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Home / News / Science News / Setting up microfactories to recycle e-waste
  • Science

    Setting up microfactories to recycle e-waste

    Ramya Patelkhana
    Written by
    Ramya Patelkhana
    Mail
    Last updated on Nov 20, 2016, 06:35 pm
    Setting up microfactories to recycle e-waste
    Credits:
  • Several studies revealed old cellphones, tablets, computers and other electronic waste could be converted into "gold mines".

    Veena Sahajwalla, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research & Technology at the University of New South Wales, explained how we could make use of e-waste.

    Her solution involves microfactory: a recycling and reclamation system, small and efficient enough to be set up across the globe.

  • In this article
    Veena Sahajwalla's statement Amounts of valuable materials found in each phone are small Pre-programmed automated drones would pick circuit boards from e-waste Microrecycling, the new scientific paradigm Microfactories create jobs and local resources Microfactories make extracting rare earth elements from e-waste easy
  • Quote

    Veena Sahajwalla's statement

  • "If everyone has to do it (converting e-waste into valuable materials), we can't think about large smelters - we need to see this as decentralized and distributed manufacturing, where the resource and inputs are things that we all hold in our hands."

  • E-waste

    Amounts of valuable materials found in each phone are small

    Amounts of valuable materials found in each phone are small
    Credits:
  • Microfactories enable local recycling of electronic waste and could be apt into manufacturing systems using reclaimed resources.

    E-waste consists of metals like iron, silver, gold, copper, platinum, palladium, rare earth elements, glass, and plastic.

    Amounts found in each phone are small - 0.034 gm of gold - but they quickly add up considering that over 42 million tonnes of e-waste was generated in 2014.

  • Microfactories

    Pre-programmed automated drones would pick circuit boards from e-waste

    Pre-programmed automated drones would pick circuit boards from e-waste
  • Reportedly, most of the e-waste is shipped around the world for processing in places like Guiyi in Southeastern China - one of the most polluted places in the world.

    According to Sahajwalla's vision of the microfactories, pre-programmed automated drones would pick out circuit boards or other such items from e-waste.

    The boards are then put into a small furnace to extract valuable materials.

  • Quote

    Microrecycling, the new scientific paradigm

  • Veena Sahajwalla said, "Microrecycling is the new scientific paradigm. Conventional recycling works for the macro-scale but we need to look at the micro-scale, for example where you have mixtures of copper and nickel and zinc together."

  • Valuable resources

    Microfactories create jobs and local resources

    Microfactories create jobs and local resources
  • Sahajwalla said microfactories create jobs and local resources; they create entirely new small-scale industries by using the resource outputs.

    They also give existing small businesses the chance to carve new niches.

    She said small-to-medium enterprises, hungry for innovative solutions, have given good feedback.

    Embedded resources from e-waste are expected to be worth $52 billion; extracting them from the earth is harder compared to e-waste.

  • Easy Approach

    Microfactories make extracting rare earth elements from e-waste easy

    Microfactories make extracting rare earth elements from e-waste easy
  • Microfactories make extracting rare earth elements from e-waste easy compared to previous approaches.

    In e-waste materials like hard-drives, rare earth elements are combined with iron, which aren't easily recyclable.

    Sahajwalla wants to make the energy inputs into the microfactories as sustainable as possible.

    Avoiding the energy-intensive transportation of waste in the world, she sees the microfactories as the embodiment of decentralized and distributed marketing.

  • New South Wales
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