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

With the rapid growth of the electronics industry and an ever-growing envir onmental awareness world-wide, an environmentally sound and economically vi able management system for end-of-life (EOL) electric and electronic equipm ent (EEE) is of great importance for sustainable development. Traditional r ecycling and processing of EOL electronics directed towards the recovery of copper and precious metals, will be faced with many challenges in the futu re. It has been recognized by the EOL EEE recycling industry that a new str ategy for EOL EEE must be developed. In this paper, current status and futu re trends in EOL EEE management are presented. Selective dismantling of val uable and hazardous components is evaluated in terms of a grade-recovery (G R) concept. It is concluded that selective dismantling and mechanical proce ssing must be coordinated in such a way as to produce suitable materials fo r subsequent handling at the lowest cost. Furthermore, new developments in mechanical and thermal processing of EOL EEE are also discussed, which invo lve water table and eddy current separation techniques and reduction of dio xins and furans during combustion of the plastics containing halogenated fl ame retardants. In addition, the challenges and perspectives associated wit h EOL management of plastics and cathode ray tubes (CRTs) encountered in EO L EEE are highlighted in this paper. It is predicted that EEE, being design ed for recycling in the 21st century, will be processed and recycled econom ically and ecologically on becoming obsolete.