Management of electronic waste in Basque Country: Experiences of collecting and treatment with new technologies

The success of a recycling solution as an alternative to disposal, in order to become economically feasible, depends mainly on two aspects: the responsibility of consumers to take back their appliances (reverse logistics) and the costs of handling and disassembly. The first issue is being dealt by several legislative initiatives, e.g.: European Directives on waste. For the second, a wide spectrum of technological solutions has been suggested and developed. This chapter will cover the first experiences of collecting the waste of electric and electronic appliances in the Basque Country, a region in Northern Spain. Enforcing laws, marketing strategies, related to logistics, etc, will be explained. The results over the first years of the experience applied in main Basque towns were positive, therefore the collection scheme was expanded to the whole region and other areas of Spain. Main outcomes regarding the economic impact, social awareness and influences over the environment will also be covered. The main problem concerning the disassembly of devices is their high diversity. A good technical approach should offer an intelligent combination of manual and automated operations, optimized logistics, flexible plant layout, etc. This chapter offers a review of the state of the art of industrial solutions, together with their shortcomings and future trends. In addition, some new optimization techniques will be explained, with the aim to increase the benefits of the recycling companies, promoting in this way the correct treatment of the electronic waste and avoiding the disposal in landfills. In order to solve the problem of a growing generation of electronic waste, the promotion of the reuse of devices and components is considered to be one of the most desirable solutions. The concept of reutilization of electronic equipment goes from the reuse of the complete device for a second life, to the alternative of making the most of its valuable components. In order to show specific examples of these solutions, a case study will be explained showing the recycling of TV sets and monitors. A local recycler of TV sets and monitors has been involved in the definition and planning of the recycling facility. This company has carried out a statistical study of the received TV sets and monitors, collecting technical data about the devices. Taking into account these records and other technical information, a recycling scheme was proposed in order to handle, separate, recycle and reuse them. The recycler defined some requirements to be fulfilled by the process in order to design the recycling facility properly. The components and materials obtained from the separation process have been reused in new devices (e.g. electronic components) and recycled as raw materials (e.g. glass) for new usages.