E-Waste is an abbreviated term used to denote Electronic Waste. E-waste is electronic products that are unwanted, not working, and nearing or at the end of their “useful life.” Computers, TV sets, stereos, photocopy machines, and printers are everyday electronic products.

According to the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016 'E-Waste' means any electrical and electronic equipment, whose life has been ended or in part discarded as waste by the consumer or bulk consumer as well as rejects from the manufacturing industry, refurbishment industry, and repair processes.

Scenario of E-Waste Production in India

Electronic waste is spreading a very serious public health and environmental issue in India. India is the “fifth-largest electronic waste producer in the world”. It is estimated that 2 million tons of e-waste is generated annually and an unrevealed number of electronic products is imported from other countries around the world when the life of these products finishes, they account for E-Waste.

Different category electronic items contribute to E-Waste annually, Personal Computing Devices accounts for around 70% of e-waste, telecom sector accounts for 12% E-Waste, 8% from medical equipment, and 7% from electric equipment.

The Government division, public division companies, and private division companies produce nearly 75% of electronic waste, with the contribution of individual households is only 16%.

What is an E-Waste Recycling Plant?

Before we talk about what is E-Waste Recycling Plant first talk about what is E-Waste recycling, E-waste recycling is the reuse and reprocessing of electrical and electronic equipment of any type that has been rejected or regarded as end of life products. E-Waste includes: home equipment such as TV Sets, Refrigerators, printer, fans, Radios and information technology equipment such as computers, mobile phones, laptops, batteries, circuit boards, hard disks, and monitors among others; and other electronic utilities such as luxurious electrical equipment, lighting equipment, and gaming equipment.

Awareness in Recycling of E-Waste is growing nowadays and was started to prevent humans and environment from the adverse effect of electronic Waste.

An E-Waste recycling plant is a facility where end-of-life electronic products is transported for recycling purpose. The E-Waste collected from the consumers is transported to the E-Waste recycling plant for segregation, dismantling, treatment & disposal.

Environmental Laws Applicable for Setting Up an E-Waste Recycling Plant

• Before establishing an E-Waste Recycling Plant, the occupier of the recycling plant has to take permission from the concerned department. The Concerned department after scrutinizing all the documents of the project proponent makes the decision to grant or reject the permission.
• The Consent to Establish under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

If we try to find out how many electronic items are there which can be included in E-Waste then this will be a little bit difficult for us, because there are a number of electronic products in the market. That’s why Electrical and Electronic Equipment and their component are broadly categorized into two categories which include all the Electrical & Electronic Equipment.

Information Technology and Telecommunication Equipment

• Centralized data processing: Mainframes, Minicomputers
• Personal Computers
• Laptop Computers
• Personal Computing: Notebook Computers
• Personal Computing: Notepad Computers
• Printers including cartridges
• Copying equipment
• Electrical and electronic typewriters
• User terminals and systems
• Fax Machines
• Telex
• Telephones
• Pay telephones
• Cordless telephones
• Cellular telephones
• Answering systems

Consumer Electrical and Electronics

• Television sets
• Refrigerator
• Washing Machine
• Air-conditioners excluding centralized air conditioning plants
• Fluorescent and other Mercury-containing lamps

Why is it important to manage E-Waste?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), when the toxic materials that leach from E-Waste come in direct contact with the humans, animals and with the environment health risks may arise and degradation of environment also take place. The toxic materials are such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr) or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Serious health issues can arise due to the Inhalation of the toxic fumes, as well as from the accumulation of chemicals in soil, water, and food.  As this contaminated water and food will enter into the food chain of human beings leading to the ill effects.

This contamination puts not just people in danger but the environment. In developing countries, the risks are exceptionally high because some developed countries send their e-waste there for disposal, but now keeping in view the danger of E-Waste provisions are made which prohibit the import-export of E-Waste. It is observed that the global e-waste has detrimental effects not only on the people that work with the e-waste but also the people that live around it.

Lack of awareness on E-Waste leads to difficulty in managing E-Waste, Because of this, a proper recycling process needs to be put in place to protect us and future generations.

