Cellphones, Lithium Batteries, and E-waste Management!

In case you were unaware, "e-waste comprises discarded electronic appliances, of which computers and mobile telephones are disproportionately abundant because of their short lifespan." Cellphones contain small lithium batteries that contain heavy metals that, if leached into landfills, can be detrimental to the environment and human health. This blurb from the scientific journal, (above) Science, discusses a study completed that analyzed 16 batteries from old cellphones sent to recycling. They contained several metals including lead and cobalt that can leach out in landfill conditions, polluting water and soil. Instead of letting the electronics reach the landfill, methods of safe recycling have been implemented, specifically in the United States. 

Studies, such as the one above, show the need for reliable e-waste management systems. Even 8 years ago, in 2005, there was over 1 million metric tons of electronic waste generated in the United States alone and was projected to increase, which it did. In 2011, the United States generated 3.41 million tons of e-waste. These facilities are going to need to be competitive in the market, closely regulated, and, most importantly, responsibly and environmentally handle of all the e-waste. 

E-Waste Around the World

To gain a better understanding of the different options that are/can be available in the United States, e-waste management systems in the European Union, Japan, and South Korea are explored.

European Union

There are 25 member states of the European Union, all dedicated to preserving the environment by properly managing e-waste. The regulations that have been put in place by the EU are unique in that they focus on the construction of the product, not just the "end-of-life" aspect. The regulation aims to raise awareness of end-of-life factors during product design to prevent excessive electronics needing to be disposed of. The group also focuses on hazardous materials, such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), being used in the electronics at the point of conception. 

Japan

Japan's e-waste laws require manufacturers and importers to take back end-of-life electronics for recycling and waste management and are meant to ensure separation of e-waste from the municipal solid waste stream. 

South Korea

Under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Law, which came into effect in 2003, local manufacturers, distributors and importers of consumer goods such as air conditioners, TVs and PCs are required to achieve official recycling targets or face financial consequences. In that same year, 70% of e-waste was collected by producers. 

The United States has the potential to replicate these influential and successful programs. The need to is ever increasing as the trend of purchasing and disposing of e-waste continues to increase. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), between 2003 and 2005, about 80–85% of the e-waste ready for end-of-life management ended up in U.S. landfills. The amount of contaminants that were leached into the landfills are surely hazardous to humans and the environment. These toxic chemicals can end up poisoning groundwater and soil. There are many programs being enacted at these state level. For example, the State of California has passed a law charging consumer fees, called advanced recycling fees (ARFs), at the time products are purchased. The system covers monitors, TVs and laptops, and the ARF is between US$ 6 and US$ 10. Vermont is one of 15 states that has introduced a producer responsibility bill. The status of the bills is constantly changing. 

The United States currently has no Federal mandate to recycle e-waste. Because the United States has so much influence in the global market, a federal regulation would help to cover the states that currently have no e-waste system in place as well as make the overall system more fluid. An e-Market for Returned Deposit system will be the mechanism for residential customers to dispose of their devices in a way that motivates collection, recycle and reuse of e-waste. This program would affect the life-cycle of the product even at the beginning, by encouraging more appropriate use of resources. 

Citation: 

1. I.C. Nnorom , O. Osibanjo. Overview of electronic waste (e-waste) management practices and legislations, and their poor applications in the developing countries.
2. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Volume 52, Issue 6, April 2008, Pages 843–858

Ramzy Kahhat, Junbeum Kim, Ming Xu, Braden Allenby, Eric Williams, Peng Zhang. Exploring e-waste management systems in the United States. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Volume 52, Issue 7, May 2008, Pages 955–964

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2008.03.002

"Where do cellphones go to die?"

This article from the New York Times, written by Leyla Acaroglu in May of this year highlights the wastefulness of American culture stating that, "Americans replace their cellphones every 22 months, junking some 150 million old phones in 2010 alone." Because technology in the form of small, portable electronic devices has been increasing dramatically in a short amount of time, the methods of dealing with it are still in their preliminary stages. The systems are so new that there are surely flaws and loopholes that result in the shipment of deceased electronics to impoverished countries.
If sustainable practices are not put into place, the consequences pose serious risks to our health and the health of the environment. The stories that are told are often those of impoverished people in "third-world" countries smashing, heating, and dismantling electronics without proper protection from the heavy metals such as  lead, cadmium and mercury. The threat is not just contained to those areas; it occurs here in the United States. For several years, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has kept inmates busy processing e-waste (link to discovery of unjust electronics recycling program in prisons).
Despite the United States intense demand for more electronics (using more resources), the government has been dragging its feet when it comes to passing responsible disposal laws. "The United States, for example, remains the only industrialized country that has not ratified the Basel Convention, an international treaty that makes it illegal to export or traffic in toxic e-waste," the article states. This allows business to continue as usual and impoverished people (especially children) to risk their already vulnerable health to make a little bit of money. 
Some places, like Japan and those affected by the European Union, "provide a model for industrial regulation that would shift the burden of safe product disposal back to the manufacturers that produce electronic goods. " If government doesn't step up to the plate when it comes to proper electronics waste disposal, then it is on the consumer to demand better "end-of-life" procedures.

