International Journal of Social Science Research (IJSSR) eISSN: 2710-6276 | Vol. 4 No. 3 [September 2022]
Journal website: http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijssr
E-WASTE: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AND CURRENT CHALLENGES REVIEW
Nor Azaruddin Husni Nuruddin1*
1 Centre for Science and Environment Studies, Islamic Understanding Institute (IKIM), Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Article Information:
Article history:
Received date : 14 September 2022 Revised date : 26 September 2022 Accepted date : 28 September 2022 Published date : 30 September 2022
To cite this document:
Nuruddin, N. A. H. (2022).
E-WASTE: NVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AND CURRENT CHALLENGES REVIEW. International Journal of Social Science Research, 4(3), 325-331.
Abstract: In the last few years, there has been an increasing acknowledgement of our impact on the environment due to our lifestyle. At the same time, the need to adopt a more sustainable approach concerning our consumption habits emerges as of particular significance. This trend regards industrial sectors affecting consumption habits, mainly the electronic industry, where the short life cycles and the rapidly developing technology have led to increased e-waste volumes. Most e-waste elements are shown in landfills.
E-waste includes both hazardous and non-hazardous components. Therefore, improper handling of e-waste results in the leaching and emissions of these toxic components in the soil, water, and air, which causes the death of certain aquatic plants and animals. The uptake of these materials through plants, drinking water and direct inhaling can damage the human heart, kidney, brain, liver, birth capability and skeletal system. The main objectives of this review are to study: (a). the impact of e-waste on the environment (b). the effect of e- waste on the economy, (c) waste recovery and recycling, and (d) future challenges.
Keywords: e-waste, environment, current issues, impact.
1. Introduction
In the last years, there has been an increasing acknowledgement of our impact on the environment due to our lifestyle. At the same time, the need to adopt a more sustainable approach concerning our consumption habits emerges as of particular significance. This trend regards industrial sectors affecting consumption habits and, especially, electronic industry where the short life cycles and the rapidly developing technology have led to increased e-waste volumes. Most e-waste elements are led to landfills.
It was estimated that 53.6 million metric tonnes (Mt) of e-waste from consumer products alone were generated in 2019 and it was predicted to exceed 74 Mt by 2030 (Forti et al., 2020). The largest amount of e-waste was generated in Asia (24.9 Mt), followed by the Americas (13.1 Mt) and Europe (12 Mt). In North America, about 20 kg of e-waste was produced per person annually, while Europe was ranked second with an e-waste production of 16.2 kg per capita in 2019 but was with the highest collection and recycling rate of 42.5% ((Forti et al., 2020)Although this massive amount of e-waste was preferred by consumers to be recycled, an estimated 70–80% of e-waste was shipped from developed to low-income countries and was improperly recycled (Balde et al., 2015).
E-waste includes both hazardous and non-hazardous and precious components such as iron and steel (50%), other metals (13%), plastics (21%), glasses, and other substances such as ceramics materials, wood, and rubbers, etc. (16%) (Sushant B. Wath et al., 2011).
Among other metals, platinum (Pt), gold (Au), cadmium (Cd), silver (Ag), palladium (Pd), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), copper (Cu), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), and rare earth minerals e.g., yttrium (Y), lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), neodymium (Nd) has been used in an increasing rate in electronic devices such as printed circuit boards (PCBs), computers, smartphones, television, printers, refrigerators, telecommunication servers, washing machines, photocopiers and coffee machines. The heavy metals like lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), copper (Cu), and chromium (Cr), etc. and the halogenated organic constituents such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), poly- brominated biphenyls (PBBs), brominated flame retardants (BFRs) pre- sent in e-waste are toxic to plant, human and aquatic living organisms (Clift & Druckman, 2016).
Therefore, improper handlings of e-waste results in the leaching and emissions of these toxic components in the soil, water, and air, which causes the death of certain aquatic plants and animals (Ankit et al., 2021). The uptake of these materials through plants, drinking water and direct inhaling can damage the human heart, kidney, brain, liver, birth capability and skeletal system (Kumar et al., 2017).
Therefore, the main objectives of this review are: (1). The impact of e-waste on the environment (2). the effect of e-waste on economic (3) waste recovery and recycling (4) future challenges.
