Name : AIMAN BIN AHMAD RAMIZU (2019702501) ALFI WAJDI BIN ZAHARI (2020970631) E-Waste At these modern day and age, people have been using electronics more and more. Over the years people are using more and more gadgets and electronic devices to make life a lot easier and convenient. Based on the research (Mohammed Khurrum, Omar, & Yang, "Electronic Waste: A Growing Concern in Today's Environment", 2011). Over the past two decades, electrical and electronics equipment sale has developed exponentially but the lifespan of the produced devices has become shorter and shorter. Most of these products have ended up in the dumpster and has cause a build-up in e-waste as of late. Stated in the research article, in the United States alone there was up to 80 million devices sold in 2003 and the number was expected to grow even more in 2006. This is further supported in an article (Investopedia, "What is the growth rate of the electronics sector?", 2020). It is said that in their research that the market for electronic devices will increase even further by 5.6% from 2019 to 2014. Some of main reasons of these growth are the increasing demand for convenient devices such as smartphones, artificial intelligence, and even voice recognition technology. All these demand and progress allowed the decrease of prices in electronic devices thus ensuring continued consumption of these products. Ok, with all the talk about E-waste what is it. E-waste or so-called electronic waste are unused and discarded old or broken devices. Example of such devices are monitors, smart phones, computers and much more. These devices are discarded and have been increasing day by day. It is said that India alone have created 0.4 million tons of e-waste in 2010 and are said to increase to 0.5 to 0.6 million by 2014. E-waste is a problem since this waste contains not only toxic materials but also valuable materials within them. This impose two problem which are dangerous toxic waste and the waste of valuable materials. According to an article it is stated that in 2018 50 million tons of e-waste will be generated with china producing 7.2 million tons per year and followed by the USA with 6.3 million tons of waste next by Japan with 2.1 million tons, India with 2 million tons and Germany with 1.9 million tons every year. Firstly, the toxic materials that e-waste have is causing a lot of problem to us. One of it is it affect the environment. There are several aspects that it can cause such as the air, water, and soil. The accumulation of e-waste leads to some ineffective ways of disposing it. Some of the ways are burning the e-waste. When this happen the toxic material within it are released. This will cause damage to the atmosphere. Atmosphere damage is one of the biggest effects of e-waste. Other than that, the accumulation of e-waste can cause the leaks of hazardous materials such as lead, chromium, zinc and much more to the environment. This can be absorbed by wildlife and affects the soil. Crops and plants that grow on the effected soil will then be contaminated. Plants and animals that are affected are consumed by humans thus could cause diseases. Such diseases are like damage to the kidney and as well as central and peripheral nervous system damage. There are a lot of benefits on why we should recycle e-waste. One of it is because that e-waste contains valuable materials such as gold, silver, copper and much more. These materials can easily be reused for other devices or recycled to be used for other things. With this we can reduce the amount of ores that are needed to be mined from the Earth. With proper recycling and disposing of e-waste it is estimated that the metals contained in e-waste are around 40 to 50 times richer than the ores mined. After that, controlling e-waste can also reduce the amount of pollution with all the toxic materials being recycled properly. With this wildlife and humans are risk of getting diseases are lowered. The exposure to metals such as cadmium, lithium, mercury, and much more can have a long-term effect on the environment. Some will even cause cancerous development in humans. This will improve health and the environment. Finally, by recycling and better handling e-waste it creates a lot of jobs for people. With more recycling centre being dedicated and build for e-waste more employment opportunities are made. This will support the economy while providing job opportunities. Such jobs are like sorting and recycling jobs and even repairing job to reuse the devices. There are several steps when processing e-waste. Firstly, the e-waste is collected from multiple sources and then are collected at the e-waste processing site. Then it is sorted manually, and batteries are removed to see whether they can be reused. Next, the devices are disassembled to retrieve parts and are separated by category. Some are reused and some are recycled. Next, the item that cannot be reused are shredded to smaller pieces that are less than 2 inch in diameter. Later they are spread out on a conveyor belt to be broken down even more. Magnets are used over the conveyor belt to pick up magnetic materials such as metal and iron. Later, the scraps are separated by categories of non-metal and metallic materials such as copper, brass, and aluminium. These metals are then sold to be recycled. In the last step for the non-metallic materials. Plastic and glass are separated by using water. After separation, these scrap glass and plastic are then recycled even further at specific recycling plant. Another way people extract valuable metals from electronic components such as gold are by using chemicals. First you will need to collect electronics scraps and then break them down to a smaller piece to increase their surface area to better have contact with the chemical. Then add a mixture of one-part hydrogen peroxide and two parts hydrochloric acid. This solution will flake the gold off the electronic board and will cause the acid to darken. Next by using a fine filter, filter out the gold flakes and separate them into another container. Clean the remaining components to save every bit of gold possible. The gold flakes are then melted and can be recovered to be used for other stuff or even sold for gold value. By using this method anyone can extract gold from scrap electronic components to generate some side income while ensuring none of the materials are wasted. As you can see, there are a lot of effects if e-waste is not handled properly from wasting valuable materials from the earth, causing diseases, leaking toxic and hazardous materials, and effecting our environment. Not only that there are also positive things when e-waste is properly handled from recovering valuable materials and creating multiple job opportunities. So please do not throw away your e-waste. Instead collect them and properly dispose them at allocated recycling plant so that it can be properly processed. Just remember that every effort to recycle improves our environment by saving us from toxic waste and reducing the waste of valuable materials. References 1. Mohammed Khurrum, B., Omar, A., & Yang, X. (2011, June 15). Electronic Waste: A Growing Concern in Today's Environment. Retrieved May 4, 2020, from https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecri/2011/474230/ 2. Investopedia. (2020, February 5). What is the growth rate of the electronics sector? Retrieved May 4, 2020, from https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052515/whatgrowth-rate-electronics-sector.asp 3. Needhidasan, S., Samuel, M., & Chidambaram, R. (2014, January 20). Electronic waste - an emerging threat to the environment of urban India. Retrieved May 4, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3908467/ 4. Lubell, I. (2018, April 27). 5 Shocking Environmental Effects of E-Waste. Retrieved May 10, 2020, from https://info.mayeralloys.com/ewaste-blog/5-shocking-environmentaleffects-of-e-waste 5. Ecobin. (2019, April 19). 5 Main Advantages of E-Waste Recycling. Retrieved May 11, 2020, from https://www.adelaideecobins.com.au/5-main-advantages-of-e-wasterecycling/ 6. Williams, H. (2014, October 4). How to extract gold from electronics. Retrieved May 11, 2020, from https://www.wired.co.uk/article/extract-gold-from-electronics 7. Rinkesh. (2016, December 25). What is E-waste Recycling and Process of Recycling Electronic Waste. Retrieved May 11, 2020, from https://www.conserve-energyfuture.com/e-waste-recycling-process.php 8. International Environmental Technology. (2018, June 25). Which Countries Produce the Most E-Waste? Retrieved May 11, 2020, from https://www.envirotechonline.com/news/health-and-safety/10/breaking-news/which-countries-produce-the-moste-waste/46470
