E-waste Recycling Process Reading Answers

E-waste is short for electronic waste or the trash generated from broken, obsolete, and surplus electronic devices. The electronics often contain toxic chemicals and hazardous materials. If not disposed properly, they can cause the release of toxic substances into our environment. E-waste recycling then refers to the reprocessing and re-use of these electronic wastes. Components of E-waste that Can be Recycled are plastic, metal, glass, mercury, circuit board, hard disk, ink cartridge and batteries. Recycling is done in following steps-

1. Collecting and Transporting- This is the first stage of recycling e-waste. Here, recyclers place take-back booths or collection bins in specific places. When these bins get filled, the recyclers then transport the e-wastes to recycling facilities and plants.
2. Shredding and Sorting- Shredding involves breaking e-waste into smaller pieces for proper sorting. With the use of hands, these tiny pieces get sorted and then manually dismantled. This is typically labour -intensive as waste items are, at this stage, separated to retrieve different parts. After this, the materials get categorized into core materials and components. Then, these items get sorted into various categories. Typically, these categories include items that you can re-use as they are and those that require further recycling processes.
3. Dust Extraction- The tiny waste particles get smoothly spread via a shaking process on the conveyor belt. The smoothly spread e-waste pieces then get broken down even further. At this point, the dust gets extracted and discarded in an environmentally compliant manner.
4. Magnetic Separation- A strong overhead magnet helps to separate steel and iron from other wastes. However, some mechanical processes may sometimes be required to separate circuit board, copper and aluminium from other wastes particles.
5. Water Separation- Water separation technique is used to separate the glass from the plastic. This is done by sending leads that contain glass to smelters to use in the production of batteries, x-ray tubes and new CRTs.
6. Purification of Waste Stream- The next thing is locating and extracting leftover metals from plastics party to waste stream further.
7. Preparing Recycled Materials for Sale- The final stage is preparing recycled materials for sale. Here, the materials separated during SSS get prepared for sale as raw materials to produce new electronics.