ABSTRACT Electronic products have made our life easy by saving time and being efficient.

Now it has become difficult for us to function without electronic equipments. Most of our household work is done by using electronic appliances. Communication systems have revolutionalised by way of mobile phones. Entertainment products like television and music system have added enjoyment to our life. Electronic products, which were once thought to be luxury, have presently become a need. From villages to cities, all of them have using electronic products either in the form of radio or a high tech computer. There are places in India where people do not have access to electricity but they still have electronic products operated with battery. Increase in the use of electronic products have resulted in increase in production of these products and hence created a new waste, which is termed as Electronic waste or Ewaste.The E-Waste is one of the fastest growing environmental problems of the world, as there is a lack of awareness among people about its treatment and serious impacts. E-waste needs to be treated as a hazardous waste This paper is about finding a solution for disposal of this EWASTE.

WHAT IS A E-WASTE ? E-waste is a popular, informal name for electronic products coming to the end of their useful life. As per the Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2003, e-waste can be defined as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment including all components, sub assemblies and their fractions except batteries falling under these rules. HAZARDS ASSOCIATED WITH E-WASTE : E-waste contains significant quantities of toxic metals and chemicals. If these are left untreated and disposed off in landfills or not recycled by using proper methods of recycling, they leach into the surrounding soil, water and the atmosphere, and causes adverse effects on human health and environment. Many elements of this waste contain poisonous substances such as lead, tin, mercury, cadmium and barium, which cause severe diseases like cancer, birth defects, neurological and respiratory disorders. Some of the toxic substances of e-waste and their impact are listed below

e-waste Components

Process

Cathode ray Breaking and removal tubes (CRTs) of copper yoke and dumping. Printed circuit Disordering and boards removing computer chips.

Potential Environmental Hazard Silicosis. Lead, Barium and other heavy metals Inhalation or contact with phosphor leaching into groundwater, release of containing cadmium or other metals. toxic phosphor. Tin and lead Air emission of Inhalation. Same substances. Potential Occupational Hazard Possible brominated dioxin, beryllium, cadmium, mercury Inhalation. Toxicity to workers and nearby residents from tin, lead, brominated dioxin, beryllium, cadmium and mercury inhalation. Respiratory irritation.

Dismantled Open burning of waste printed circuit boards to remove board inside metals. processing.

Chips and other gold plated Components.

Chemical stripping using nitric and hydrochloric acid along river banks

Acid contact with eyes, skin may result in permanent injury. Inhalation of mists and fumes of acids, chlorine and sulphur dioxide gases can cause respiratory irritation to severe effects including pulmonary edema, circulatory failure and death.

Tin and lead Contamination of immediate Environment including surface and ground waters. Brominated Dioxins, beryllium, cadmium and Mercury emissions. Hydrocarbons, heavy metals, brominated substances, etc., discharged directly into river and banks. Acidifies the river destroying fish and flora.

Plastics from Computer and peripherals e.g. printers keyboards, etc. Shredding and Probable hydrocarbon, low Brominated dioxin and temperature heavy metal exposure. melting to be reutilized in poor grade plastics. Miscellaneous Open burning to computer parts recover steel and other encased in metals. rubber or plastic e.g. steel rollers Secondary Furnace recovers steel or copper steel or copper and precious from waste including metal organics smelting

Emissions of Brominated dioxins and heavy metals and hydrocarbons.

Brominated and chlorinated dioxin, polycyclic aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) are carcinogenic to workers living in the burning works area.

Hydrocarbon ashes including PAHs discharged to air, water and soil.

Hydrocarbon including PAHs and potential Hydrocarbon dioxin exposure. ashes including PAHs discharged to air, water and soil. Exposure to dioxins and heavy metals. Emission of dioxins and heavy metals.

OBJECTIVE OF E-WASTE MANAGEMENT Conserves natural resources. Recycling recovers valuable materials from old electronics that can be used to make new products. As a result, we save energy, reduce pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and save resources by extracting fewer raw materials from the earth. Protects your surroundings. Safe recycling of outdated electronics promotes sound management of toxic chemicals such as lead and mercury. Helps others. Donating your used electronics benefits your community by passing on readyto-use or refurbished equipment to those who need it. Create Jobs. eCycling creates jobs for professional recyclers and refurbishers and creates new markets for the valuable components that are dismantled. Saves landfill space. E-waste is a growing waste stream. By recycling these items, landfill space is conserved.

