Electronics disposal
Electronics disposal describes the procedures and legal basis in Germany, according to which used electrical engineering and electronics devices must be taken back by the device manufacturers for disposal and disposal.
Legal basis
Used electrical engineering and electronics devices represent a significant environmental problem because of the large amount that has to be disposed of. The variety of materials used and the risks involved are difficult to assess. In 1998, around six million tonnes of electrical and electronic scrap was generated within the European Union . Of this amount, around 90% was disposed of in landfills or sent to incineration or the metal recycling chain without pre-treatment. The considerable emissions of heavy metals , phthalates and extremely toxic dioxin and furan compounds are to be regarded as very worrying ( European Commission 2000: 8).
In order to give more weight to the issue of a sustainable European waste management policy in the area of electronic residues, the European Union has initiated a discussion regarding an EC directive and its implementation. The EC directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment ( WEEE -RL) assigns product responsibility to manufacturers or "distributors" of certain product groups. The guideline was passed on January 27, 2003 after a tough struggle and was converted into national law in September 2004. At the German federal level , the Recycling and Waste Management Act (KrW- / AbfG) of September 27, 1994 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2705) aims at product stewardship. The Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (ElektroG) arose from this and from the EC directive on the disposal of old electronic devices . An important instrument in this context is what is known as the take-back or disposal obligation. In addition, it was decided on October 21, 2003 to revise VDI guideline 2343 - recycling of electronic devices. This provides comments and recommendations for action on how to deal with old electrical and electronic equipment and will in future include the aspects of basics, logistics, dismantling, processing, recycling, marketing and reuse (ReUse).
The aim is to avoid waste from electrical and electronic equipment and to promote the reuse and other forms of recycling of old equipment or product parts.
Substance removal
In most cases, old electronic devices are manually dismantled and sorted into the individual recyclable material fractions. Among other things, there are: copper, silver, gold, tantalum, aluminum and tin. The fractionation is used for targeted sorting of individual components with certain materials as ingredients. After manual fractionation, the contingents collected in this way are subjected to mechanical and chemical separation. The individual recyclables are recovered in various processes and separated according to type in order to prepare them for reuse. Non-recyclable, toxic waste materials that are also produced in this process are properly disposed of in accordance with the Recycling and Waste Management Act and thus rendered harmless.
literature
- VDI guideline 2343 - Recycling of electrical (on) ical devices, Berlin: Beuth Verlag