E-waste is a term used to include items of all types of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and its parts that have been discarded by the owner as waste without the intention of re-use. E-waste includes almost any household or business item containing circuitry or electrical components with either power or battery supply. A key part of the definition is the word “waste” that logically implies that the item has no further use and is rejected as useless or excess to the owner in its current condition.
(picture courtesy:electronic waste – Google Search)
Although e-waste is a general term, it can be considered to denote items such as TV appliances, computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, white goods like fridges, washing machines, dryers, home entertainment and stereo systems, toys, toasters, and kettles. The seven widely accepted e-waste categories are as follows:
• Temperature exchange equipment: These are more commonly referred to as cooling and freezing equipment like refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, and heat pumps.
• Screens and monitors: These include display gadgets like televisions, monitors, laptops, notebooks, and tablets.
• Lamps and lighting equipment: These include fluorescent lamps, high intensity discharge lamps, and LED lamps.
• Large equipment: They include heavy and bulky complex machines such as washing machines, clothes dryers, dish-washing machines, electric stoves, large printing machines, copying equipment, and photovoltaic panels.
• Small equipment: These are compact and portable but complex machines like fans, vacuum cleaners, microwaves, ventilation equipment, toasters, electric cookers and kettles, electric shavers, weighting scales, calculators, radio sets, remote controls, video cameras, video game consoles, power strips, electrical and electronic toys, small electrical and electronic tools and cords, small medical devices, and small monitoring and control instruments.
• Information technology and telecommunication equipment: They are circuit boards, hard drives, DVDs, server racks, uninterrupted power supplies (UPS Systems), WiFi dongles, mobile phones, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), pocket calculators, routers, personal computers, printers, fax machines, and telephones.
• Fitness and Medical equipment: These include a range of complex instruments such as massage chairs, heating pads, treadmills, Fitbit and smart watches, Heart monitors, diabetic and blood pressure testing equipment, dialysis machines, imaging equipment, autoclaves, and defibrillator
(picture courtesy: Types of electronic waste – Google Search)
Factors that impact the e-waste management are:
• There are differences in the original function of each category of equipment. These include weight, size, and material composition as well as the life-span of the equipment.
• Furthermore, among the categories there are differences in the quantity and quality of e-waste. This results in varying economic values, and potential environmental and health impacts through inappropriate material recycling.
• Consequently, the collection and logistical processes and the recycling technology differ for each category.
• Another major factor that is commonly ignored but is important is the variation in the attitude of the consumer while disposing the e-waste. Some responsible people dispose the e-waste in appropriate and recyclable manner but majority of people carelessly discard the e-waste along with other garbage.