Recycling electronic waste (e-waste)

The electronic industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world given the fourth industrial revolution. The products of electronic industry are normally called electric and electronic equipment (EEE). EEEs may have a short application period and some with short lifespan, and are often discarded in landfills after usage or bundled in store rooms. While waste management is a global challenge, electronic waste (e-waste) has added pain because it consists of dangerous assortment of toxic metals and plastics. This has prompted many countries including South Africa to classify e-waste as hazardous waste that need to be checked at all times. Nonetheless, recent research show potential for reuse as high energy rich materials. In fact, it could be reused, remanufactured, recycled, landfilled and/or incinerated. There are alternative thermal processing techniques such as pyrolysis and gasification instead of incineration. This chapter covers global perspective on the regulations of e-waste in selected countries including South Africa, the types of e-wastes, the recycling of e-waste, environmental issues related to e-waste and the thermal processing of e-waste into biofuels.