How Does Recycling Help the Environment
E-waste is short for the term electronic waste, a word to to describe any used piece of electronic equipment that we no longer need. Ewaste becomes a health hazard when we dispose of it improperly and let it rot in landfills. The toxins contained in the electronic device’s metal parts emit harmful gases that pollute the environment and present health hazards to human beings. Ewaste can be thrown away, recycled, reused or sold as methods of disposal. This guide covers how ewaste is recycled as an introduction.
How is e-waste recycled? The Process
Typically, first all of the items in a responsible e-waste recycler’s collection for the day are sorted by hand. Batteries and copper will be extracted for quality control. Products are then shredded into pieces as tiny as one hundred millimeters for the electronic waste to be completely sorted. Data destruction, if you are recycling a hard drive, will occur here.
After this, the small debris is shaken before a secondary size reduction. This is to ensure that it will be spread out evenly on the conveyor belt before getting shrunk again. Any dust that is extracted will be handled in an eco-friendly manner. Using an Overband Magnet, steel and iron are removed from the rubbish using magnets. Copper, brass and aluminum are separated from the non-metallic products. The metal can go to be reused and resold. Finally, water is utilized to keep plastic and glass separate. Once all of these products are separated they can all be recycled accordingly.
How is e-waste recycled | Cathode Ray Tube Monitors and Televisions
Recycling Cathode Ray Tubes which are most commonly discovered in old style televisions and computer monitors will prove to be more complicated than recycling most of the electronic waste. This is due to the fact that toxins within CRTs are the most dangerous. There is lead in the glass which can do serious harm to the environment and health if it is treated improperly.
CRT ewaste is recycled first by removing the monitor body from the cathode ray tube. You must do this so that the tube can be removed properly from within. After, the shell is recycled along with regular ewaste. The tubes and screens are broken down into small pieces. Any glass dust that is a byproduct of this process is disposed of responsibly in an eco-friendly way. Next, e-waste is recycled through metal removal. The broken pieces of glass are passed under magnets, where steel and iron are extracted from the glass. Next, aluminum and copper are removed. All of these materials are then collected and reused as raw.
Then the left over glass is cleaned of dust, oxides and phosphors, leaving behind only clean glass to be sorted. The last stage of CRT recycling sorts different types of glass, leaded and unleaded. Both will be used to make new screens, which is known as closed loop recycling. Hopefully this article has given you a better idea of how e-waste is recycled.