A global glance on waste electrical and electronic equipments (WEEEs)

Waste electrical electronic equipment (WEEE)’s or electronic waste (also called E-waste) consists of disposed-off domestic and commercial electronic appliances as a whole or their components. The definition of E-waste defined by various agencies and nations vary globally. According to the EU WEEE Directive, E-waste is electrical or electronic equipment that is unwanted including all components, subassemblies, and consumables, which are part of the discarded product. A generic composition for E-waste is 30% organics (e.g., polymers, flame retardants, and glass fibers), 30% ceramics (e.g., silica, mica, alumina), and 40% inorganics (e.g., ferrous and nonferrous metals). Typically, the inorganic materials present in E-waste consist of base metals (e.g., aluminum, iron, copper), noble metals (e.g., silver, gold, palladium), heavy metals (e.g., cadmium, nickel, chromium, zinc, mercury), and rare earth metals (e.g., gallium, tantalum, platinum groups). The rapid technological developments are reducing the lifespan of electronic instruments, and hence a standardized purpose for effective E-waste management is now necessary. This chapter introduces the definition and glance of global E-waste.