1.3.2 Current waste management
Course subject(s)
Module 1. Urgency and challenges with CRM and waste
Most of the critical raw materials are to be found in discarded electric and electronic equipment. This equipment ends up as waste. In this lesson Jan-Henk Welink focusses on the waste management of this equipment and its problems.
Main take aways
- In recycling complex products are first shredded, the metals separated, followed by metallurgical recovery of the metals. Batteries are treated separately. Many critical raw materials are practically not recovered.
- Critical raw materials could wash out of products into the environment from landfills if these landfills lack proper isolation. The critical raw materials could wash out as heavy metal.
- After incineration metals are removed, but not all of them. Metals that will remain in the slag could wash out, if no precautions are taken.
- Some countries have dedicated public prosecutors for iIlegal export of obsolete EEE from the EU to countries like Africa and Asia. Recycling practices are unsafe and a danger for both the health of the workers as well as the environment.
Some further reading if you want to take this topic further:
Waste Management and Critical Raw Materials by TU Delft OpenCourseWare is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://online-learning.tudelft.nl/courses/waste-management-and-critical-raw-materials/.