As per the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016 any person who is engaged in recycling, reprocessing, and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment or assemblies or their component is a recycler. 

Requirement of Facilities in Recycling Plant

• An E-Waste recycling facility shall install suitable wastewater treatment equipment for the treatment of wastewater and air pollution control equipment depending upon the type of processes going on in the recycling plant.
• Suitable space for dismantling equipment shall be installed where manual dismantling can be carried out.
• Noise control devices for machines like crusher, grinders, and shredder needs to be provided so that it doesn’t contribute to noise pollution.
• The workers involved in recycling operations shall wear proper PPEs (gloves, masks, goggles, gum boots)
• Adequate facilities for onsite collection and storage of residues, floor cleaning dust and other hazardous material shall be provided and sent to secure land fill facility by making an agreement with the TSDF (Treatment, Storage & Disposal Facility) operator.

Recycling of CRT Monitor and TVs

• Extra Care should be taken for the recycling of Cathode Ray Tubes as it contains toxic substances.
• CRT monitors and TVs can be manually removed by providing extra care and protective techniques.
• The CRT can be handled manually by adopting the Ni-Chrome hot wire cutting technique, Diamond wire method or Diamond saw separation.
• Manual shredding, cutting, and segregation operations for CRTs should be carried out in specially designed vacuum chambers where the dust is extracted through cyclones, bag filters, and a suitable chimney.
• The operators should use gloves fixed that are fixed with walls of vacuum chambers while handling CRTs 

Space Requirement for Recyclers

• A recycling plant of a capacity of 1 Ton per day shall require a minimum area of 500 square meters.
• If a recycling plant has a capacity of 5 MT/day with an area of nearly 2500 square meters then preference will be given to the same.

The e-waste recycling process is highly labor-intensive which requires a number of people to work together and consists of many steps.

Following are the steps for the E-Waste recycling process:

• Sorting
• Dismantling
• Large size reduction process
• Small size reduction process
• Magnetic Separation
• Non-metallic and metallic components separation
• Water Separation

Sorting

• The time, at which the e-waste items reach the recycling plant, the first step is to sort all the items manually.

Dismantling

• After manual sorting, the second step includes the labor process of manual dismantling. The broken material is separated into two categories one that can be re-used & the second that is still in the recycling process.

Large size reduction process

• In this process, the items that cannot be dismantled fully are shredded together with the other dismantled parts.

Small size reduction process

• The finer e-waste particles are evenly spread out on a conveyor belt. The evenly spread out e-waste particles are then broken down further.

Magnetic Separation

• In this step, the magnet is used to remove the magnetic materials that include steel and iron from the e-waste.

Non-metallic and metallic components separation

• The sixth step is the separation of metallic and non-metallic components. Copper, Aluminium, and brass are separated from the E-Waste so that only non-metallic materials are left behind in the E-Waste debris.

Water Separation

• Water Separation is the last step, plastic content is separated out from the glass by use of water. Once separation is done all the materials retrieved is then resold as raw materials for re-use.

Components Retrieved from E-Waste Recycling Process

• Plastic
• All the plastic materials retrieved are sent to recyclers who use them to manufacture Plastic items.
• Metal
• Scrap metals retrieved are sent to recyclers to manufacture new steel and other metallic materials.
• Mercury
• Devices that contain Mercury are sent to mercury recycling facilities that use the retrieved mercury in different sectors.
• Printed Circuit Boards
• Circuit boards are sent to authorized companies where the circuit boards are smelted to recover materials like silver, tin, gold, palladium, copper, and other valuable metals.
• Hard Drives
• Hard drives are shredded in whole and processed into Aluminium for use in the automotive industry
• Ink and Toner Cartridges
• Ink and toner cartridges are sent back to the respective manufacturing industries for recycling. They are re-manufactured.
• Batteries
• Batteries are sent to specialized recyclers where plastic is removed from the battery.

Connect with team Corpseed for more details on applicable laws and compliance.