Citation: 
Acaroglu, Leyla. Where do old cellphones go to die? The New York Times. May 2013.

Recycling e-Waste: The Sky is the Limit

The world generates 40 million tons of PCs, cathode-ray tube screens, fax machines, game consoles, mobile phones and other e-waste every year and less than 20% of this waste is properly disposed of or recycled. In many parts of the world, these electronics are stripped of their precious metals and the unusable parts are dumped in landfills to poison the soil and groundwater. 
China is the largest processor of e-waste receiving 70% of the world's end-of-life electronics. Guiyu is nicknamed the e-waste capital where workers burn circuit boards to recover computer chips, then soak the boards in acid to extract gold and lastly dump the leftovers into the Lianjiang River. This burning releases massive quantities of mercury, cadmium and other toxins into the air and most children here suffer from lead poisoning.   
The Basel Action Network(BAN) is working to cease the export of toxic waste to developing countries, but when recycling a PC in the US costs $30 verses recycling it in China for $2, countries unfortunately go for the cheaper option. Instead, recycling companies in the US will charge for each PC to be disposed of then ship it overseas as 'scrap metal' to workers who are underpaid and unaware of the health affects of the chemicals these electronics possess. 
The European Waste Electrical Directive law put responsibility for the disposal of e-waste to the producers, importers and retailers of the electronic good, so that companies are compelled to take back end-of-life products and refurbish them. But a law such as this is very difficult to enforce. Sony became the first electronics company to offer unlimited free take-back and recycling for all its products and I hope more companies will follow its example.
Most reputable e-waste recyclers are ISO 14000 certified. The ISO 14000 are environmental standards created to guide organizations in minimizing their operations affect on air, water and land. It takes in how a product is produced rather than the product itself such as labeling, performance evaluation, life cycle analysis, communication and auditing. 
The ultimate goal for e-waste recycling is for zero to land in the landfills and 100% recovery of materials. A typical PC contains 23% plastic, 32% ferrous material, 18% non-ferrous material and 12% electronic boards made of gold, palladium, silver and platinum. Recycler shredders use heavy duty shredders that reduce the e-waste into uniform rough pieces that are then sorted. This sorting has been found to be profitable. In LCD mobile phones, the rare metal indium can be recovered and sells anywhere between $700/kg to $1,000/kg. 
New ways to more efficiently recycle are continuing to be invented such as the Titech X-tract Seperator and Finder. X-tract sends x-rays through unsorted nonferrous metal shreds and sorts the material by comparing the relative brightness of the x-ray images. Japanese electronics maker NEC is also experimenting with bioplastic that would degrade in 7 years. 
China is switching from building technology parks to recycling parks that have attracted 22 recycling companies. They are doing aluminum harvesting, processing of computer chips, cables, motherboards for gold, silver and metal harvesting and all leftovers go into making cement. A 90% recovery system and a model for how e-waste recycling can be done in the future.  

Krikke, Jan. "Recycling e-Waste:The Sky is the Limit." IT Professional Magazine. Jan 2008: 50-55. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/206326082?accountid=14679>.

E-Waste Recycling

Technology is getting better and better all the time, at least that's what we are led to believe.  Computing power is increasing, size is decreasing, and electronics have now pervaded into every nook and cranny of our lives, from our cars, to our coffee makers, to our computer screens.  As is with life, all things that live will eventually die, and this is no different with technology.  In the past, malfunctioning electronics were built to last lifetimes, and if they were to fail, they could be easily repaired.  As it happens, this is no longer the case.  We now live in a culture which cherishes nothing but the newest tech, and our old tech is literally designed to fail (planed obsolescence).  Much of our electronics are nearly impossible to repair as well, so we are faced with the decision to either toss it in the landfill, or bring it to a recycling center.  I'd first like to detail exactly what happens to the recycled electronics, then give an overview of other options available for end of life electronics (For a more specific case study, see my previous post on microwaves in the U.K)

Recycling (end of life) (Reclaiming materials)

WHY DO IT?  

