Paradigm Shift in E-waste Management

Vision for the Future

Abhijit Das, Biswajit Debnath, Polturi Anil Chowdary, Siddhartha Bhattacharyya, Abhijit Das, Biswajit Debnath, Polturi Anil Chowdary, Siddhartha Bhattacharyya

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000568608
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

Paradigm Shift in E-waste Management: Vision for the Future addresses the challenges in the management of electronic wastes in various forms. The book describes resource-efficient and circular e-waste management processes including valorization amalgamating the sustainable benefits of electronic component recycling, industrial symbiosis, green technology implementation, and efficient supply chain networks with a vision towards year 2025. It further explains e-waste recycling technologies, supply chain aspects, e-waste disposal in IT industries, and trans-boundary movement issues including policy concerns supported by global case studies and benchmark practices. Further, the book illustrates resource recovery from e-waste, sustainability of e-waste recycling, circular economy in e-waste and so forth.

Features:

• 
  
  

• Covers intricacies of e-waste management with an outlook towards a checkpoint of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2025.

• 
  
  

• Describes the global status of e-waste recycling and management with country-specific contributions.

• 
  
  

• Includes focus on policy tools such as EPR, ARF, policy gaps, and the informal sector activities.

• 
  
  

• Offers detailed information about advanced green and smart technologies for e-waste valorization and management.

• 
  
  

• Explores urban mining, sustainability, and circular economic approaches.

This book is of interest to graduate students and researchers in environmental engineering, waste management, urban mining, circular economy, waste processing, electronics and telecommunication engineering, electrical and electronics engineering, and chemical engineering.

1Introduction

Biswajit Debnath*, Anil Potluri, and Abhijit Das

DOI: 10.1201/9781003095972-1

Contents

1. 1.1Brief Comments on Current Situation of E-waste Management
2. 1.2Latest Situation from the Industry’s Perspective
3. 1.3Paradigm Shift towards ICT for Circular E-waste Management
4. 1.4Conclusion
5. References

1.1 Brief Comments on Current Situation of E-waste Management

E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream worldwide growing with an alarming rate of 3–5 percent per year. According to the global e-waste monitor 2020, an outstanding 53.6 million metric tons (Mt) of e-waste was generated around the globe, which corresponds to an average of 7.3 kg per capita (Forti et al. 2020). In the year 2014, nearly 42 Mt of e-waste was generated globally which increased to 44.7 Mt in 2016 (Baldé et al. 2015; Baldé et al. 2017). The global e-waste generation has increased by 9.2 Mt since 2014 and is expected to become almost double by 2030 (Forti et al. 2020). In other words, the global e-waste generation in 2019 is equivalent to 5516 Eiffel towers compared to e-waste generation in 2016 i.e. 4600 Eiffel towers (Baldé et al. 2017; Forti et al. 2020). The global e-waste generation is expected to reach 74.7 million metric tons by 2030, and 120 million metric tons by 2050. This global mushrooming of e-waste generation is primarily because of the electronics industry. The growth of the electronics industry has been stupendous in the past two decades. It is expected to reach $400 billion in 2022 from $69.6 billion in 2012 (Corporate Catalyst (India) Pvt. ltd. 2015). But we cannot blame the industry alone. The electronics industry is demand driven and we, the consumers are to blame. There are two faces of this – a) The consumers’ ability to buy because of economic development and b) the industry’s intelligent marketing gimmicks. There is a direct relationship between the electronics item consumption and extensive international economic development. Electronic items have become an essential commodity in modern and evolving society where the grade and version of electronics is considered as a benchmark of living standards. Additionally, high disposable income, urbanization and better industrialization are auxiliary factors that drive the enormous amount of electronics items (Forti et al. 2020). But this doesn’t end here. The industry employs short innovations and minor upgrades based on the latest technological proliferations coupled with intelligent marketing strategies that lure the users to discard their old electronics and buy a new product. In a sustainable society, this is very unsustainable practice as it doesn’t maximize the resource efficiency. Moreover, the product is not utilized till its full lifespan, which leads to product obsolescence and thereby contributing to the e-waste stream (Debnath 2020).

E-waste management has become very important in order to ensure resource efficiency and material circularity (Debnath et al. 2021). The global e-waste management market was worth nearly USD 42 billion in 2019, which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.1 percent between 2020 and 2027 (Nair 2021). The ongoing COVID-19 has a huge impact on the e-waste recycling industry. As more offices, both in government and private sectors are opting to work from home, there has been an increase in laptop and PC demand, which are potential future e-waste. At the same time, the desktop PCs and other IT equipment in office areas are no longer required. In 2020, nearly 29 percent of the desktop computers were abandoned and more than 23 percent of these computers are going to sit idle in 2021. In 2020, the estimated post-Covid e-waste management market was USD 47.5 billion which is expected to reach USD 119.94 billion by 2027. This estimation is higher than the pre-Covid scenario estimation (Nair 2021).

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has not only disrupted the supply chains in major sectors but also affected the waste management industry. Proper collection of e-waste has been hampered due to lockdowns and unavailability of proper logistics. At the same time, logistics cost has increased while the copper price has been skyrocketing since the end of February 2021 (Paben 2021). E-waste needs to be recycled with better efficiency and more sustainability. E-waste is a secondary source of resources as well which has enormous potential to enhance urban mining and help to establish a circular economy. Material recovered from e-waste could be a feedstock for several other allied industries which can also bring up industrial symbiotic models. Hence, for the future to be greener the urban mining of e-waste is not an option, but rather a necessity. The majority of the e-waste recyclers around the globe perform mechanical recycling. The resulting fractions are metals, plastics, glass and other materials, which are potentially recycled by third party recyclers (Debnath 2020). Due to its hazardous nature, it is often shipped to other developing and underdeveloped nations. Sometimes e-waste scraps are mixed with other metal scraps and shipped to middle income or developing countries (Shittu et al. 2020). In many developed countries the burden of e-waste is ignored. China banned the import of waste materials including plastic waste and electronic waste from other developed countries. Philippines declared war over the issue of e-waste against Canada (The Guardian 2019). As a result, waste disposal has become a problem for these countries. There are policy gaps as well which allow this illicit trade even though the countries involved in this practice are signatory to Basel conventions. Hence, even there is great potential in the e-waste management sector, the whole assay needs to be incorporated into and streamlined with policy, better management practices, supply chain optimization and, most importantly, an inclusive attitude of e-waste recyclers. Next, we look into the industry perspective to e-waste management with a focus on India.

