The recycling chain (process) for e-waste consists of three main subsequent steps:1. collection2. sorting/dismantling and pre-processing (incl. sorting, dismantling, mechanical treatment) and3. end-processing (incl. refining and disposal).Usually for each of these steps specialized operators/plants exist. The efficiency of the entire recycling chain depends on the efficiency of each step and on how well the interfaces between these interdependent steps are managed.
1. Collection: collection of e-waste is crusial important part of recycling chain. This is major responsibility of us to collect the e-waste and scrap material for every source such as individual, corporate, institution, government bodies, formal and informal sector to avoide landfill and to keep our environment clean and green. When no devices are collected, the feed material to dismantling, preprocessing and end-processing facilities is lacking and a recycling chain cannot be established. The collected equipment is sorted and then enters a pre-treatment step.
2. Dismantling and pre-processing: The aim of dismantling and pre-processing is to liberate the materials and direct them to adequate subsequent final treatment processes. To separate furious , non furious, hazardous and non hazardous. Hazardous substances have to be removed and stored or treated safely while valuable components/materials need to be taken out for reuse or to be directed to efficient recovery processes. This includes removal of batteries, capacitors etc. prior to further (mechanical) pre-treatment. The batteries from the devices can be sent to dedicated facilities for the recovery of cobalt, nickel and copper. For devices containing ODS such as refrigerators and air-conditioners, the de-gassing step is crucial in the pre-processing stage as the refrigerants used (CFC or HCFC in older models) need to be removed carefully to avoid air-emissions. For CRT containing appliances (e.g. monitors and TVs) coatings in the panel glass are usually removed as well before end-processing . LCD monitors with mercury-containing backlights need special care too, as the backlights need to be carefully removed before further treatment.The circuit boards present in ICT equipment and televisions contain most of the precious and special metals as well as lead (solders) and flame retardant containing resins. They can be removed from the devices by manual dismantling, mechanical treatment (shredding and sorting) or a combination of both. Manual removal of the circuit boards from telecommunication and information technologies (IT) equipment prior to shredding will prevent losses of precious and special metals and offers advantages.An intermediate approach to the removal of hazardous and valuable components can be a very coarse crushing to liberate the components (circuit boards, batteries etc.) as a whole followed by removal of the components by hand picking. It has to be noted that pre-processing of e-waste is not always necessary. Small, highly complex electronic devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players etc. can (after removal of the battery) also be treated directly by an end-processor to recover the metals. After removal of the hazardous and other special components described above, the remainder of the ICT, cooling or television devices can be further separated in the material output streams by manual dismantling or mechanical shredding and (automated) sorting techniques. Fractions are usually iron, aluminium, copper, plastic etc. It is of utmost importance that the generated output streams meet the quality requirements of the feed materials for the end-processors.