Good Future Prospects for E-WASTE RECYCLING PLANT (Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE))

Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is a loose category of surplus, obsolete, broken, or discarded electrical or electronic devices. The processing of electronic waste in developing countries is causing serious health and pollution problems due to lack of containment, as do unprotected land filling (due to leaching) and incineration. The Basel Convention and regulation by the European Union and United States aim to reduce these problems. Reuse and recycling of these e-waste are promoted as alternatives to disposal as trash. There was unanimity that electronic waste containing substances like lead, cadmium, mercury, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) have immense potential to cause enormous harm to human health and environment, if not disposed properly since the exact prescriptions for its disposal and safeguard were inadequate.

European countries have taken a systematic step towards the handling disposal and recycling of e-waste. There are several plants established for this particular purpose where large amount of electronic waste are recycled using the best technologies. A new trend in recycling is reuse of these waste contents. Apart from these new technologies; screening, reuse, granulating, refining, conditioning are also important processes in recycling.

Today, the electronic waste recycling business, in all areas of the developed world has become a large and rapidly consolidating business. The electronic waste processing systems have matured in recent years, following increased regulatory, public and commercial scrutiny, and with a commensurate increase in entrepreneurial interest. Part of this evolution have involved greater diversion of electronic waste from energy-intensive down cycling processes (e.g., conventional recycling), where equipment is reverted to a raw material form.

The environmental and social benefits of reuse include diminished demand for new products and virgin raw materials (with their own environmental issues), larger quantities of pure water and electricity for associated manufacturing, less packaging per unit, availability of technology to wider swaths of society due to greater affordability of products; and diminished use of landfills.

Audiovisual components, televisions, VCRs, stereo equipment, mobile phones, other handheld devices, and computer components contain valuable elements and substances suitable for reclamation, including lead, copper, and gold. Mostly employed in traditional e-waste disposal methods, this process refers to converting all the e-waste fractions into reusable components.

Secondary raw materials are also extracted from these waste contents. Manual dismantling signifies process of electronic items and tools being dismantled in an orderly sequence. Once dismantling is done, manual sorting of different e waste is completed in separate categories like metals, batteries, printed wiring boards, plastics, woods, cathode ray tubes, condensers, LCDs and cables etc. These different elements are then processed through refining and conditioning steps.

There is an estimate that the total obsolete computers originating from government offices, business houses, industries and household is of the order of 2 million . Manufactures and assemblers in a single calendar year, estimated to produce around 1200 tons of electronic scrap. It should be noted that obsolence rate of personal computers (PC) is one in every two years. The consumer finds it convenient to buy a new computer rather than upgrade the old one due to the changing configuration, technology and the attractive offers of the manufacturers. Due to the lack of governmental legislations on e-waste, standards for disposal, proper mechanism for handling these toxic hi-tech products, mostly end up in landfills or partly recycled in a unhygienic conditions and partly thrown into waste streams.

Computer waste is generated from the individual households, government, public and private sectors, computer retailers, manufacturers, foreign embassies, secondary markets of old PCs. etc. Of these, the biggest source of PC scrap are foreign countries that export huge computer waste in the form of reusable components. With the extensive use of computers and electronic equipments, people are dumping old electronic goods for new ones; the amount of E-Waste generated has been steadily increasing.

At present Bangalore alone generates about 8000 tonnes of computer waste annually and in the absence of proper disposal, they find their way to scrap dealers. Electronic waste or e-waste is one of the rapidly growing environmental problems of the world. In India, the electronic waste management assumes greater significance not only due to the generation of our own waste but also dumping of e-waste i. e computer waste from the developed countries.

The scope for e-waste recycling project is very good. New entrepreneurs’ venturing into this field will be successful.

Plant capacity: Monitor -10 Pcs/Day, Plastic Granules – 5.33 M.T/Day, Copper Wire Scrap-9 Kg/day, Glass Scrap from C.R.T-270 Kg/Day,

Other Metals-800 Kg/Day

Plant & Machinery : 51 Lakhs

Working capital: - T.C.I: 196 Lakhs

Return: 47.00% Break even: 40.00%