Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the biggest environmental issues affecting countries around the world. More than 50 million metric tons of e-waste were generated globally each year over the past few years, and the number is still rising.

E-waste consists of discarded electrical or electronic devices such as computers, cell phones, domestic appliances of all sizes, and office equipment.  

The value of recycled e-waste has attracted a lot of attention in recent years due to the following reasons:

• E-waste is a rich source of valuable metals such as copper, gold, silver, and palladium.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for every one million cell phones that are recycled, approximately 35,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered. 
  
  
• The content of precious metals and rare earth metals in e-waste can surpass that found in raw ores (Islam et al., 2020, Li and Xu, 2019, Sharma et al., 2021).
  
  

Metal recovery from e-waste has become a popular alternative to mining raw ores, to the extent that academic researchers and practitioners have started to refer to it as “urban mining.”

There are many different approaches to extracting metals from e-waste, and each approach has its own distinct environmental footprint. Some methods, such as incineration, can release harmful pollutants into the environment, leading to air pollution and soil contamination. On the other hand, mechanical processes like shredding and milling can produce large amounts of dust and noise pollution. Meanwhile, techniques like pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy use chemicals to extract metals, which can result in the generation of toxic waste and the potential for water pollution. As such, it is important to carefully evaluate the environmental impact of different methods of extracting metals from e-waste and strive to choose the most sustainable option available.

Link to Part 2

References:

Islam, A., Ahmed, T., Awual, M. R., Rahman, A., Sultana, M., Aziz, A. A., Monir, M. U., Teo, S. H., & Hasan, M. (2020). Advances in sustainable approaches to recover metals from e-waste-A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 244, N.PAG. 

Li, K., & Xu, Z. (2019). A review of current progress of supercritical fluid technologies for e-waste treatment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 227, 794–809.

Sharma, M., Joshi, S., & Govindan, K. (2021). Issues and solutions of electronic waste urban mining for circular economy transition: An Indian context. Journal of Environmental Management, 290, N.PAG

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