<p><i>Over 40 million tons of electronic devices (e.g., computers, laptops, notebooks, and cell phones) became obsolete in 2020, and this estimate is expected to grow exponentially, mainly due to the decreasing lifespan of electronics. Most of the electronics replaced end up in municipal landfills. Electronic waste (e-waste) has raised concerns because many components in these products are not biodegradable and are toxic. Some of the toxic materials and chemicals include rare earth elements (REEs), which are currently experiencing supply constraints. This study focuses on generated e-wastes from households due to the high amount of these wastes. Technologies for e-waste mining must be tailored to household needs rather than large-scale industrial processes. The use of portable e-waste recovery systems may produce win-win outcomes where industry, households, and regulatory bodies could benefit, and this will incentivize e-waste mining for all stakeholders. This study investigates the sustainability benefits of employing a portable e-waste recycling and REEs recovery, using techno-economic and life cycle assessment methods. The results indicate that the proposed approach in this study mitigates environmental impacts when maleic acid is used as one of the key ingredients in recovering and separating REEs and other metals. It is concluded that when adopted globally, this technology can significantly address the e-waste challenge while improving the availability of REEs for high-tech applications.</i></p>

Environmental and Economic Assessment of a Portable E-Waste Recycling and Rare Earth Elements Recovery Process

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IDETC-CIE/IDETC-CIE2021/volume/85369

ASME 2021 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE2021)

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.