E-WASTE TREATMENT & DISPOSAL METHODS Land filling: It is one of the most widely used methods for disposal of e-waste. In landfilling, trenches are made on the flat surfaces. Soil is excavated from the trenches and waste material is buried in it, which is covered by a thick layer of soil. Modern techniques like secure landfill are provided with some facilities like, impervious liner made up of plastic or clay, leachate collection basin that collects and transfer the leachate to wastewater treatment plant. The degradation processes in landfills are very complicated and run over a wide time span. The environmental risks from landfilling of e-waste cannot be neglected because the conditions in a landfill site are different from a native soil, particularly concerning the leaching behavior of metals. Mercury, cadmium and lead are the most toxic leachates. Lead has been found to leach from broken lead-containing glass, such as the cone glass of cathode ray tubes from TVs and monitors. Cadmium also leaches into soil and ground water. In addition, it is known that cadmium and mercury are emitted in diffuse form or via the landfill gas combustion plant. Landfills are also prone to uncontrolled fires, which can

release toxic fumes. Therefore, landfilling does not appear to be an environmentally sound treatment method for substances, which are volatile and not biologically degradable (Cd, Hg,), persistent (Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls) or with unknown behaviour in a landfill site (brominated flame retardants). Incineration: It is a controlled and complete combustion process, in which the waste material is burned in specially designed incinerators at a high temperature (900-1000oC). Advantage of incineration of ewaste is the reduction of waste volume and the Utilization of the energy content of combustible materials. Some plants remove iron from the slag for recycling. By incineration some environmentally hazardous organic substances are converted into less hazardous compounds. Disadvantage of incineration are the emission to air of substances escaping flue gas cleaning and the large amount of residues from gas cleaning and combustion. e-waste incineration plants contribute significantly to the annual emissions of cadmium and mercury. In addition, heavy metals not emitted into the atmosphere are transferred to slag and exhaust gas residues and can reenter the environment on disposal.

Therefore, e-waste incineration will increase these emissions, if no reduction measures like removal of heavy metals are taken. Recycling of e-waste: Monitors & CRT, keyboards, laptops, modems, telephone boards, hard drives, floppy drives, Compact disks, mobiles, fax machines, printers, CPUs, memory chips, connecting wires & cables can be recycled. Recycling involves dismantling i.e. removal of different parts of ewaste containing dangerous substances like PCB, Hg, separation of plastic, removal of CRT, segregation of ferrous and non-ferrous metals and printed circuit boards. Recyclers use strong acids to remove precious metals such as copper, lead, gold. The value of recycling from the element could be much higher if appropriate technologies is used. The recyclers working in poorly ventilated enclosed areas without mask and technical expertise results in exposure to dangerous and slow poisoning chemicals. The existing dumping grounds in India are full and overflowing beyond capacity and it is difficult to get new dumping sites due to scarcity of land. Therefore recycling is the best possible option for the management of ewaste.

Re-use: It constitutes direct second hand use or use after slight modifications to the original functioning equipment. It is commonly used for electronic equipments like computers, cell phones etc. Inkjet cartridge is also used after refilling. This method also reduces the volume of e-waste generation. We can use above mentioned methods for treatment and disposal of e-waste. The better option is to avoid its generation. To achieve this, buy back of old electronic equipments shall be made mandatory. Large companies should purchase the used equipments back from the customers and ensure proper treatment and disposal of e-waste by authorized processes. This can considerably reduce the volume of e- waste generation. CONCLUSION: Promote recycling units to ease process and to encourage generators to have proper e-waste disposal. Impart training to generators on e-waste handling can be given to public. Awareness program on recycling can be conducted in our neighbor cites

References 1. State Of Environment Report for Maharashtra 2007, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. 2. Perspectives of Electronic Waste Management Presentation by: Dr.D.B.Boralkar Member Secretary, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board September 22, 2005. 3. Report on Assessment of Electronic Wastes in Mumbai-Pune Area, MPCB (2007), http://mpcb.mah.nic.in 4. http://www.cpcb.nic.in/oldw ebsite/Electronic %20Waste/Final-EwasteDocuments/Executive_Sum mary.pdf 5. http://www.cpcb.nic.in/oldw ebsite/Electronic %20Waste/Final-EwasteDocuments/full-text.pdf 6. http://mpcb.gov.in/ewaste/p df/ewaste1.pdf 7. http://www.eonecon.org/blo g/resources-links/draftguidelines-forenvironmentally-soundmanagement-of-e-waste/1e-waste-indian-scenariothe-need-for-

environmentally-soundmanagement/ 8. http://www.cpcbenvis.nic.in/ newsletter/hwastemanagjun 1998/jun98ii.htm 9. http://www.cpcb.nic.in/e_W aste.php 10.http://www.expressindia.co m/latest-news/fresh-rulesfor-managing- electronicwaste/397470/