Electronic Waste Management

G H Eduljee, R M Harrison, G H Eduljee, R M Harrison

• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781788017442
• eBook ISBN: 9781788018920
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Environmental Management
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Electronic waste, which includes everything from refrigerators to smartphones, is one of the world's fastest growing waste streams. Often these items are simply discarded as new technology becomes available. A huge amount of electronic waste is generated globally and currently only around 20% of it is recycled. The complex mixture of materials and components within electronic waste makes it difficult to manage and many of these components can pose hazards to human health or the environment if not disposed of carefully.
There have been significant changes in the global approach to electronic waste management and the legislation around it since the publication of the first edition of Electronic Waste Management. This new edition provides an updated overview across the world as well as presenting new chapters on current issues in recycling and management of this waste.
This is an essential reference not only for those working in recycling and waste management, but also for those working in manufacturing and product development who wish to consider the full lifecycle of their products. It also provides valuable insights for policymakers developing more environmentally sound and sustainable systems and strategies for the management of electronic waste.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction and Overview

EMMA GOOSEY*^a AND MARTIN GOOSEY^b

^a Eodum Ltd, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 5BQ

^b Wolfson School, Loughborough University, Ashby Road, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK

*Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Despite advances in our thinking and practices on sustainability issues, electronic and electrical products still need to be considered in a more holistic way, with a ‘cradle to cradle’ rather than a ‘cradle to grave’ approach. Producers of electrical and electronic products will need to be even more aware of their material requirements and energy resource consumption. Better data tracking systems are required for all major flows of resources such as energy and materials, through supply chains and through society as a whole. The effects of producer responsibility legislation will also continue to have a growing and noticeable impact. The challenges of electronic waste recycling are increasingly influenced by consideration of the entire product lifecycle, and they will continue to require serious attention. There will need to be a greater convergence between the electronics industry and the waste sector. Strategic partnerships with reprocessors must be further developed and strengthened in order to close the product-waste loop. Although legislation can undoubtedly make a significant contribution to enforcing the recycling of more materials from electronic waste, designers, material suppliers and consumers also have a role to play at key points along the supply and management chain, influencing factors such as material choice, product service life and the efficacy of recycling.

1.1 Introduction

In the decade or so since the original version of this book was written, the subject of electronic waste management has continued to be both an issue and an opportunity. The same problems and challenges still exist and, in some cases, they are even more pertinent and important. Ten years ago, there had already been a long-established realization that waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) presented a growing global problem yet, at least in Europe, pertinent legislation introduced to tackle the ever increasing volumes of waste products and the loss of their raw materials was still relatively new.¹ It has been interesting to follow the evolution of the WEEE problem and also to see how consumers, industry and politicians have responded to what is still a major global issue.² In some respects, the challenges remain the same, but there have also been a number of significant developments and changes.^3–5 The legislation has been expanded to cover more areas, but there have also been new technology developments and thus the types of products that are currently found in waste streams have continued to evolve. Some technologies, such as cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs and monitors have largely disappeared, and newer products such as light emitting diode (LED) lighting are beginning to enter the waste stream.^3,5–7 Additionally, the application of electronics is becoming even more pervasive and there are many new types of electronic products emerging. With the growth of the Internet of Things and the introduction of new materials, coupled with the use of printed electronics and additive manufacturing technology approaches, further types of electronics will increasingly be available and they will continue to expand into all walks of life.

Furthermore, and although it is not a new issue, there has been a growing realization of the importance of maintaining supplies of critical raw materials and an appreciation that many of them can be found in appreciable quantities in electrical and electronic waste.^3,8,9 Unfortunately, to date, efforts to recover critical raw materials from WEEE have often been compromised by the complexity of the challenge and hence the high costs, which have made many approaches uneconomical.^10,11 Although there has been a significant amount of work carried out to develop new recycling and recovery technologies, there are still difficult hurdles to overcome in making them both financially viable and more sustainable.¹²

The concept of sustainability and the need for producers of electrical and electronic products to operate in a more sustainable manner has continued to receive increasing attention.^9,13–15

With the world's population growing rapidly and owing to generally improving wealth, the consumption of materials, energy and other resources has been accelerating in a way that cannot be sustained. Issues such as global warming and its impacts are also currently receiving much more attention and there is now a clearly acknowledged need to address the way society uses, and often wastes, valuable resources.^16–18 In short, our patterns of consumption need to change significantly if catastrophic climate changes are to be avoided and thus the global community needs to behave more sustainably.

The World Commission on Environment & Development (Brundtland Commission Report, 1987) defined sustainability as; “Meeting the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This is a good top-level definition but, in the context of the electronics industry, it needs to be more specifically focused to encompass the typical requirements of its businesses and, in this context, a more appropriate definition is: Adopting strategies and activities that meet the needs of the enterprise and its stakeholders today while protecting, sustaining and enhancing the human and natural resources that will be needed in the future.

The electronics industry provides devices that are deemed essential to the modern way of life and yet it also represents an area in which the opportunities to operate in a sustainable way are yet to be fully realised. Many electrical and electronic products are characterised by factors, such as improved performance and reduced cost in each new generation, that actually encourage unsustainable behaviour. For example, mobile phones are often replaced long before their operational lifetimes have expired.

