Bridging the Gaps: An E waste management and recycling assessment of material recycling facilities in Selangor and Penang

Transcription

1 Bridging the Gaps: An E waste management and recycling assessment of material recycling facilities in Selangor and Penang John Babington C, Chamhuri Siwar, Ahmad Fariz M, Rawshan Ara B Institute for Environment and Development, Universitit KebangsaanMalaysia. john_babington@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The uses of electronic and electrical devices have relatively increased with rapid increases in economic and technological development over some period of time in Malaysia. There is needs for Malaysia to apply 3R principles of reduce, reuse and recycle for efficient control and management of material circle of electronic and electrical equipments (EEE). This paper tends to highlight, the e waste recycling practice within the material recovery facilities (MRF) studied in Selangor and Penang, the guidelines overseeing the e waste recycling activities, stakeholders and future plans for e waste management in Malaysia. A total of 25 questionnaires were sent to MRF through , fax and personal delivery and a questionnaire with personal discussion held with the department of environment (DOE) Malaysia. The result shows that e waste recycling in Malaysia is still at infancy as there are no sophisticated technologies to carry out complete recycling process in a MRF, lack of specific regulation on e waste, poor e waste collection from households at the same time help us to understand various activities going on within the MRF studied. The findings from this study will help the waste management authorities in bridging the gaps that militate against proper e waste management in Malaysia. Keywords: Bridging gaps, e waste, management; recycling, assessment, Malaysia. 1. Introduction If the future really mattered to us, we would not be talking about waste management. We would be talking about resource management. Nature makes no waste. We make waste; nature makes soil. One creatures waste is another creature s nutrient. Nature recycles everything; or rather it did until we started to put our synthetic materials into the environment (Paul H Connett 1991). In recent time, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) or electronic waste (e waste) generation, trans boundary movement and disposal are becoming issues of concern to solid waste management professionals, environmentalists, international agencies and governments around the world (Musson et al., 2000; Cui and Forssberg, 2003). Mundada et al.(2004) narrated further that consumer electronic equipments have become a very important part of human life because of advances in the electronic industry and lifestyles over the last three decades as well as the increasing important of information technology. This has led to an increase in the use of electronic and electrical products which have now become important part of human live. Due to their hazardous material contents, WEEE may cause environmental problems during the waste management phase if it is not properly pretrea ted. Used electronics contain significant amounts of hazardous materials, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and polychlorinated biphenyls. Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) are one of the largest sources of lead in municipal solid waste (Jung and Bartel, 1998). As a result, many 383

2 countries have drafted legislation to improve the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of such wastes in order to reduce disposal (Nnorom and Osibanjo 2007). On the other hand, used electronics contain high value materials such as gold, palladium, copper, and plastics. Furthermore, several obsolete electronic devices, which are clean and functional, can be reused if identified and sorted out by experts. (Hai Yong and Julie 2005). In an effort to encourage the recycling of e waste in United State of America, some states like Massachusetts and California have ban the disposal and incineration of CRTs in landfills which began in 200 and 2001 respectively ( USEPA, 2000; DTSC, 2001). Maine and Minnesota also enforced the ban of CRT disposal (Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, 2004) This paper tends to highlight, the e waste recycling practice within the material recovery facilities (MRF) studied in Selangor and Penang, the guidelines overseeing the e waste recycling activities, stakeholders and future plans for e waste management, as well as help the authorities bridge the gaps that militate against proper e waste management in Selangor and Penang. 1.1 The flow of e waste in Malaysia Each year millions of tons of used electronic products are being discarded to form electronic waste world over, due to the upsurge of electronic and manufacturing and life span of such products (Wu et al. 2007). This situation has being found to affect seriously majority of the developing countries including Malaysia (John et al. 2009). Study has shown a cumulative number of million units of WEEE in the seven categories will have been generated in Malaysia by the year 2008, while the year 2008 alone, it has been estimated to generate a total of 13.3 million units of WEE will be discarded. The study also projected a total of million units of WEE to be generated by the year (E waste Inventory Malaysia 2007). Looking at the, number of e waste generation, complexity, uncertainty and diversity of the E waste problem, a rigorous multidisciplinary approach is necessary to develop and implement systems that effectively utilize and recycle these products. Table1: The number of DOE licensed e waste contractors according to states in Malaysia No State Partial Recyclers 1 Johor Melaka Negeri Sembilan Selangor Perak 2 6 Penang Kedah 16 1 Full Recyclers 384