1.2 Latest Situation from the Industry’s Perspective

E-waste has become an important waste stream in terms of its volume and toxicity. It is a complex category of hazardous waste. E-waste contains a wide variety of elements including common metals, rare earth metals, polymers, glass, glass fiber, rubber, concrete and ceramics etc. Hence e-waste recycling is important for a sustainable future, and to ensure essential raw materials do not run out (Ottoni et al. 2020). The main driving force behind e-waste recycling is recovery of metals. Metal recovery from e-waste is now technologically feasible, yet the sustainability of the business is a matter of concern as the electronics are becoming lighter. This is due to the percentage of metals in e-waste decreasing and the plastics increasing (Debnath 2020). The recovery and reuse of the plastic part of e-waste is comparatively a less discussed topic in contemporary literature as well as the conferences. Utilization of this huge source is imperative to maintain business sustainability. The issues arise due to improper segregation as plastics containing halogens cannot be recycled in an environment friendly way via extrusion. Additionally, to recycle a specific category of waste plastic, it is essential to avoid contamination with plastics containing Halogenated Flame Retardants (HFRs). Sometimes heavy metals from e-waste migrates to the plastics where they are used to make secondary products (Mao et al. 2020).

In India, nearly 3.2 million metric tons of e-waste was generated in 2019 (Forti et al. 2020). To tackle this huge e-waste, the government of India has published the E-waste Rules in 2016 with some later amendments in 2018. Currently, there are 400 e-waste dismantlers and recyclers with 1068542.72 metric tons per annum capacity in the country (CPCB 2021a). But today Indian E-waste recyclers are able to collect 30–35 percent of e-waste material to the facility. At present, the scrap metals rates are low in the market. For instance, due to COVID-19, the effect on automobile industry scrap metal rates like iron, aluminum and steel was low. Currently, the selling rate of scrap metals India is quite low – Iron is 16–18 INR (0.22–0.25 USD) per kg; Copper is 340 INR (4.70) per kg; Aluminum is 80–90 INR (1.11–1.24 USD) per kg; Steel is 30 INR (0.41 USD) per kg and Brass is 240 INR (3.32 USD) per kg. But still e-waste buying rates are constant and also GST being 18 percent also impact profit.

Figure 1.1(a) State-of-art shredder and separator machine and (b) indigenous machine for degassing and storage of CFC from compressors.

E-waste recyclers in India use both state-of-art and indigenous machineries for recycling (Figure 1.1a, b). Most of the e-waste recyclers in India are struggling to see 25 percent profit margin. As a result, they are trying their hands on other activities such as upcycling (Figure 1.2a, b). In the last couple of years, there has been an increase in the number of Producer Responsibility Organizations (PRO) in India. In 2019, there were 31 PROs that have increased to 74 as of February 2022 (CPCB 2022). PROs are responsible for smooth channelization of e-waste from point of generation to recyclers so as to ensure Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). They are also attributed with the responsibility to create symbiosis with formal and informal sector. The PROs make more money than the standalone e-waste recyclers.

Figure 1.2(a) Capacitors upcycled as jewelry and (b) incandescent bulb upcycled to show piece.

On the other hand, refurbishment of IT equipment like laptop, tablet and smart mobile phone saw increased demand in the market due to digital education. Additionally, the demand of peripherals and accessories increased. Both in India and abroad, there was a surge in electronics prices as the supply was disrupted due to the pandemic. With a fairly middle-class natives, there was a sudden demand in the second hand market as well. As a result, the e-waste under these categories saw an increase in price range. But market trends still feel this sudden hike in demand on this following IT equipment is temporary and dependent on COVID conditions. In the global scenario, the trend seems to be better than Indian markets due to the difference in policy in procuring e-waste.

Circular economy in e-waste management gives a good result in handling this waste but over the long run. Recently, companies like DELL, APPLE etc. started using secondary metals extracted from e-waste to manufacture its products. This type of initiative helps e-waste recycling industries to grow in future. EPR policy in India for e-waste management still didn’t seem to see the desire result. And e-waste recyclers seem to be third party after bulk producer and PRO. This EPR policy can help in reaching capacity target, but financially it’s not so promising, thus this is the reason behind the recent increase of PRO organizations compared to recyclers. Even some recyclers have converted into PROs as well. However, there should be a paradigm shift in terms of technological proliferation as well as in the policy level to ensure better collection and business sustainability.

1.3 Paradigm Shift towards ICT for Circular E-waste Management

A paradigm shift in e-waste management is necessary and it can be achieved with evolving Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Digital technologies such as cloud computing, fog computing, Internet-of-Things (IoT) etc. can be well implemented to improve e-waste manage...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Editors
• List of Contributors
• 1 Introduction
• Part 1 Global Status of E-waste Recycling and Management
• Part 2 Benchmark Practices and Case Studies
• Part 3 Technologies for E-waste Valorization and Management
• Part 4 Vision for the Future: Towards Resource Efficient E-waste Management
• Index