1.2 Economic
The rapid consumption of advanced e-products has intensified problems for the linear economy; constantly diminishing natural resources employed in production processes have created a need of recycle and reuse. Although the transition to a circular economy proposes to end the loop of e-products, it needs the application of processes such as urban mining to recover resources as secondary raw material. The present study intends to examine the issues and challenges of electronic waste urban mining (EWUM) in India that need to be assessed for the development of a sustainable economy. To accomplish this, the current study employs integrated Multi-Criteria-Decision making methods (MCDM). Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) is used to prioritize issues and their possible solutions with Weighted Assessment Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) methods introduced to explore these challenges and provide solutions for managing EWUM. There is an immediate need to acknowledge the issues confronted by stakeholders in urban mining processes for successful transition to a circular economy. A better understanding of the issues will help policy makers and decision makers to implement best practices to enhance the urban mining process in India.
This study has shown that socio-economic (SE) issues are the most critical issues in EWUM in India. The possible solutions that would have most impact is to enhance awareness campaigns for people to educate themselves regarding e-waste, train staff to handle safe disposal of e- waste and produce eco-friendly electronic products.(Sharma et al., 2021)
The Chinese government introduces a series of intervention measures to promote the collecting and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). However, under the current government intervention measures, the enthusiasm of stakeholders to participate is not high. Therefore, it is necessary to study the evolution of each stakeholder's willingness to participate under government intervention measures. This paper regards consumers as the stakeholder to construct a four-party evolutionary game model composed of the government, consumers, the collector, and the recycler and studies the dynamic evolution strategy of each stakeholder and the stable strategy of the evolutionary game model. The results indicate that providing incentive measures may not necessarily enable stakeholders to participate in the collecting and recycling of WEEE. This paper provides a theoretical tool for the government to formulate a reasonable government intervention mechanism and provides reference and guidance for other countries with a low WEEE recycling rate to improve their own intervention measures.(Kumar et al., 2022).
Countries all around the globe are still struggling to raise public awareness and take effective efforts to safeguard the natural environment from fast degradation. An electronic device, like televisions, cell phones, and refrigerators, has a finite lifespan, which necessitates their replacement on a frequent basis, resulting in e-waste. Because of the aforementioned factors, proper e-waste management is a must around the clock. E-waste is the fastest increasing municipal solid trash, with a global production of around 20–50 million tonnes per year.
Environmental health is a major problem when it comes to e-waste handling. Workers and those who live near a recycling centre in underdeveloped nations, where most of the informal and recyclable e-waste is recycled, are exposed to dangerous substances that have long-term negative health impacts. In Africa, India, Ghana, and Nigeria are among the countries where such recycling is common. This review paper discussed the e-waste situation and provide information on the hazardous materials found among them and then it will have an impact on
productivity. The current state of the e-waste industry will be assessed along with serious damage to the illegal e-waste trade and environment of developed countries to address the challenges associated with the re-use of e-waste.(Panchal et al., 2021)
Covid is giving us many lessons among which one must be to realize that this is the time to act for sustainable future. The smart world around us has made it inevitable to have an alarming situation regarding the uncontrolled growth of waste products such as plastic and electronic wastes. Both are immense threats to the health of human, wildlife, and environment, that eventually affect the societal and economic structures as evident from recent Covid-crisis. The proper management of these wastes and innovating ideas for new sustainable technologies are the need of the hour. Circular economy act with green technology (green economy) is the way to tackle this challenge. Current perspective presents the overview of the scenario regarding these burgeoning issues and demonstrates some measures that are taken or being considered to depend on to come out of them.(Nandy et al., 2022).
In this manuscript, the state-of-the-art technologies and techniques for segregation, recovery, and recycling of e-waste with a special focus on the valorisation aspects of e-plastics and e- metals which are critically reviewed. A history and insight into environmental aspects and regulation/legislations are presented including those that could be adopted soon for e-waste management. The prospects of implementing such technologies in the State of Kuwait for the recovery of materials and energy from e-waste where infrastructure is lacking still for waste management are presented through Material Flow Analysis. The information showed that Kuwait has a major problem in waste accumulation. It is estimated that e-waste in Kuwait (with no accumulation or backlog) is generated at a rate of 67,000 tpa, and the imports of broadcasting electronics generate some 19,428 tonnes. After reviewing economic factors of potential recovered plastics, iron, and glass from broadcasting devices in Kuwait as e-waste, a total revenue of $399,729 per annum is estimated from their valorisation. This revenue will open the prospect of ventures for other e-waste and fuel recovery options as well as environmental benefits and the move to a circular economy(Al-salem et al., 2022).
