recycling and recovery and disposal. In Europe the waste hierarchy has five steps (Raina, 2010): Prevention Reuse Recycling Recovery, e.g. energy recovery Disposal The waste hierarchy has taken many forms over the past decade, but the basic concept has remained the cornerstone of most waste minimization strategies. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste (Raina, 2010; UNEP, 2007). The Waste Hierarchy Concept of waste impact minimization, by reducing quantity of wastes, reusing the waste with simple treatments and recycling the wastes by using it as raw material to produce same or modified products is usually referred to as “3R”. As can be seen in Figure 2.1 prevention (reduce) is the most desirable in order of hierarchy, followed by reuse and recycling the least desired or favoured option. Figure: 2.1: Waste Hierarchy (Raina, 2010) This concept is key to sustainable management of E-waste. Simply put the principle of 3R is for example, using resources with care can and will reduce the pace of
The next step in E-waste recycling is recovery. The three main technologies used in recovery are: (i) Pyrometallurgy (ii) Hydrometallurgy and (iii) Electrometallurgy. Pyrometallurgy has been a traditional technology for recovery of precious metals from waste electronic equipment. The technology uses high temperatures that include smelting and roasting to chemically convert the feed materials and separate metals and impurities into different phases so valuable metals can be recovered. Pyrometallurgy involves heating in a blast furnace at temperatures above 1500°C to convert waste to a form that can be refined. The oxide waste is heated with a reducing agent, such as carbon in the form of coke or coal; the oxygen of the metal combines with the carbon and is removed in carbon dioxide gas. The waste material in E-waste (non-metallic parts) is called gangue; it is removed by means of a substance called a flux which, when heated, combines with it to form a molten mass called slag. Being lighter than the metal, the slag floats on it and can be skimmed or drawn off. Examples of technical hardware are submerged lance smelters, converters, rotary furnaces, electric arc furnaces etc (Cui & Zhang, 2008; UNEP, 2007). Hydrometallurgy, sometimes called leaching, involves the selective dissolution of metals from their waste. Hydrometallurgical processing techniques use strong acidic or caustic watery solutions to selectively dissolve and precipitate metals. Metal is recovered by electrolysis of the solution. If metal obtained from waste still contains impurities, special refining processes
in the system 7.7% (7.5 metric tonnes) is discarded into the MSW stream. This practice of indiscriminate disposal of E-waste into MSW stream by universities is as a result of these institutions not having proper institutional E-waste management policy in place; this is further exacerbated by the low level of knowledge among university staff on environmental and human health hazards posed by E-waste (Figure 4.4). Thus, university staff tasked to manage E-waste disposal may throw E-waste into trash bin ignorant of the environmental damage this may cause. Over half of the E-waste in the MFA at 52.2% (51,502kg) is either sold or given to recyclers (partial/full) who are responsible for its ultimate disposal in an environmentally sound manner or in accordance with relevant environmental law (Figure 4.4). Figure 4.4 MFA for ICT Electronics in Klang Valley Universities – 2012 They are 155 E-waste recovery facilities are licensed by DOE, of which 135 facilities are “partial recovery” and another 20 facilities are “full recovery” (Malaysia DOE, 2012). The recovery facilities have a total capacity to handle 24,000 tonnes of a month (Kamar, 2012). However this is not always the case as some E-waste is illegally shipped out of Malaysia by unscrupulous recyclers to destinations i.e. Indonesia and Myanmar contrary to the Basel Convention (Young, 2012). A study by Babington et al., (2010) found that in Selangor State, universities contribute only 5% of E-waste recycled in both partial and full recycling facilities.
Malaysian 321 80 80 80 Non Malaysian 79 20 20 100 Total 400 100 100 Race Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Malay 163 41 41 41 Chinese 119 30 30 71 Indian 45 11 11 82 Others 73 18 18 100 Total 400 100 100 Age Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Less than 20 73 18 18 18 21 - 25 208 52 52 70 26 - 30 60 15 15 85 31 - 35 33 8 8 94 36 - 40 12 3 3 97 Above 40 14 4 4 100 Total 400 100 100 Occupation Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Student 316 79 79 79 University Staff 84 21 21 100 Total 400 100 100 Education Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Secondary School 30 8 8 8 STPM or Diploma 59 15 15 22 Degree 270 68 68 90 Masters or PhD 41 10 10 100 Total 400 100 100 Residence Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent On Campus Housing 50 13 13 13 Off Campus Housing 109 27 27 40 Private Accommodation 241 60 60 100 Total 400 100 100
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