3 8 Sarawak 5 9 Kuala Lumpur 4 Total Source: The DOE first listed e waste contractors in Malaysia 2008, abducted from the E waste Inventory study in Malaysia report. The department of environment (DOE) Malaysia has placed 309 recycle bins to collect used hand phones and its accessories in various locations such as supermarkets, universities, government offices etc, but majority of the residence are yet to comply due to limited awareness. Subsequently, DOE have encouraged the establishment of e waste recycling facilities by private sector and since then 141 recycling facilities have been licensed by DOE. The need for e waste recyclers at different MRF and DOE to champion a proper e waste management cannot be over emphasized. Household /Business Entities and Institutions Take back Program EEE and Component Manufacturers Repair DOE Licensed E waste Collectors Scrap Collectors Solid Waste Concessionaires DOE Licensed E waste Dismantlers Scrap Recyclers Unknown DOE Licensed E waste Processors Components Manufacturers Scheduled Waste Facilities 2. Methodology Figure1: Flow of WEEE from Generation to Disposal Source: E waste Inventory study in Malaysia report This study was conducted through a survey questionnaire among recyclers and the principal assistant director of the department of environment (DOE) Malaysia. The survey was accompanied with a one on one discussion and a visit to two material recovery facilities in 385

4 Selangor and one Penang State of Malaysia. The survey started in January 2010 and was concluded in July A total of 23 questionnaires were sent to different DOE licensed recyclers in Selangor and 2 questionnaires to Pinang State of Malaysia, making a total of 25 questionnaires. Of the 25 questionnaire distributed through fax, s, hand submission and a follow up phone calls, only 3 were returned within the space of seven months. The data s were captured and discussed. 3. Results and Discussion 3.1 E waste Collection Targets at Material Recovery Facilities in Malaysia In Malaysia e waste recyclers are classified into full and partial. Full recyclers are those material recovery facilities with the capacity to recycles all part of electronic equipment they receive, while Partial recyclers are those with limited capability to recycle all part of e waste they receive, that is to say that there activities are centered on refurbishment for re use purpose, although they also assist in dismantling and separation before sending to full recyclers. Of the three returned questionnaires one is from the full material recovery facility (MRF) in Penang while two are from partial recovery facilities in Selangor. The data of the survey were analysed to determine the e waste recycling practice within the material recovery facilities (MRF) and issues that could help to enhance a better e waste recycling practice in both areas and could also be used by DOE Malaysia. Table 2 shows that of all the e waste recycled by the full MRF 90% is collected from business offices/ commercial organizations, 5% from Schools/ Universities, 5% from households and no e waste is collected from government organizations and scavengers, while at the partial MRF 60% collected from business offices/ commercial organizations, 5% from Schools/ Universities, 5% from households 20% from government organizations and 10% from scavengers respectively. Table 2: E waste collection target from MRF in Selangor and Penang Approximate Percentages (%) Locations Full Recycler Partial Recycler Business offices/ Commercial organization Schools/ Universities 5 5 Households 5 5 Government organizations 20 Scavengers 10 Total E waste handling at a Material Recovery Facilities The survey was conducted to understand the level of participation of individual MRF and what they specifically do with e waste after collection. The percentage as use in the table 3 bellow is based on individual category. At the full recovery facility 80% of collected items are sent to the MRF for recycling, 10% of the total CRT collected only is sent to a CRT recycling plant, 100% of all the collected e waste is sorted and 100% of all collections are 386

