Management and recycling of electronic waste

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is one of the largest growing waste streams globally. Hence, for a sustainable environment and the economic recovery of valuable material for reuse, the efficient recycling of electronic scrap has been rendered indispensable, and must still be regarded as a major challenge for today's society. In contrast to the well-established recycling of metallic scrap, it is much more complicated to recycle electronics products which have reached the end of their life as they contain many different types of material types integrated into each other. As illustrated primarily for the recycling of mobile phones, the efficient recycling of WEEE is not only a challenge for the recycling industry; it is also often a question of as-yet insufficient collection infrastructures and poor collection efficiencies, and a considerable lack of the consumer's awareness for the potential of recycling electronics for the benefit of the environment, as well as for savings in energy and raw materials. (C) 2012 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.