SBM1300 Research: Recycling of Waste Printed Circuit Board

Impact of Recycling of Waste Printed Circuit Boards (WPCBs) on Environment and Ecosystem

Research overview and justification:

The continuous annual production of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) leads to serious ecological apprehensions because it comprised of some dangerous materials which disposed in landfills and cause serious damage to the environment (Birloaga, De Michelis, Ferella, Buzatu & Vegliò, 2013). These damages are of various types such as when e-waste warm-up, it releases many chemicals in the air which damages the atmosphere and when disposed in landfills, these toxic substances seep into ground and affects both land and marine life. Moreover, these toxic e-wastes also causes many disorders in human body when human body get in contact with chemicals release through these dangerous substances. Waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) are one key area of WEEE devices and they are composed of nearly 28% of non-ferrous metals such as aluminum, copper, lead and nickel etc. That’s why, the specific physical and chemical composition of WPCBs has created difficulty in their recycle process. There is vast literature available on recycle technology of WEEE. Some researchers worked on the technical grounds to extract metals from WPCBs (Park & Fray, 2009), whereas other scholars give importance to non-metallic components (Wang & Xu, 2014). However, the environmental risk related to the recycling of all these materials have still needed special research and consideration. Therefore, this study will consider the environmental perspective of the recycling of WPCBs.

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Literature Review

Due to remarkable technological advancement and development in the field of electronics, many consumers and electronic products per capita has risen in accordance with the downward price of new products. In a meanwhile, the life of electronic product also decreases with the passage of time and the popularity of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has increased so much. In the last two decades, the increasing development of electronic devices has prompted the scholars and researchers to explore a solution for one of the most dangerous and toxic waste products i.e. the waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs). Various articles showing the process paths for the recycling of this harmful but otherwise useful waste have been released. Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are the basic parts of an electronic device as it binds and build support with other electronic components electrically and mechanically. WPCBs constitute around 3% of the total volume of WEEE by weight (Awasthi & Zeng, 2019). Moreover, manufacturing companies, regulatory agencies and governments all over the world are now searching for a comprehensive and environmentally friendly recycling process for these WPCBs, allowing all metal and non-metal products to be recovered while reducing environmental impact (Ning, Lin, Hui & McKay, 2017).

Recycling for WPCBs results in a really wide range of products that are part of the entire assembly, with the potential for serious environmental implications resulting from both the use of material resources and the consequences of disposal in landfills. High value of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and potential concern related to both atmosphere and human condition are creating the need for environmentally sound treatment of WPCBs (Awasthi, Zlamparet, Zeng & Li, 2017). The recycling process of WPCB is a big problem due to multiple factors such as elements, variety and complexity of materials, as well as manufacturing processes (Li, Zeng, Chen, Ogunseitan & Stevels, 2015). Therefore, there is a need to work on this recycling process to overcome this dangerous problem of mechanical domain.

Research Objectives

  1. To identify the impact of recycling waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) on environment and ecosystem?
  2. To evaluate the control of mishandling of waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) through recycling.

Research Questions

  1. What is the impact of recycling waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) on environment and ecosystem?
  2. How the mishandling of waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) can be controlled by recycling?

In this era of rapid technological advancement and development, the role of electronic devices and equipment have created lots of environmental problems and many of them are still needed proper research and evaluation. There are many studies available on the role of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) but lack the significance of one of the key components of the WEEE i.e. waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs). Therefore, the purpose of this research study will be to determine the impact of recycling waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) on environment and ecosystem. Moreover, this study will also evaluate the control of mishandling of waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) through recycling.

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Methodology

The scope of this study will highlight the importance of the recycling waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) which as a result will protect the environment. Several studies cited in the introduction and literature review will support the methodology part. The research will be qualitative in nature and will use two types of methods i.e. exploratory and experimental methods for both research objectives. Qualitative research is basically exploratory research and in involves an understanding, opinion and the in-depth knowledge regarding the research topic. For the first research question, the detailed study of the past literature review will be done through proper systematic literature review. Moreover, multiple resources will be used i.e. past publish literature to identify the impact of recycling WPCBs on environment and ecosystem. For the second research question, experimental research method will be used. Here, new type of process involves such as centrifugal separation and vacuum pyrolysis of two-step process. This process/method will be taken from the study of Zhou and Qiu (2010). In this way, qualitative method will be used to identify the underpinning themes in data in compliance with research objectives and questions.

Significances of the research

This study will be significant in terms of determining the recycling process of waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) in terms of protecting environment as it is one of the integral elements of the WEEE. Moreover, the role of WPCBs will be extended when the process of recycling will be used and this will enhance the significance of WPCB in the electrical and mechanical world where daily new inventions and discoveries have created multiple dangerous implications on the human ecological and environmental system. Furthermore, this study will be beneficial for the manufacturers, policy makers and government agencies for evaluating the role of WPCBs in terms of keeping environment clean. This study will help the policy makers in their decision making process because by knowing the impact and implications of not recycling e-waste in proper way, they will take corrective measures accordingly for the environment protection.

References

Awasthi, A.K., Zlamparet, G.I., Zeng, X. and Li, J., 2017. Evaluating waste printed circuit boards recycling: Opportunities and challenges, a mini review. Waste Management & Research, 35(4), pp.346-356.

Birloaga, I., De Michelis, I., Ferella, F., Buzatu, M. and Vegliò, F., 2013. Study on the influence of various factors in the hydrometallurgical processing of waste printed circuit boards for copper and gold recovery. Waste management, 33(4), pp.935-941.

Li, J., Zeng, X., Chen, M., Ogunseitan, O.A. and Stevels, A., 2015. “Control-Alt-Delete”: rebooting solutions for the e-waste problem. Environmental science & technology, 49(12), pp.7095-7108.

Ning, C., Lin, C.S.K., Hui, D.C.W. and McKay, G., 2017. Waste printed circuit board (PCB) recycling techniques. In Chemistry and Chemical Technologies in Waste Valorization (pp. 21-56). Springer, Cham.

Park, Y.J. and Fray, D.J., 2009. Recovery of high purity precious metals from printed circuit boards. Journal of Hazardous materials, 164(2-3), pp.1152-1158.

Wang, R. and Xu, Z., 2014. Recycling of non-metallic fractions from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE): a review. Waste management, 34(8), pp.1455-1469.

Zhou, Y. and Qiu, K., 2010. A new technology for recycling materials from waste printed circuit boards. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 175(1-3), pp.823-828.

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