One of the biggest environmental concerns of today is the e-waste or electronics waste. It is a matter of concern the world over. It is considered hazardous and if not disposed of properly, it can cause risks to human life as well as the and environment. Everyone knows how e-waste is harmful and toxic but not everyone knows that from this very e-waste we can also recover valuable materials and then reuse it. This is known as ‘resource recovery’. Actually, e-waste has a lot of potential.

 

It can be recovered, reused, recycled etc. We just need to know how to do it.The technologies for e-waste resource recovery are mechanical separation in which physical processes like shredding, crushing and sorting are used to separate different materials like plastics, metals and electronic components. Then there is hydrometallurgy which uses chemical solutions to dissolve and extract metals.The dissolved metals can be recovered by the process of precipitation or electroplating. Another process for recycle is pyrometallurgy which involves high-temperature treatment of e-waste to recover metals by process such as smelting and other thermal processes.

 

This method is used for extracting metals like copper, gold, and silver. Then there is biometallurgy which uses microorganisms to solubilise and extract metals from e-waste. Pyrolysis decomposes e-waste plastics into valuable products like fuels or building materials in the absence of oxygen. Similarly, fluid technology uses fluids like water or carbon dioxide to process e-waste plastics. Apart from companies at Noida and Bengaluru, some government initiatives like Digital India-Material Recovery facilities, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, awareness campaigns also help in bring down the e-waste dump. It is our responsibility to dispose the e- waste properly and also to make people aware about the harm it can cause.