With many products having short lifecycles, containing valuable and scarce materials and generating waste both during manufacture and at the end of life, it is not surprising that their manufacturers have been increasingly targeted by both environmental groups, such as Greenpeace, and legislators. There has also been significant negative publicity about the eventual fate of electronic products at the end of their life and the illegal dumping of electrical and electronic waste in Third World and Far Eastern countries.^2,19,20 In an early acknowledgement of these problems, the European Commission (EC) introduced Extended Producer Responsibility legislation throughout its member states and has further strengthened its reach through the adoption of the Circular Economy Package.²¹ This legislation has the objectives of implementing more sustainable approaches to the use of resources and reducing the quantity of waste consigned to landfill, with the concomitant loss of valuable resources. It also aims to divert end-of-life products for reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery, as well as proscribing the use of certain hazardous materials and reducing energy consumption throughout the product lifecycle. Interestingly, the producer responsibility concept is an extension of the ‘polluter pays’ principle and it places responsibility for end-of-life management on the original producer.^11,22 In summary, producer responsibility legislation aims to encourage producers to design, manufacture and market products that:

• reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous materials;
• use greater amounts of recyclate;
• can be more easily treated at end of life;
• minimise waste;
• can be re-used;
• use fewer resources throughout their life;
• reduce in-use energy consumption.

Within Europe, there are now numerous directives and regulations aimed at implementing producer responsibility and key examples important to the electrical and electronics industries include the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), Batteries and Accumulators, and Energy-related Products Directives.²³

There is clearly a need to operate in a more sustainable manner, both to meet the requirements of the increasingly stringent legislation and to satisfy the needs of customers who also now expect industry to have high environmental standards. The electronics industry can achieve these aims through the adoption of new design approaches, manufacturing processes, the use of new materials and the development of enhanced recovery and re-use strategies at the end of life. Although this can already often be achieved by industry itself, there are also opportunities that will only be addressed via further research and development and with the implementation of suitable legislation.

This chapter gives a broad introduction to the issues of sustainability within the context of end-of-life electrical and electronic products. The following sections outline the nature of electrical and electronic equipment waste, the scale of the problem and current treatment practices. The way that WEEE has been, and continues to be, processed is introduced and details of new, more sustainable approaches to waste treatment are outlined. Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) still needs to be considered in a more holistic way, with a ‘cradle to cradle’ rather than a ‘cradle to grave’ approach. Producer Responsibility legislation, largely led by Europe, has set the future agenda and, globally, there is now an acknowledgment both of the scale of the problem and of the need for innovative solutions.

WEEE has been Europe's fastest-growing waste stream for a number of years and it is estimated that an average UK citizen born in 2003 will be responsible for generating around 8 tonnes of WEEE during her/his lifetime.²⁴ The quantities of WEEE produced are very large and continue to grow and it has been predicted that the total annual European amount of WEEE arising will be in excess of 12 million tonnes in 2020.²⁵ Electronic products have been shrinking, meaning that the tonnes of waste an individual generates is comprised of more and more products as time goes on.

1.2 Legislative Influences on Electronics Recycling

1.2.1 Producer Responsibility Legislation

Following acknowledgment that the volumes of WEEE in the European Union were very large and increasing, the EC introduced legislation aimed directly at tackling the problem. The two key, and perhaps best known, pieces of legislation are the WEEE and RoHS Directives. This legislation has been in place since around 2003 and has had a significant impact on the way manufacturers design, produce and dispose of their products. The WEEE and RoHS Directives, however, are just one part of the larger overall policy within the EC aimed at introducing Producer Responsibility across a wider range of industrial sectors. This makes the producers legally responsible for the recovery and recycling of their products at the end of their life. In addition to these two well established and evolving directives, there is other legislation that is also impacting aspects of electronic waste management. Key examples here include the Energy-Related Products Directive, the Batteries and Accumulators Directive and the End of Life Vehicles Directive.

1.2.2 The WEEE Directive

The original WEEE Directive came into force on 1 January 2007 in the UK and it directly controlled the disposal of EEE and its consignment to landfill.^26,27 It also set targets for the percentages of a product that had to be recovered and recycled. The original WEEE Directive specified ten categories of types of electrical and electronic equipment and each category had a defined recycling and recovery target. However, owing to a recast of the directive and requests from industry to reduce the costs, new regulations (The Waste Electrical and Electroni...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Preface
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Editors
• Contents
• Chapter 1 Introduction and Overview
• Chapter 2 Materials Used in Manufacturing Electrical and Electronic Products
• Chapter 3 A Circular Economy for Consumer Electronics
• Chapter 4 An Overview of Electronic Waste Management in the UK
• Chapter 5 Management of Electronic Waste in Africa
• Chapter 6 Electronic Waste Management in the Asia Pacific Region
• Chapter 7 Traceability of Electronic Waste Using Blockchain Technology
• Chapter 8 Electronics: A Broken Story about Production and Consumption
• Chapter 9 The Recycling of Lithium-ion Batteries: Current and Potential Approaches
• Chapter 10 Environmentally Sustainable Solvent-based Process Chemistry for Metals in Printed Circuit Boards
• Chapter 11 Plastics in Electronic Waste: Results from the PolyCE Project
• Subject Index