E-waste is the short term used to describe all waste that is discarded from electronic devices. With the rapid expansion of technology, global production of electronic waste has escalated immensely in the past few decades. Because electronic waste contains harmful chemicals such as,
E-waste is the short term used to describe all waste that is discarded from electronic devices. With the rapid expansion of technology, global production of electronic waste has escalated immensely in the past few decades. Because electronic waste contains harmful chemicals such as, mercury, lead, cadmium, sulfur and other chemicals, electronic waste constitutes a serious environmental issue, several countries worldwide have committed to tackle this problem and are implementing policies that would reduce the environmental impact of e-waste.
What is e-waste?
Electronic waste is the combination of all residues created from electronic devices. These devices can be lamps, computers, household appliances, cell-phones, air conditioners, and medical devices. Several definitions have been used and revised in recent Directives in attempt to provide a classification of e-waste. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive categorizes electronic waste as:
- Large household appliances (fridge, air conditioner, microwaves)
- Small household appliances (radios, mixers, toasters)
- IT and telecommunications equipment (phones, computers, printers)
- Consumer equipment
- Lighting equipment (lamps, light bulbs)
- Electrical and electronic tools
- Toys, leisure and sports equipment
- Medical devices
- Monitoring and control instruments
- Automatic dispensers
Although definitions vary, all directives agree that electronic devices contain harmful chemicals and components that are not naturally degraded in the environment, creating a serious environmental impact with a high carbon footprint. Overall, e-waste is composed of large amounts of plastic, various metals and toxic chemicals. Thus, electronic waste is not biodegradable.
How much electronic waste is produced worldwide?
With technological advances over recent years, most of our daily used components have become electronic with NFC sensors, Bluetooth, GPS and other electronic technology embedded within them. From children’s toys to notebooks, most of our personal possessions are now interconnected and digitalized. The increase in technological devices has pushed e-waste production to reach over 50 million tons per year. The global distribution of e-waste varies among countries and has been used as an indicator of development with developed nations producing more waste per capita then under developed countries.
The largest concentration of e-waste production is found in European nations with Norway reaching 26 kgs of electronic waste produced per capita yearly. Estimates indicate that this number might nearly double by 2030 with a total of 70.4 million tons of waste being produced annually. The alarming growth of this number has pushed nations to increase their policies and improve their e-waste disposal protocols around the globe. Currently, only 20% of e-waste is recycled worldwide and directives and measures are being implemented to increase this percentage and avoid further contamination of the environment.
What is the environmental impact of electronic waste?
Electronic waste needs to be properly dismantled in order to enable effective recycling and during this process different environmental impacts can be generated for each portion of the waste. In general, e-waste can be dismantled into 5 general component parts with specific potential environment impact as seen in the Table:
|E-Waste Component||Environmental Impact|
|Cathode Ray Tubes||Heavy metals leaching to ground water and phosphor release.|
|Circuit boards||Heavy maetals, tin, and lead contamination on surface and groundwater. Air emission of heavy metals and toxins.|
|Chips and gold components||Heavy metals, tin, and lead contamination on surface and groundwater. Air emission of heavy metals and toxins.|
|Plastics||Emission of heavy metals and hydrocarbons.|
|Computer wires||Emission into air, soil and water of contaminant chemicals|
More disturbingly, until recently, policies worldwide did not require local recycling of e-waste and the exportation of this material to poorer nations has been common practice for decades. Although exportation was previously considered appropriate, most of the recipient countries lacked the technology and safety measures to allow for proper recycling of these products, and thereby transferring the environmental risk to these areas.
Local population, water supplies and natural habitats around Africa and Asia have progressively showed signs of the environmental damage caused by the various forms of toxins and contaminants released by these unregulated recycling units. Additionally, reports on child labour are frequently received from treatment areas with families living below the poverty line and submitting themselves to a highly toxic environment to extract precious metals from these landfills.
On the other hand, continuous increase in the demand for electronic devices has also become a concern in recent years as natural resources are becoming scarcer. For example, gold which is commonly used in circuit boards, is one of the hardest materials to mine and with its growing scarcity in recent years, incidents of environmental pollution occurring during gold mining have increased drastically.
Currently, it is estimated that for every 0.33 ounce of gold extracted, a mass of nearly 20 tons of toxic waste is produced. At this rate, keeping up with the demand for new electronic dev