GREEN ELECTRONICS

GREEN ELECTRONICS BASIC AIM Green Electronics focuses on elimination of harmful chemicals, elements and components, recycling of electronic products at end of life.

INTRODUCTION Electronics has made life easier for us. Certain materials in the electronic goods and products are toxic and harmful to the nature and the humans especially. Green Electronics focuses on the elimination of these harmful and toxic chemicals and elements from the products and, recycling the electronic items at the end of their life. Among the harmful chemicals are – Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Polybrominated Diphenyls Ethers (PBDE). Many Parliaments of the different countries has passed the legislation to restrict the use of Lead and other harmful materials for the manufacture of electronic products.

SUBSTITUTE FOR LEAD??? 90% of all Electronic goods and products are made up of LEAD. Efforts are being made to find feasible and cost-effective ways for producing lead-free products . Many of these electronic components are highly toxic. Toxic materials and emissions contaminate the air and water resources. Semiconductors are the basis of all the electronic components and lead is the glue that binds all the semiconductor devices to make them work efficiently. Lead alloy solders help to transfer data from your computer. Earlier, lead was even used in paints, ceramic glazes and plumbing solders. But now its been discarded due to its poisoning effects. FACT : One Billion Pounds of lead are contained in obsolete computers in the US alone. IMPORTANT CONCLUSION :This means we have to recycle computers as fast as we make them and too efficiency. So at the end of this session it can be inferred that tough Lead is an important element for the electronic industry, but its replacement is quite difficult and a tedious task for researchers and engineers.

Why LEAD is used in Electronic Components??? Points to why LEAD is used in Electronic Components and Devices : To Meet Performance Requirement in a cost efficient manner. Lead can be easily Remoulded and Refined. Lead has Highest Recycling Rate of all the industrial metals in the world. Natural Properties : Low Melting Point High Strength Ductility Fatigue Resistance High Thermal Cycling Joint Integrity Corrosion Resistant Malleability Long Life Lead is essential to the production of many highly technical products, from foetal monitors to fibre optics. It plays a vital role in space exploration, energy conservation and telecommunications.

E-Toxic components in Computers The E-Toxic components in Computers include : Computer Circuit boards containing heavy metals like Lead and Cadmium. Computer batteries containing Cadmium. Cathode Ray Tubes with lead oxide and barium. Brominated flame-retardants used on PCBs, cables and plastic casing. Poly--vinyl chloride (PVC) coated copper cables and plastic computer casings that release highly toxic dioxins and furans when burnt to recover valuable metals. Mercury switches. Mercury in flat screens. Polychlorinated biphenyls present in older capacitors and transformers.

Disposal of E-Waste E-Waste can be disposed in three ways : Incineration Land filling Recycling

INCINERATION Incineration basically entails to destroying the e-waste including computers and other electronic devices and components by burning. Incineration is particularly dangerous because of the variety of different substances found together in electro scrap. The burning of these components results into high concentrations of metals, including heavy metals, in the slag, fly ash, flue gas and filter cake. 90% of cadmium results into fly ash and 70% of mercury results into filter cake. Some of the electro scrap can also be sent to cement kilns for use as an alternative to fuel.

LAND FILLING Landfilling involves disposing the e--waste by burning it, especially as a method of filling in and reclaiming excavated pits. Major Disadvantage: Even the best ‘state-of-the-art’ landfills don’t remain completely tight throughout their lifetimes and a certain amount of chemical and metal leaching does occur. Mercury leaches when certain electronic devices, such as circuit breakers, are destroyed. The same is true for PCBs from condensers. When brominated flame--retarded plastic or cadmium retarded plastic or cadmium--containing plastics containing plastics are landfilled, both PBDE and cadmium may leach into the soil and groundwater. Even significant amount of lead ions are dissolved from broken lead containing glass, such as the cone glass of cathode ray tubes, when mixed with acid waters.

RECYCLING Of the three discussed, Recycling is by far the best method. It simply removes the hazards into secondary products that eventually have to be disposed of. Unless he goal is to redesign the product to use non-hazardous materials, such recycling is a false solution. Hazardous emissions to the air also result from the recycling of e-waste containing heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium. Another problem with heavy metals and halogenated substances in untreated waste occurs during the shredding process. Since most waste is shredded without proper disassembly, hazardous substances, such as PCBs contained in capacitors into the recovered metals and the shredder waste.

Consequences of using Lead-Free Solders Lead is said to have cause serious chronic damage. From health point of view, it is a risk using lead in tin solders for human exposure. The humans are most prone to lead via the Environment.

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