Today there is a lot of talk about E- waste recycling and how important it is to the environment. E-Waste is the shortened version of electronic waste. When you engage in electronics recycling you are reprocessing and reusing electronic and electrical equipment that is regarded as outdated or been discarded. Some examples of electronic waste include:
• Radios
• Microwaves
• Air conditions
• Televisions
• Fans
• Electric heaters
• Laptops
• Batteries
• Mobile phones
• Monitors
• Computer
• Circuit boards
It is an increasing development, started to protect environmental and human health due to e-wastes impact on widespread environmental health.
Process of electronic waste
• The picking shed-this is first place that electronic waste goes so all of the items can be removed manually into what can be recycled and reused. Any batteries after removal go through a process called quality check.
• Disassembly-once everything has been manually sorted the e-waste is taken apart. This step is a process that is labor intensive because everything has to be taken apart by hand to recover all the parts. These parts are categorized into components and core materials. Next, they are divided into piles that will continue down the recycling process or will be re-used.
• Reduction process second size-the e-waste finer particles are spread evenly on a conveyor belt to go through an automated shaking process so the e-waste is broken down more. During this step, all dust is discarded after extraction. This is so it does not harm the environment further.
• Removing magnetic materials-on the fourth step using over-band magnet all magnetic materials from the electronic waste are removed. This can included iron and steel.
• Component separation-now it is time to separate the non-metallic and metal components. From the electronic waste metals such as brass, copper, and aluminum are removed, leaving behind any non-metallic materials. All retrieved metals will be used as either re-used metals to make fresh manufacture or sold as raw materials
• Water separation-this is the final step where plastic content will be removed rom glass using water. Once separated, the retrieved materials are sold as reusable raw materials. Some of the products that will be sold includes iron, plastic, cooper, glass, steel, valuable metal mix, and circuit boards that are shredded.
How items are going to be reused will vary according to the material. For example, with plastic it will be sent to recyclers who will re-manufacture into items like insulators among other plastic products, plastic trays, fence posts, vineyard stakes, equipment holders, and more. When a computer is brought in, the hard drives are shredded in whole and will be processed into aluminum ingots. These will be used in the automotive industry.