How to dispose e-waste generated in labs?

Thread Starter

pawankumar

Joined Oct 28, 2009
42
Hi friends,
An ISO Audit is proposed to take place in our college campus.We need to take measures concerned with the environment.

My question is:

How do you dispose components such as burnt out ICs , Diodes ,Capacitors and lifeless batteries?

I have googled out to find results such as donating old phones and CRTs to NGOs and companies such as vadafone..

Is there any other way out?some novel ideas for a smaller scale?

For your replies,Thanks in advance ..
Pawan
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
ICs , Diodes ,Capacitors
These can generally go in the trash.

Conventional batteries can also go in the trash, but specialty batteries such as NiCad or NMH need to go to the special disposal, most cities have something for this kind of trash (same as with lead acid batteries). The chemicals in them can be recycled, and are highly toxic. Bad for the drinking water.

Chips, transistors, and LEDs can have highly toxic materials too (especially LEDs), but they are considered encapsulated and are no threat to ground water.

They are not considered so toxic you can't store them, so it is OK to build a stock pile. I think quantity makes it more economical to deal with.
 

Thread Starter

pawankumar

Joined Oct 28, 2009
42
waste in trash is normally burnt.. does it not harm the environment even when things are burnt?(those toxic materials too)
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Waste in the USA is generally buried. Burning of waste indiscriminately creates air pollution. Plastics and other synthetic materials become toxic when burnt. You are going to have to figure this one out yourself, since we are dealing with different standards.
 

marshallf3

Joined Jul 26, 2010
2,358
Hi friends,
An ISO Audit is proposed to take place in our college campus.We need to take measures concerned with the environment.

My question is:

How do you dispose components such as burnt out ICs , Diodes ,Capacitors and lifeless batteries?

I have googled out to find results such as donating old phones and CRTs to NGOs and companies such as vadafone..

Is there any other way out?some novel ideas for a smaller scale?

For your replies,Thanks in advance ..
Pawan
Just set aside a few small bins and mark them. Batteries should be separated by type and labeled "To xyz recycling" whereas ICs, transistors etc often have a small amount of gold in them so mark that box as semiconductors for possible gold extraction.

Not everything (especially not what's been around or donated to colleges) is lead free so I'd have one more box labeled "potential lead content, take to abc recycling"
 
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