5 dismantled and separated, this means that all collected items must be sorted, dismantled and separated before different materials are recovered leaving unrecovered materials for landfill. At partial recovery facility 64% of all collections are sent others MRF, 40% for refurbishment, 1% only of all CRT collections are sent to CRT recovery facility, 100% tested, and only 15% are dismantled and separated. In a nutshell the partial recovery facilities collects the items and pass them through a 100%, after which the re usable will be refurbished and sold as second hand goods, while the remaining items are sold to a full material recovery facility with little or no dismantling as the case maybe according the present study. Table3: E waste handling at a Material Recovery Facilities in Selangor and Penang Approximate Percentages (%) Category Full Recycler Partial Recycler Send to own MRF 80 Send to others MRF 64 Send for refurbishment 40 Send to landfill CRT recycling 10 1 Sorting 100 Testing 100 Dismantling/ Separation Export 3.3 Household and Commercial Units of E waste Recycled from Selected Equipments This study tends to examine the percentage of recycled e waste from household and commercial units amongst the MRF studied. The listed items in Table 4 were examined and the result shows that only 10% of recycled computers came from household for a full recovery facility, 5% printers, others like copiers, projectors and telecommunications are not included in there recycling, while at the partial recovery facility none of the listed items in the table are collected and recycled from the household. At the full recovery facility 90% of the recycled computers are commercial units, 95% printers, 100% copiers, 100% projectors, and 100% telecommunications, while at the partial recovery facility 90% computers, 5% printers, 5% copiers and none of projectors and telecommunications are recycled according to the respondents. This indicates that the majority of the recycled e waste from the result in table 4 is from the commercial organization like; government agencies, business offices, schools/ universities etc. while a smaller amount are from the household. This is an indication that a lot of e waste is lying uncollected at household level as the respondents attributed the poor collection to high cost and low awareness on e waste among the people at the municipal level. 387

6 Table 4: Household and Commercial Units of E waste Recycled Types Percentage Household Units Percentage Commercial Units Full Recovery Facility Partial Recovery Facility Full Recovery Facility Partial Recovery Facility Computers Printers Copiers Projectors 100 Telecommun ications Reasons for E waste Rejection in the Material Recovery Facilities Table 5: Conditions for e waste rejection on a MRF Conditions for E waste Rejection on Site No Full Recovery Facility Partial Recovery Facility 1 Collection containing refrigerators or Collection containing refrigerators refrigerant? 2 Collection containing washing machines Collection containing washing machines 3 Collection containing oven Collection containing broken LCD screen 4 Collection containing toasters Collection containing movie film 5 Collection containing electric kettles Collection containing Ink cartridge and toners 6 Collection containing batteries Collection containing toasters (liquid/dry cells) 7 Ink cartridge, toners Collection containing oven 8 Illegally dumped e waste In an effort to gain full understanding of the activities at the MRF s in this study, we tend to know if e waste could be resisted or stopped from entering into a MRF if it does not meet certain conditions or standards. The respondents indicated that there are certain conditions that could lead to the rejection of e waste from entering into the MRF, and some of the conditions are shown in Table 5. The respondents further explain reasons for the conditions that contribute to the rejection of e waste in a MRF as stated in the Table 5. Some of the reasons which includes; inefficient technology which means that the MRFs still lack good technology used in the recycling of 388

