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Effective electronic waste management and recycling

 Electronics waste is becoming a crisis for the society. Huge accumulation of e-waste and their recycling through primitive means for extraction of precious metals is real concern in the developing countries as e-waste contains hazardous materials. Recycling of e-waste through proper technologies is, however, considered to be a profitable business in developed countries due to the presence of precious metals (including gold, silver etc.) in printed circuit boards (PCBs). The present recycling cost is, however, not viable and thereby huge volume of e-waste is being exported to the developing countries like India , China , Brazil etc., where manpower is in-expensive and enforcement of environmental laws is not so stringent.

 We are proposing an outsourcing model where equal participation of the formal and non-formal sector is ensured to make the e-waste management business a profitable one. The main motivation for non-formal operators is to extract precious metals (gold, silver) from printed circuit board (PCB) using unscientific and unhygienic methods, which are harmful to the workers and the environment. This practice needs to be discouraged by providing appropriate price to the non-formal operators for the materials they collected. In the proposed approach, non-formal operators will concentrate on collection, disassembly, segregation of e-waste, whereas, formal sector will concentrate on processing the PCBs to extract precious metals. The 95-97% of the e-waste by weight contains metal, glass and plastics, which can easily be dissembled and segregated manually without damaging environment; whereas, the rest 3-5% by weight of e-waste actually consists of PCBs/connectors, need environmentally friendly recycling techniques to manage. The major segregated materials from e-waste, including metals, glass and plastic parts can be recycled through the conventional recycling practices used in municipality waste management by organized smelters and re-processors. The segregated PCB and connectors will be pulverized by professional agency to make homogenous powder and assessment of assay content of the powder will be done to know the worth of the PCBs. Once the right price is decided, non-formal sector can sell the PCBs to the formal recyclers for further process. This approach will allow the formal recyclers to concentrate only on processing PCBs, which requires technologies, specialized skills and expertise. The said approach will eradicate the unhygienic practice prevailing in non-formal units in developing countries and thereby will stop polluting environment, soil, water, and will also protect the health of the worker. Once the outsourced model is established, the recycling of e-waste business will again be viable. It will also ensure the higher yield of metal recovery from e-waste as well as minimum landfill.

 The e-waste recycling, however, can be made a profitable business if it is managed professionally. Ewaste contains valuable materials including metal, plastics and glass, which are of the 95% of the total ewaste by weight. The populated PCBs/ connectors are of 3 - 5% of the total e-waste contain valuable metals like gold, silver, copper, and other precious metals like palladium, tantalum etc. In developed countries, well established processes are available for processing PCBs to extract the precious metals with highest yields. These processes are automated and minimal involvement of manpower is required. In contrast, the e-waste processing technologies in developing countries are not yet matured and the recycling is still being carried out in non-formal units by primitive ways. It is estimated that 95% of the e-waste recycling in India has been carried out in non-formal units (Report on “E-waste Inventorisation in India ”, MAITGTZ Study, 2007). Therefore, a substantial amount of valuable materials are being lost due to unskilled operation. The recycling units is developed countries, on the other hand, are also facing shortage of materials and thereby the operation becomes economical non-viable.

An attempt has thus been made to bridge the formal and non-formal sectors in holistic manner to provide a profitable business model. In the proposed approach, non-formal units will carry out activities including collection, dismantling, disassembly and segregating of the ewaste. The segregated materials like metals (iron, aluminium and copper), glass and plastic parts will be sold to the respective smelters, re-processors etc. for recycling through the conventional practices, which are already prevailed for other materials recovered from municipality waste. The segregated item like PCB and connectors which are most valuable due to presence of gold, silver, and copper, palladium, tantalum and traces of other precious metals will be converted into powder by a professional agency.

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