1.3 Waste Recovery and Recycling
Policies and regulations such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) have been implemented to potentially increase the recycling rate of electronic waste (e-waste), but the cost and environmental impacts of associated collection, transportation, material recovery, material re-processing, and disposal could outweigh the benefits of recycling if the e-waste management system is not effectively designed and implemented. This paper presents a quantitative, holistic framework to systematically estimate life cycle impacts and costs associated with e-waste management. This new framework was tested using data from the state of Washington's EPR program to represent e-waste collection, transportation, processing, and disposal. Sensitivity of process-level life-cycle model outputs to parameter and input variability was also conducted. Drop-off using fossil-fuel-powered personal vehicles was found to be a key contributor to cost and carbon dioxide emissions. Decision-makers must account for drop- off and consider the feasibility of alternate e-waste aggregation strategies to ensure life-cycle benefits of e-waste recycling are maximized.(Jaunich et al., 2020)
The Chinese government introduces a series of intervention measures to promote the collecting and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). However, under the current government intervention measures, the enthusiasm of stakeholders to participate is not high. Therefore, it is necessary to study the evolution of each stakeholder's willingness to participate under government intervention measures. This paper regards consumers as the stakeholder to construct a four-party evolutionary game model composed of the government, consumers, the collector, and the recycler and studies the dynamic evolution strategy of each stakeholder and the stable strategy of the evolutionary game model. The results indicate that providing incentive measures may not necessarily enable stakeholders to participate in the collecting and recycling of WEEE. This paper provides a theoretical tool for the government to formulate a reasonable government intervention mechanism and provides reference and guidance for other countries with a low WEEE recycling rate to improve their own intervention measures.(Wang et al., 2022)
1.4 Future Challenges
The expansion of the e-waste management business at the national level is hampered by regulatory laws and a lack of knowledge among residents in most countries. Countries all around the globe are still struggling to raise public awareness and take effective efforts to safeguard the natural environment from fast degradation. An electronic device, like televisions, cell phones, and refrigerators, has a finite lifespan, which necessitates their replacement on a frequent basis, resulting in e-waste. Because of the aforementioned factors, proper e-waste management is a must around the clock. E-waste is the fastest increasing municipal solid trash, with a global production of around 20–50 million tonnes per year. Environmental health is a major problem when it comes to e-waste handling. Workers and those who live near a recycling centre in underdeveloped nations, where most of the informal and recyclable e-waste is recycled, are exposed to dangerous substances that have long-term negative health impacts. In Africa, India, Ghana, and Nigeria are among the countries where such recycling is common.
This review paper discussed the e-waste situation and provided information on the hazardous materials found among them and then it will have an impact on health and the environment.
Electrical and electronic electrical equipment management in developed and developing countries will be explored in a way that relates to reusable components that will lead to the development of a circular economy using increased productivity. The current state of the e- waste industry will be assessed along with serious damage to the illegal e-waste trade and environment of developed countries to address the challenges associated with the re-use of e- waste.(Naik & Satya Eswari, 2022).
2. Conclusion
Undoubtedly, e-waste is the fastest-growing solid waste stream across the globe. The review article has discussed the sources of e-waste, the importance of e-waste management, and the hazardous & precious metals contamination in e-waste. This article has also critically reviewed the growth rate of e-waste for each year and environmental impacts, economic impact, waste recovery and recycling and future outlook. Different e-waste disposal methodologies and their advantages have been discussed. Based on the critical review in various aspects, future suggestions have been highlighted to improve the formal sector of e-waste disposal and improve awareness among the consumers of electronic appliances about the disposal of e- waste. The separation of solid waste cannot be done through the workers alone. It is an equal
be made among residential consumers. Also, the availability of local e-waste collection centers should be increased and made available every time so that the consumers can handover their e- waste easily.
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