7 certain WEEEs such as; refrigerators, washing machines, oven, toasters, electric kettles, batteries, Ink cartridge/toners, broken LCDs and movie films and this is as a result of high cost of such technologies. Another reason been that there is less monetary value attached to the material to be recovered from the WEEEs mentioned in the Table 5 compared to the value attached to computers as they contain valuable materials like; gold, copper, aluminum etc. For instance the gold content of a desktop computer is about % and yet 1 metric ton of electronic scrap of PC contains more gold than that of 17 tons of gold ore (Li et al. 2004). This implies that e waste can be regarded as a high grade 'ore' (Nnorom & Osibanjo 2007) In 1998, the amount of gold recovered from e waste in the United States was equivalent to that from more than 2 million metric tons of gold ore (Li et al. 2004). Hula et al. (2003) observed that product structure, materials, location of recycling facilities, applicable regulations, geography, and cultural context have a major impact on the economics and environmental benefits of material recovery. Resource conservation over the life cycle of products is a key component of sustainability. Recycling of WEEE is an important subject not only from the recovery aspect of valuable materials; there are also significant energy savings when recycled materials are used in place of virgin materials (Nnorom & Osibanjo 2007). In U.S.A the e waste recovery rates are distinguished by product type. The total recovery rate is approximately 9 wt. %, which is less than half that of the value in the general U.S. municipal solid waste stream, such as for paper, glass, and metals (USEPA,2003). This is to show that material recovery from e waste is still at a very low level not only developing countries but also at the developed countries. This study has helped to identify some conditions and reasons why e waste cannot be accepted or recycled amongst the MRF s. As Malaysia is one of the parties to the Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous waste and their disposal 1989, the e waste are also listed as code A1180 and code A2010 under list A of annex A2010 under the list A annex VIII. This study thus tends to examine through a survey questionnaire if e waste are exported outside the country for recycling. The respondent indicated that e waste could be exported to other countries if the technology of the receiving country is better than that of Malaysia, thus indicated some of the problems faced by the government in managing e waste as lack of expertise, lack of ultramodern recycling plants, lack of public awareness, insufficient collection facilities, insufficient finance and problem of actual data of e waste generation at the industrial level. 4. Conclusion and Recommendation Despite the number of e waste licensed contractors in Malaysia and the effort of the government to have a sound environment. However it appears that the government agency does not have a proper scrutiny on the individual contractors before issuing license to carrying out e waste recycling or rather does not have a routine check on MRF during operations to know if they conform to set up criteria. 389

8 Although e waste management is still at infancy stage, the recyclers should come up with technologies that would be able to recycle all sorts of e waste either from white goods or brown goods. This study also recommends that e waste collection among the recyclers should be extended to household rather than focusing on industries and commercial organizations. 5. Acknowledgement This paper is part of the research project entitled Towards Sustainable Waste Management: An Assessment for E waste Management in UKM. We are grateful to all respondents from Material recovery facilities and the principal deputy director DOE Malaysia. We are also grateful to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. This study was sponsored by UKM grant UKM PTS References 1. Cui, J., Forssberg, E. (2003). Mechanical recycling of waste electric and electronic equipment: a review. Journal of Hazardous Materials B99, pp Hai Yong Kang & Julie M. S Electronic waste recycling: A review of U.S. infrastructure and technology options. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2005, 45; pp Hula, A., Jalali, K., Hamza, K., Skerlos, S.J., Saitou, K. Multi criteria decision making for optimization of product disassembly under multi situations. Environmental Science & Technology 2003, 37 pp John B.C., Chamhuri S., Ahmad F.M., & Rawshan A.B. E waste Management for Minimum Impact on The Ecosystem. In: Proceedings of the end International Seminar on Ecology, Human Habitat and Environmental Change. Jamaludin Md.Jahi et al. (ed). 2010, pp Jung LB, Bartel T. An industry approach to consumer recycling: the San Jose project. In: Proceedings of IEEE international symposium on electronics and the environment 1998, pp Mundada, M.N., Kumar, S., Shekdar, A.V. E waste: a new challenge for waste management in India. International Journal of Environmental Studies.2004, 61, pp Musson, S.E., Jang, Y. C., Townsend, T.G., Chung, I. H., 2000.Characterization of lead leachability from cathode ray tubes using the toxicity characterization leaching procedure. Environmental Science & Technology 34, pp Nnorom I.C & Osibanjo O Electronic waste (e waste): Material flows and management practices in Nigeria. Waste Management 28, pp

9 9. Nnorom I.C, Ohakwe J., & Osibanjo O.Survey of willingness of residents to participate in electronic waste recycling in Nigeria. A case study of mobile phone recycling. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2009, 17: pp United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) (2000). Electronic reuse and recycling infrastructure development in Massachusetts, EPA 901 R United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) (2003). Municipal solid waste in the United States: 2001 facts and figures, EPA 530 R Wu, SC., Wong CSC. Duzgoren Aydin NS, Aydin A, Wong, MH. Trace metal contamination of sediments in an e waste processing village in China. Environmental Pollution 2007, 145: pp