IEC
As the amount of electronic and electrical equipment waste
(e-waste) generated each year continues to increase, the work accomplished by
the IEC becomes ever more essential in helping manufacturers meet legal
requirements.
The Global e-waste monitor, a joint report published by the
United Nations University, the ITU, and the International Solid Waste
Association estimates that in 2017 total e-waste output reached 44,7
million tonnes (mt). Only 20% of this waste was recycled through appropriate
channels. By 2021, according to that same report, e-waste volumes are expected
to skyrocket to 52,2 mt.
E-waste refers to any refuse created by discarded electronic
devices and components as well as substances involved in their manufacture or
use. Toxic substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium and brominated flame
retardants (used in circuit boards, for instance) are employed in manufacturing
these devices and components. If they are not properly recycled when discarded,
these toxic substances can seep into the environment and may contaminate land,
water and the air. When not recycled through standardized procedures, e-waste
is buried underground in a landfill or burnt in an incinerator. Both will cause
environmental pollution.
Global and regional action
Countries around the world have recognized the need for
global action by signing different international agreements designed to
regulate e-waste. They include The Basel Convention which aims to control
trans-boundary movements of hazardous waste and its disposal and the Minamata
Convention on Mercury, which sets target dates for the phasing out of
products which may contain mercury, such as batteries, switches and compact
fluorescent lamps.
Many other agreements or declarations of intent have been
drawn up at national level. Several are based on the principle of extended
producer responsibility (EPR) which encourages producers to manage the waste
generated by their products that are out on the market.
In 2001, Japan started to adopt a new legal framework aimed
at providing safer and more effective waste management, following the three Rs
principle: reduce, reuse and recycle. Five industry-specific laws were adopted
based on EPR. They include a home appliance recycling law (HARL), which
concerns products such as air conditioners, refrigerators, television sets and
washing machines. In Japan, EPR is compatible with a shared responsibility
approach in which everyone bears the burden of waste management: citizens,
businesses, municipalities and the national government. For example under HARL,
retailers collect end-of-life products, consumers pay the expenses mandated for
recycling and transport and producers recycle the collected products. For
producers, take-back is mandatory.
The system has helped to forge a culture of recycling in
manufacturing plants. Examples include mass recycling of the rare earth metals
used in the nickel-metal batteries for the hybrid cars produced by a leading
automotive manufacturer.
In 2017, China adopted a new EPR plan which set targets for
the e-waste recycling rate to reach 50% by 2025. The plan requires producers to
adhere to environmental protection standards throughout the life of their
products, rather than just focus on the manufacturing process. It will
initially concern electronics, automobiles, lead acid batteries and packing
products.
The latest e-waste legislation of the European Union is its
2012 directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). This
was implemented by member states in 2014.
In developing countries, informal collection of e-waste is
widespread. Backyard recycling, as it is sometimes called, can cause severe
damage to the environment and human health. Crude techniques include open
burning to extract metals, acid leaching for precious metals and unprotected
melting of plastics. While a growing number of these countries are adopting
e-waste legislation, the effectiveness of enforcement and even the type of
e-waste collected and recycled varies considerably.
The need for International
Standards
Meeting the requirements of International Standards is one
of the ways to ensure electrical and electronic products comply with regional
and international regulations on e-waste. The IEC is leading the way through
the work of several IEC Technical Committees (TCs).
IEC TC 111 focuses on the overall environmental impact
of electronic and electrical products throughout their whole life cycle: from
raw material acquisition to the manufacture, distribution, use, maintenance,
re-use and recycling of their component parts. One of its key publications
is IEC 62430, a horizontal Standard which specifies the requirements
for integrating environmental aspects into the design and development processes
of electrical and electronic products. TC 111 is in close liaison with various
IEC product-based TCs which deal autonomously with the environmental aspects
relevant to their products. For instance, IEC TC 107: Process
management for avionics, prepares Standards which mitigate the use of tin and
lead in avionics.
IECQ, the IEC Quality Assessment System for Electronic
Components, launched the hazardous substances process management (HSPM) scheme
which provides third party certification for manufacturers who comply with the
relevant national regulations in each country. One of the IEC’s advisory
committees, ACEA (Advisory Committee on Environmental Aspects),
considers all the environmental protection aspects that relate to the
detrimental effect of a product, group of products or a system using electrical
technology, including electronics and telecommunications. It helps to
coordinate IEC work on environmental issues to ensure consistency and avoid
duplication in IEC International Standards. ACEA activities are focused on
issues that relate to eco-design and more specifically to substance management,
end of life treatment and environmental labelling.
Urban mining under the
spotlight
Rare earth elements are used in the production of electronic
goods for which there is a growing or continuous demand. These include mobile
phones, LED television sets, electric vehicles (EVs) and oxygen sensors.
An increasing number of companies and initiatives view
cities as a “mine” from which rare earth materials can be reclaimed. According
to the urban mining philosophy, materials are only temporarily used in
buildings, industrial facilities, mobile phones or computers. After they have
served their purpose, they can be recycled and reused in other products. Scrap
material can be recovered from existing utilities, infrastructure and landfills
to create a market in secondary raw materials worth EUR 55 bn, according to UN
estimates.
Reusing materials carries the added advantage of being less
polluting, as conventional mining for rare earths often involves high levels of
toxicity. For example, a scheme developed at the University of British
Columbia, in Canada, centres on a method of physically crushing and grinding
discarded LED bulbs to extract metals including rare earths. Researchers on the
project state that “from the LED itself, we can recover copper and small
amounts of rare earth metals including lutetium, cerium, europium and the
technology metals gallium and indium”. The researchers admit that “urban
mining, even at its most efficient, can probably only meet about a quarter of
the current demand for metals, but it can complement traditional mining and do
the environment good at the same time”. In the long run, their aim is to limit
the exposure of communities to potentially toxic materials and reach the
elusive target of zero waste.
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