BRING OUT YOUR DEAD-Solutions to electronic waste （1）

Published:2011/8/14 21:53:00 Author:Phyllis From:SeekIC

By Chris Bayliss

In 2006 European legislation on electrical and electronic waste comes into full force. Across North America, states are passing laws to deal with electronics waste. These measures reflect a hidden but growing problem.

As any electronics enthusiast who has recently tried to repair a consumer product will know, it is more likely to be cheaper to dispose of and replace an item than to repair it. Worse still, many items on the market are likely to be in good working order at the end of their life. The keen electronics consumer faces a dilemma; a desire to own the latest technology leaves perfectly good products obsolete. At the root of this problem manufacturers are beginning to supersede their own technologies and products at an unsustainable rate. The EU estimates that 4% of household waste consists of electrical and electronics products and this figure is increasing at a worrying rate of 16-28% every five years.

A glance at the statistics and listening to green organizations would suggest a depressing future. There exists however, a movement to exploit the electronics waste problem where a positive attitude and creativity results in novel solutions.

It’s all around us

A potential mountain of electronic waste surrounds us all in our homes and offices. The gap between recognizing the electronics waste problem and acting upon it has left us with products not designed to be repaired, or disposed of efficiently or safely.

Substances & methods

Common substances found in electrical and electronic waste include cadmium, PCB’s, mercury, lead and bromine. The sheer volume and toxicity of these materials means landfill is no longer an option. After taking away the small percentage of goods sold on as ’second hand’ a large quantity of obsolete and unwanted goods remain. If these are to avoid the landfill then a method of recycling is required.

Recycling an electronics product involves reducing it to component parts and converting these back into usable parts or raw materials. This can be performed by one of two methods, manual disassembly or destructive disassembly. Put simply, destructive disassembly involves the product passing through an industrial grinder. The granules produced are smelted and the raw materials separated for re-use. Considering the toxicity of some of the materials involved destructive disassembly is a rather crude method. A large quantity of destructive disassembly is performed in the Far East where labour costs are low and environmental laws relaxed. Ironically, many of these countries sell the salvaged raw materials back to the countries that exported them. A greener and more economically viable solution may be provided by manual disassembly.

If it ain’t broke...

Electronics from waste products has undergone a ’burn in’ period and as such, could be considered to be of a proven quality and equal to or more reliable than components fresh off the production line. The lifespan of many components now realistically exceeds that of the parent product. In theory ’harvested’ components can be re-used in new products. Research has suggested that whilst theoretically possible, a psychological barrier exists at the manufacturer and consumer level at the thought of utilizing harvested components in new products.

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