Electronic Waste (E-waste)
Mustafa Esengün 1614437
ARC 344 – Final Project
Outline
 Research Progress
 What is E-waste?
 Dangerous of E-waste
 Facts about E-waste
 Possible Solutions
 Toxic Trade
 Conclusion
Research Progress
 Definition of e-waste
 The causes and the effects of e-waste
 Possible solutions to the e-waste
 Leading organizations
 EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency)
 UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)
 Recycling Charity Donations
 European Union Parliment and of the Council
 Policies of Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Nokia
What is E-waste?
 Electronic Waste: Any type of electronic
device that is no longer operational or not in
use is called electronic waste.
 Main characteristics of ewaste:
 Includes toxic components
 No longer operational or thrown away
 Hard to recycle
 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s definition:
“E-waste”, “electronic waste”, “e-scrap” and “end-of-life
electronics” are terms often used to describe used
electronics that are nearing the end of their useful life, and
are discarded, donated or given to a recycler.
Dangerous Effects of E-waste
 Affects environment and humans heatlh
 Common elements in ewastes:
 Cadmium
 Lead
 Mercury
 Nickel
 Antimony
 Beryllium
 Arsenic
 Barium
Dangerous Effects of E-waste(cont.)
 Cadmium: Kidney damage, lung cancer. Used in soldering
semiconductors and chip resistors.
 Lead: Attackts to nervous system, blood anemia, brain
damage. Used in soldering the circuit boards.
 Mercury: Lung damage, eye & skin irritation, nausea.
Used in light-bulbs.
 Nickel: Skin damages, asthma carcinogen. Spread through
the air.
Dangerous Effects of E-waste(cont.)
 Antimony: Eye & skin irritation, hair loss heart damages.
 Beryllium: Chronic lung disorder, not dissolve in water.
Used in portions of electrical connectors and battery
contacts.
 Arsenic: Skin & lung cancer. Used in integrated circuits
and semiconductors.
 Barium: Muscle weakness, change in heart beat rate.
Facts about E-waste
 UNEP – Resources from Ewaste to Resources, February
2010
released
 EU
9.3 million tons of electronic
devices in 2005
released
 USA
34 millions tvs and display screens
 Survey results of Nokia in 2008 (13 countries, 6500
people)
 Average of 5 used cell phones for each person
 Only the 3% of participants recycled the their old phones.
Solutions to E-waste
 People’s Awareness
 Recycling Charity Donations
 Recycling Policies
People’s Awareness
 More action instead of creating research pool
 Donate our old working devices to the poor people
 Repairing the broken devices instead of buying a new one
 Buying environment friendly products (recyclable?
Microsoft wireless mouses can be recycled 10 times)
 Using our devices to their complete life period
Recycling Charity Donations
 Giving away unusable products to recycling charity
donations
 Simple process for recycling
 Examples:
 In USA Computer Reach organization collects the old Apple
computers, repairs them and uses them to improve others
lives.
 Ozdenizcilik Inc. recycles the unusable electronic cables
Recycling
 High effectiveness, the most expensive method
 Needs automated and well equipped facilities (expensive)
 Process:
 Companies take-back policies or Governments actions
collect the non operational electronic products
 If companies have a recycling center, they subtract the
reusable parts.
 Otherwise, Companies ship those products to the
developing countries and make them subtract the pieces
(cheaper)
Uganda Recycling Project
 Unido, Microsoft, EMPA, a Swiss-based research institute,
the Uganda National Cleaner Production Centre and the
Ugandan Government lead the project.
 Project aims:
 To investigate the current ewaste landscape status in
Uganda
 To prepare a waste management system in terms of
providing economically and environmently contribution
Goodwill Industires Initiative
 Combines Dell and Microsoft
 Those companies collect their old products and
dispose them properly instead of shipping them
 Thanks to this program, 96 million pounds of ewaste,
that could possibly end up in landfills, is saved.
European Union Action
 EU policies requires companies to have take-back
policies in order to do business in Europe.
Apple’s Action
 Steve Jobs former CEO o Apple claims that
 Apple recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste in
2006
 Apple recycled 28% of past sales of Apple
Toxic Trade
 Recycling is too expensive.
 Developed countires(USA,EU)
Ships their
products
Developing Countries
 Recycling a computer costs about 20$ in USA and Europe,
while same operation costs only 2$ in India.
Toxic Trade
 Developed countries claim that
 They improve employment in those countries
 Recyclers in developing countries are exposed to toxic
materials.
 Non-recycable parts stays in the developing countries
landfills, which causes environmental pollution.
 Developing countries have to burn out the landfills for the
following waste, which causes air pollution.
Toxic Trade
 Ewaste growth in India:
Conclusion
 E-waste murders generations, and our environment.
 The countries responsible for that need to be highlighted
to attract global attention
References
 What is Ewaste:
 http://www.epa.gov/international/toxics/ewaste/index.html
 Dangers of Ewaste:
 http://www.ewaste.com.au/ewaste-articles
 Ewaste Facts:
 http://www.greenchiprecycling.com/images/problemComputer.p
ng
 http://press.nokia.com/2008/07/08/
 Solutions to Ewaste
 http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News
 http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/22/
 http://www.apple.com/hotnews/agreenerapple/
 Toxic Trade
 http://sitemaker.umich.edu/section002group3/e-waste
 http://www.toxicslink.org/im-info/art_134_3.jpg