Electronic waste

Electronic waste or e-waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. Used electronics which are destined for refurbishment, reuse, resale, salvage recycling through material recovery, or disposal are also considered e-waste. Informal processing of e-waste in developing countries can lead to adverse human health effects and environmental pollution. Electronic scrap components, such as CPUs, contain potentially harmful materials such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, or brominated flame retardants. Recycling and disposal of e-waste may involve significant risk to health of workers and communities in developed countries and great care must be taken to avoid unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaking of materials such as heavy metals from landfills and incinerator ashes. Electronic-waste or electronic waste is created when an electronic product is discarded after the end of its useful life. The rapid expansion of technology and the consumption driven society results in the creation of a very large amount of e-waste is every minute. The European WEEE Directive classifies waste in ten categories: Large household appliances (including cooling and freezing appliances), Small household appliances, IT equipment (including monitors), Consumer electronics (including TVs), Lamps and Luminaires, Toys, Tools, Medical devices, Monitoring and control instruments and Automatic dispensers. These include used electronics which are destined for reuse, resale, salvage, recycling, or disposal as well as re-usables (working and repairable electronics) and secondary raw materials (copper, steel, plastic, etc.). The term 'waste' is reserved for residue or material which is dumped by the buyer rather than recycled, including residue from reuse and recycling operations, because loads of surplus electronics are frequently commingled (good, recyclable, and non-recyclable). Several public policy advocates apply the term 'e-waste' and 'e-scrap' broadly to all surplus electronics. Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) are considered one of the hardest types to recycle. CRTs have a relatively high concentration of lead and phosphors (not to be confused with phosphorus), both of which are necessary for the display. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) includes discarded CRT monitors in its category of 'hazardous household waste' but considers CRTs that have been set aside for testing to be commodities if they are not discarded, speculatively accumulated, or left unprotected from weather and other damage. These CRT devices are often confused between the DLP Rear Projection TV, both of which have a different recycling process due to the materials of which they are composed. The EU and its member states operate a system via the European Waste Catalogue (EWC) - a European Council Directive, which is interpreted into 'member state law'. In the UK, this is in the form of the List of Wastes Directive. However, the list (and EWC) gives a broad definition (EWC Code 16 02 13*) of what is hazardous electronic waste, requiring 'waste operators' to employ the Hazardous Waste Regulations (Annex 1A, Annex 1B) for refined definition. Constituent materials in the waste also require assessment via the combination of Annex II and Annex III, again allowing operators to further determine whether a waste is hazardous.