Because of potential harmful impact of e waste dumped in land fills on environment, many western countries have banned usage of land fills. Advancement of media and growing awareness of e waste amongst general public has also played a major part in many countries and prompted taking of firm step towards solving this menace. Most of the advanced countries have also taken steps towards holding manufacturers responsible for e waste disposal. In fact, one can find relevant legislations enacted for enforcement of such stringent steps by western countries. However, developing countries are found wanting in this regard. In reality, underdeveloped countries have become a dumping ground for e waste materials.
European countries have taken systematic steps towards handling disposal and recycling of e waste. There are several plants established for this particular purpose where large amount of electronic waste is recycled using best of technology. A new trend in recycling is reuse of these waste contents. Apart from these new technologies of screening, reuse and granulating, refining and conditioning are also important processes in recycling.
Mostly employed in traditional e waste disposal method, this process refers to converting all the e-waste fractions into reusable components. Secondary raw materials are also extracted from these waste contents. Manual dismantling signifies process of electronic items and tools being dismantled in an orderly sequence. Once dismantling is done, manual sorting of different e waste is completed in separate categories like metals, batteries, printed wiring boards, plastics, woods, cathode ray tubes, condensers, LCDs and cables etc. These different elements are then processed through refining and conditioning step.
The final stage is of final disposal. Here, major part of hard waste is deposited in a landfill with proper air and water emission systems in place. In most of the under developed and developing countries, one can find many waste pickers picking these waste contents. These picked waste materials are further recycled.