Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to obsolete or unusable electronic devices such as computers, TVs, and cell phones. E-waste contains hazardous materials like lead, cadmium, and mercury that can pollute the environment if not properly disposed of. The growing stockpile of e-waste poses serious environmental and health risks as it takes up landfill space and the toxins can leach into groundwater. Proper e-waste management includes reuse, recycling, and disposal as a last resort to prevent environmental contamination and protect public health.

1. ELECTRONIC WASTE

2. Definition
 Unwanted, obsolete or unusable electronic products
such as computers, computer
peripherals,televisions,VCRs,DVD Players, stereo
equipment, hand cell phones are commonly referred
to as ‘electronic waste’

3. 3
COMPONENTS CONSTITUENTS
Printed circuit boards Lead & cadmium
Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) Lead oxide & Cadmium
Switches & flat screen monitors Mercury
Computer batteries Cadmium
Capacitors and transformers Poly Chlorinated Bi-phenyls (PCB)
Printed circuit boards, plastic Brominated Flame Retardant
casings cable
Cable insulation/coating Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC)

4. Mobile phones; facts
 Production today- 23 phones/sec
 Sales 2003- 515 million
 Sales 2004- 665 million
 Sales 2005- 870 million
 Subscribers-1.9 billion in 2005
 Subscribers- 2.6 billion in 2009
 Lifespan- 0.5- 1.5 (with 1st user)
 (estimates from the Basel convention
based study 2006)

5. It is taking up valuable
landfill space
 A study by the USA showed that 1-2%
of municipal waste is made up of e-
waste
 A further research estimates the
growing of e-waste at 3 times the
rate of other waste streams.
 It is also estimated that between 1997
and 2007,500 million computers
would become obsolete

6. e-waste contains hazardous
material
 The leaching of heavy material from e-waste may a
pose a potential long term human health and
environmental impacts
 ground Water especially is more likely to be polluted
(note, more half the country reliant on ground water
resources)

8. Of particular concern is Lead in e-
waste
 Lead is a toxic substances which may
cause lead poisoning and can be
especially harmful young children.
 A typical 17-inch computer monitor
contains approximately 2.2 pounds of
lead
 the 500 million computers that will
become obsolete between 1997 and
2007 will contain nearly 1.6 billion
pounds of lead

10. Cathode ray tubes
 Much of the focus of managing e-waste revolves around Cathode
Ray Tubes-which converts an electronic signal into a visual image.
Computer monitors,televisions,camcorders and other electronic
devices contain CRT.
 Atypical CRT contains between 2 and 5 pounds of lead.

11. Other problems
 Illegal exporting especially to Asia
 Uncontrolled burning and disposal are causing env problems
 The toxicity of some of the substance, eg mercury,cadmium may
also pose an environmental and health challenge

12. reuse
 Preventing waste in the first place is the preferred
management option
 This can be achieved through repairing,upgrading
used electrical equipment
 Example- adding memory to a computer,upgrading
software

13. recycle
 Make use of take back programs
 Through recycling units are either reused or dismantled
for recycling.
 The silver,gold,lead and other heavy metal are
recyclable

14. dispose
 The least preferred option is to landfill electronic waste
 This should only come as a last option but care to
consult with state regulations on disposal of any
hazardous waste

15. Benefits of reuse (social and
environment)
 Diminished demand for new products
and their commensurate requirement for
virgin raw material
 There is lessened need for water and
energy for the associated
manufacturing
 Less packaging per unit
 Availability of tech to wider swaths of
society due to greater affordability of
products
 Saved landfill space

16. Each one of us has a role to play!
 Need for a e-waste policy and legislation
 Encourage and facilitate organized recycling
systems
 Should subsidies recycling and disposal
industries
 Collect fee from manufactured/consumers for
the disposal of toxic material
 Incentive schemes for garbage collectors and
general public for collecting and handling
over e-waste
 Awareness programme on e-waste for school
children and general public

18. Conclusion
 it is important that we create a
national framework for the
environmentally sound
management of e-waste including
wide public awareness and
education
 Conduct detailed inventories of e-
waste
 Initiate pilot schemes on collection
and sorting of e-wastes,including
take back schemes and schemes
for repair refurbishment and
recycling

19. THANK YOU
FOR
YOUR ATTENTION