End-of-life electric and electronic equipment management towards the 21 st century

Abstract

With the rapid growth of the electronics industry and an ever-growing environmental awareness world-wide, an environmentally sound and economically viable management system for end-of-life (EOL) electric and electronic equipment (EEE) is of great importance for sustainable development. Traditional recycling and processing of EOL electronics directed towards the recovery of copper and precious metals, will be faced with many challenges in the future. It has been recognized by the EOL EEE recycling industry that a new strategy for EOL EEE must be developed. In this paper, current status and future trends in EOL EEE management are presented. Selective dismantling of valuable and hazardous components is evaluated in terms of a grade-recovery (GR) concept. It is concluded that selective dismantling and mechanical processing must be coordinated in such a way as to produce suitable materials for subsequent handling at the lowest cost. Furthermore, new developments in mechanical and thermal processing of EOL EEE are also discussed, which involve water table and eddy current separation techniques and reduction of dioxins and furans during combustion of the plastics containing halogenated flame retardants. In addition, the challenges and perspectives associated with EOL management of plastics and cathode ray tubes (CRTs) encountered in EOL EEE are highlighted in this paper. It is predicted that EEE, being designed for recycling in the 21st century, will be processed and recycled economically and ecologically on becoming obsolete.