1. Recycling is done primarily to Reclaim valuable materials (Gold, Silver, Cooper, Aluminum, and Palladium), and is generally a safer alternative and better for environment than mining for these materials
2.  Prevents Pollutants from entering the waste stream
3. Can save money for companies who have take-back programs

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

1.  Snip cables, pull chips from boards, grind plastic cases into particles, dip circuit boards into acid baths to dissolve lead, cadmium and other toxic metals, strip insulation from copper wire 

Circuit board dis-assembly (China)

Open pit burning

  PROBLEMS/ISSUES

1. If recycled properly, the environment will be kept more clean than if e-waste was placed in a landfill
2. Lack of laws (U.S. has not ratified the Basel Convention or its Ban Amendment) so there are limited laws regulating export of e-waste overseas     80% of all e-wasted slated to be recycled is not recycled here, but is exported 
3. The exported e-waste goes to countries with limited health and environmental laws, so much of this e-waste is recycled improperly i.e. circuit boards are burned in open pits, releasing toxins and plastics into the open air, dissolving circuit boards causes groundwater pollution due to leaching (lead poisoning common in e-waste recycling areas in developing countries
4. Low wages, limited laws and valuable parts increase the chance/incentive e-waste will be exported to developing countries
5. Refurbishing old components is a threat to manufacturing – incentive for corporations to quell any recycling/refurbishing effort 

SOLUTIONS

1.      Some corporations recycle (Best buy, Staples)

2.      Some corporations fix (Apple)

3.      Pressure manufacturers to use less toxic materials in their processes

4.      BASEL CONVENTION = BANS OVERSEAS EXPORTS

5.      WORLD REUSE, REPAIR, and RECYCLING ASSOCIATION = FAIR TRADE EXPORTS – export only good CRT monitors directly to reuse factories.  “If used electronics exports are outlawed, only outlaws will export used electronics

6.      “WEEE TRACE project” – Uses radio-frequency tagging or image recognition to track e-waste – hopes to crack down on illegal exports

E-Waste Reuse

Re-use/Re-purpose

• Reusing/re-purposing electronics extends life of products and keeps valuable materials from entering waste stream

• Donating working electronics helps schools, nonprofit orgs, and lower income citizens, tax reduction for donation

In my previous post on the microwave study, the authors suggested several manufacturing techniques that would make repair much more feasible.  However, if the old electronics are beyond repair there are many other options out there to consider before throwing it in the trash or recycling it

Re-purpose

Old TV = Dog bed

MacBook = Light fixture

OR here's something I did with an old 1980's era electric organ.  I took wired and circuits from the inside of the organ, and used them to create this light sensitive primitive synth.  Check it out in the following videos

This video encompasses the way Dell has/is attempting to be as sustainable as possible. The main part I was focused on when viewing the video was when they talked about shipping the products. They use recycled materials such as detergent and milk containers and as little boxes as possible to lessen the shipping load. By lessening the shipping load it leaves less room for unrecyclable materials. Dell isn't the only company doing this type of sustainability, I believe many other companies do as well. The reason they do this because they may otherwise lose consumers and they are more interested in where they're technology is going to go after it has died. Consumers have become much more interested in where things come from and where they will be going then they were a couple of years ago and because of this many companies have had to enhance their sustainability to make customers happy.

Sarah Silver

Citation:
Dell, , dir. Sustainability: Dell's Lifecycle Approach. YouTube, 2012. Film. 1 Dec 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG7Vea3PdiM.

Laws/Regulations of Shipping Technology

Here is a link that goes over every possible detail of what can be shipped, how it can be shipped and what it has to go through before actually getting into the country:

http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/publications/trade/iius.ctt/iius.pdf

I'm going to summarize the most important part which is the shipping of technology. Certain technologies give off radiation such as TVs, microwaves, cellphones, etc. Because of this the Food and Drug Administration require both parties, the people sending the technology and those receiving the technology, to file a form called the FDA 2877. This form is required for technologies manufacture in the United States and shipped into the United States. This document doesn't only focus on technology, it focuses on everything that can be shipped into the United States and what importers and exporters need to do in order for everything to run smoothly.

Sarah Silver

Citation:
United States. Customs and Border Protection. Importing into the United States: A Guide for Commercial Importers. 2003. Web. http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/publications/trade/iius.ctt/iius.pdf.