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Hazardous & non-hazardous substances in WEEE
This part of the module will go over some examples of both hazardous & non-hazardous substances in WEEE and how dangerous they can be.
Hazardous substances
in WEEE
Examples of hazardous substances
- Heavy metals: Lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, tin and antimony.
- Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
- Chemical substances that persist and accumulate in the environment, causing harm to the environment and human health.
- E.g. Brominated fire retardants (contained in plastic parts of e-waste).
- Unintentional Persistent Organic Pollutant (UPOPs).
- Chemical polluting substances, which are released to the air through. uncontrolled open burning of cables e.g:
Non-hazardous substances
in WEEE
Various groups of valuable metals:
- Precious metals
- Platinum group metals
- Base metals
- Metals of concern
- Scarce metals
Additional Information:
- Handling is safe, if workers are trained.
- WEEE has highly valuable materials for secondary market:
- Printed Circuit Board can contain up to 1.600 mg/Kg gold (0,16%), while some ore bodies only contain up to 18 mg/Kg gold (0,0018%).
- The estimated value of secondary resources in e-waste worldwide was estimated to be 55 billion euros in 2016.
| Material | Group | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | Precious metals (PMs) | Primarily in all boards as pure metal or plating of connectors |
| Silver | Precious metals (PMs) | Primarily in all boards |
| Platinum | Platinum group metals (PGMs) | Primarily in all boards |
| Copper | Base metals (BMs) | Copper wire, printed wire board tracks, component leads. |
| Aluminium | Base metals (BMs) | Used in heat sink and connectors. |
| Palladium | Scarce elements (SEs) | Bipolar junction transistors |
| Iron | Ferrous metals | Steel chassis, cases and fixings |
| Lithium | Metals of concern (MCs) | Lithium ion batteries |
| Silicon | – | Glass, transistors, ICs, printed wire boards |
Example of components contained in mobile phones:
EEE contain many different elements of the periodic table. This section shows how many different elements can be found just in a mobile phone.