What are the five categories of E-Waste?

Madhuri Kumari
3 min readJun 21, 2022

Over the last 20 years, we all have witnessed the rapid increase in electronic scraps as the technology advances daily, so the electronics use waste. It is an endless cycle of use and waste of electronic products. But how can we control it since we are aware of its ramifications?

To understand the control of electronic waste, first, we will look into the categories of E-waste that majorly affect the environment and our lives. Electronic wastage is a slow poison, and it affects us in almost all aspects.

Let us look at the categories of e-waste, and then we will discuss controlling it. Here are the major 5 categories given below:

👉 large / big E-waste
👉 Small/micro E-waste
👉 Chemical waste
👉 Medical equipment
👉 Other electric and electronic waste

1. Large/Big E-waste :

The large /big electronics waste is majorly generated from big factories, companies, and households, like manufacturing machines in factories, monitors and other electronics and electrical equipment in companies and fridges, mobile phones from households, etc. These are the major contributors to electronic waste.

It is not about these things only but the corner for growing e-waste. According to the MarketWatch 2018 report, it has been seen that consumers replace their mobile phones every 15 months. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines “electronic waste as any device powered by electrical energy that has reached the end of its working life.”

2. Small/micro E-waste:

The small/microelectronic and electric items are the second major contributor to the e-waste. These items include; home appliances, mobile chips and storage devices, etc., which are widely used by households and increase e-waste.

There is a lack of awareness in applying to resale, reuse, and refurbishing industries or the products that cannot be used for their intended purpose. Electronic waste causes serious health and pollution problems, though developing countries like India are likely to be affected the most.

3. Chemical waste:

All electronic items contain chemical components, such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, or brominated flame retardants. The involvement of these harmful chemicals risks the lives of workers and communities in greater danger. To avoid the harmful effects of these strong chemicals exposure in recycling operations and material leaching, proper e-waste recycling management is required.

4. Medical equipment:

In the generation of advancement, where everything is taking new heights, so does medical science. Nowadays, hospitals use advanced machines for examination and test purposes. When these machines go out of use, most of their parts are of no use, increasing e-waste.

5. Other electric and electronic waste:

Other electric and electronic waste includes; toys, LEDs, fans, motherboards, parts of the electronic equipment, etc. There are many other ways to pollute the environment through e-waste. In 2021, an estimated 57.4 million tons of e-waste will be generated globally.

“According to estimates in Europe, where the problem is best studied, 11 of 72 electronic items in an average household are no longer in use or broken. Annually per citizen, another 4 to 5 kg of unused electrical and electronic products are hoarded in Europe before being discarded.”

How to control e-waste?

Many facts have been said about the harmful repercussions of e-waste. But, the thing to ponder here is how to control it? There are no clear and rigid policies available for the controlling of e-waste, but the Indian government has rolled out opening many e-waste management companies and encourages people and companies to ;
👉 Proper management of e-waste
👉 Recycling hubs of e-waste
👉 Reuse centres
👉 The collection point of e-waste
👉 Discounts and offers on exchanging electronic goods, etc.

Conclusion:

By following the steps mentioned above, we can reduce the increase of e-waste and save our environment for a better future. Many environmental and health-related issues arise from e-waste, also discussed in our blogs.
To read more about e-waste, read our blogs and get to know more about our noble initiative, e-waste management, visit our website by clicking the link or give a call request at 91–9910288223.

--

--

Madhuri Kumari

Head of Corporate Communications @ Techchef Data Recovery. ( https://www.techchef.in/ ) India’s Leading Data Recovery and Data Sanitization Company.