E Waste Case Study

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              North South University

                                 Department of Environmental Science

                                                                                                                                                   Course name: Introduction to Environmental Science

Course code: ENV 107

Section no: 40

Assignment topic: E-waste

Submitted to: Dr. Md. Monirul Islam

Date of submission: 21 June 2015

Submitted by:  

    Umme Kulsum-1430302630

    Nusrat Sharmin Rahman-151128863

    Lamia Ahmed-1420816030

    Tania Akter-1421472043

    Moutushi Akhand-1421147030

TABLE OF CONTENTS

                                                                    E-WASTE              

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1. INTRODUCTION

The rapid pace of technological change in the field of electronics has made appliances for homes and office equipment both affordable and widely used. The extreme growth rates but also ever increasing obsolescence rates result in large quantities of electrical and electronic equipment being added to the waste stream. This Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) or e-waste for short, describes discarded electrical or devices. It includes computers, entertainment electronics, telecommunication equipment, but also cooling appliances, tools etc. that are discarded. E-Waste contains both valuable materials as well as hazardous materials which require special handling and recycling methods. Informal processing of electronic waste in developing countries may cause serious health and pollution problems, as these countries have limited regulatory oversight of e-waste processing.

1.  WHAT IS E-WASTE?

E-Waste for short - or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) - is the term used to describe old, end-of-life or discarded appliances using electricity. It includes computers, consumer electronics, fridges etc which have been disposed of by their original users. "E-waste" is used as a generic term embracing all types of waste containing electrically powered components. This includes used electronics which are destined for reuse, resale, salvage, recycling, or disposal. Others are re-usable (working and repairable electronics) and secondary scrap (copper, steel, plastic, etc.) to be "commodities", and reserve the term "waste" for residue or material which is dumped by the buyer rather than recycled, including residue from reuse and recycling operations.

2. AMOUNT OF E-WASTE WORLDWIDE

Rapid changes in technology, changes in media (tapes, software, MP3), falling prices, and planned obsolescence have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of electronic waste around the globe. 

An estimated 50 million tons of E-waste are produced each year.The USA discards 30 million computers each year and 100 million phones are disposed of in Europe each year. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that only 15-20% of e-waste is recycled, the rest of these electronics go directly into landfills and incinerators.

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According to a report by UNEP titled, "Recycling - from E-Waste to Resources," the amount of e-waste being produced - including mobile phones and computers - could rise by as much as 500 percent over the next decade in some countries, such as India.The United States is the world leader in producing electronic waste, tossing away about 3 million tons each year. China already produces about 2.3 million tons (2010 estimate) domestically, second only to the United States. And, despite having banned e-waste imports, China remains a major e-waste dumping ground for developed countries.

Society today revolves around technology and by the constant need for the newest and most high tech products we are contributing to mass amount of E-waste.

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Fig : E-Waste Generation and recycling data (2000-2011)

2.1. AMOUNT OF E-WASTE IN BANGLADESH

According to an estimate more than 500 thousand computers were in use in 2004 and this number has been growing at 11.4% annually (Hossain),2004.even if the figure of 500 thousand were taken as the baseline that many PCs would contain approximately 15,323 tonnes of waste(@27.2kg/PC for 5 year obsolescence) in 2010 containing deadly plastics, lead, mercury etc. The quantity of e-waste (PC and cell phone)to be generated has been estimated by following 2 methods suggested in (Sinha et al.2007).

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