Knowra Electronic waste Electronic waste Electronic waste is discarded electrical and electronic equipment and its components. It includes products collected for reuse, recycling, recovery, or disposal.
Informal recycling : Materials are recovered from discarded products through work outside formal regulatory and waste-management systems. Open burning and crude dismantling expose workers and communities to hazardous substances.
Waste electrical and electronic equipment directive : The European Union directive sets rules for collecting, treating, recovering, and recycling electrical and electronic equipment waste. It establishes producer and collection obligations across the device life cycle.
Refurbishment : Refurbishment restores a used product to functional condition, often through inspection, repair, and replacement of parts. Working electronics can be prepared for another user instead of being dismantled.
Reuse : Reuse is the continued use of a product or component without converting it into raw material. It retains an electronic device’s function, unlike recycling, which processes its materials.
Lead poisoning : Lead poisoning is illness caused by lead entering the body, often through ingestion or inhalation. Lead in old electronics can contaminate dust and soil during unsafe dismantling.
Extended producer responsibility : Extended producer responsibility makes producers responsible for a product’s post-consumer collection, recycling, or disposal. It shifts some electronic-waste costs from municipalities and households to manufacturers.
Materials recovery : Materials recovery extracts usable substances from waste for return to manufacturing or other productive uses. It recovers metals and other materials from devices that cannot be reused.
Landfill : A landfill is an engineered site where waste is deposited and managed on or in the ground. Landfilling disposes of electronic waste rather than recovering its components or materials.
Dioxins : Dioxins are a group of persistent toxic chemicals formed in some industrial and combustion processes. Burning insulated wires can release dioxins into air and surrounding communities.
Right to repair : Right to repair is the policy and consumer movement seeking access to parts, tools, and information needed to fix products. Repair can extend device lifetimes and delay entry into the waste stream.
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