e-Waste or waste electronic and electrical equipment is a major environmental issue that is faced by developing countries even though they produce a small amount of electronic products. These e-Wastes can be either electronic items such as computers, televisions that are discarded, donated or sold by the original owner.
These e-Wastes contain several harmful pollutants like large quantities of epoxy resins, fiberglass, PCBs, PVC (polyvinyl chlorides), thermosetting plastics, lead, tin, copper, silicon, beryllium, carbon, iron and aluminum and also elements found in small amounts like cadmium, mercury, and thallium. They also contain elements found in trace amounts like americium, antimony, arsenic, barium, bismuth, boron, cobalt, europium, gallium, germanium, gold, indium, lithium, manganese, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, selenium, silver, tantalum, terbium, thorium, titanium, vanadium, and yttrium.
