Journal Article

Concepts of circular economy for sustainable management of electronic wastes: challenges and management options

Pandey, Ashutosh Kumar, Bhardwaj, Abhishek Kumar, Patel, Naveen, Dubey, Ashutosh Kumar, Pandey, Mayank, Markandeya, Kumar, Abhishek, Chaudhary, Vinod Kumar, Srivastav, Arun Lal

2023

Overview

The electronic and electrical industrial sector is exponentially growing throughout the globe, and sometimes, these wastes are being disposed of and discarded with a faster rate in comparison to the past era due to technology advancements. As the application of electronic devices is increasing due to the digitalization of the world (IT sector, medical, domestic, etc.), a heap of discarded e-waste is also being generated. Per-capita e-waste generation is very high in developed countries as compared to developing countries. Expansion of the global population and advancement of technologies are mainly responsible to increase the e-waste volume in our surroundings. E-waste is responsible for environmental threats as it may contain dangerous and toxic substances like metals which may have harmful effects on the biodiversity and environment. Furthermore, the life span and types of e-waste determine their harmful effects on nature, and unscientific practices of their disposal may elevate the level of threats as observed in most developing countries like India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and China. In the present review paper, many possible approaches have been discussed for effective e-waste management, such as recycling, recovery of precious metals, adopting the concepts of circular economy, formulating relevant policies, and use of advance computational techniques. On the other hand, it may also provide potential secondary resources valuable/critical materials whose primary sources are at significant supply risk. Furthermore, the use of machine learning approaches can also be useful in the monitoring and treatment/processing of e-wastes. Highlights In 2019, ~ 53.6 million tons of e-wastes generated worldwide. Discarded e-wastes may be hazardous in nature due to presence of heavy metal compositions. Precious metals like gold, silver, and copper can also be procured from e-wastes. Advance tools like artificial intelligence/machine learning can be useful in the management of e-wastes. Graphical abstract

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Aquatic Pollution / Artificial Intelligence / Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution / Biodiversity / China / Circular economy / copper / Developed countries / Developing countries / Digitization / Earth and Environmental Science / Ecotoxicology / Electronic devices / Electronic equipment / Electronic waste / Electronic Waste - analysis / electronic wastes / Electronics / Environment / Environmental Chemistry / Environmental Health / Environmental impact / Environmental risk / Environmental science / gold / Hazardous wastes / Heavy metals / Household wastes / India / LDCs / Learning algorithms / Life span / longevity / Machine learning / Materials recovery / Metals, Heavy / Nigeria / Noble metals / Pakistan / Precious metals / Recycling - methods / Review / Review Article / risk / Silver / Sustainability management / Toxic substances / toxicity / Waste management / Waste Management - methods / Waste Water Technology / Water Management / Water Pollution Control