must support the agenda of e-waste management by doing dismantling
processing of e-waste, management of scarp materials and reselling of recycled materials.
Consumer must pay green and must be aware of importance of e-waste management. All
stakeholders must effectively work in tandem form for effective e-waste management.

There are four stakeholders in environmental management of e-waste. They are as follows.
1. Statutory Government Regulatory bodies.
2. Producers (Manufacturing units).
3. Recyclers (Recycling units and collection units)
4. Consumers.
1. Statutory government Regulatory bodies
The statutory bodies play a Vitol role in management of e-waste. Main roles are:

a) To collect the green tax from consumer through producer.

b) Apply extra charges on producers (manufacturing units) in form of penalty when no

proper recycling is assured from manufacturing units.

c) Provide incentives in form of subsidy to recyclers and collectors when recycling of e-

waste is done properly.

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d) To conduct programs of awareness in the society about importance of e-waste

recycling in reduction of hazardous substances.

2. Producers (Manufacturing units)

a) The accountability to collect green tax.
b) Charging an additional amount on consumer during sell of e-products and returning it
with interest at the time of exchange of e-product.

c) Forming the group of manufactures who monitor and encourage the recycling of e-
waste.
d) Bearing the transportation cost and collection fees to ease collection process.
e) Purchase the recycling material at fixed value and using of recycled e-waste during
manufacturing.

f) Giving discount to consumer on the basis of e-waste generated from gadget.

3. Recyclers (Recycling units &Collection Units)
a) The accountability of recycling units is dismantling, recycling processing of e-waste
materials, management of scarp materials and reselling of recycling materials

b) Establish collection units and group of people who can ensure return back of eproducts
by consumer in exchange offer or directly approach consumer for door-todoor collection.

c) Collect the e-waste from the collection units, dealer or retailer.

d) Providing incentives when proper collection of e-waste assured by collection units.
4. Consumer
a) The accountability to pay green taxes.
b) Develop self-awareness on e-waste management and involve in awareness programs.

c) Returning back of e-waste to collection units .

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