GREEN ELECTRONICS

Presented by

P.N.S.PRAVEEN V.SAI VENKATESH III B-Tech, E.C.E III B-Tech, E.C.E

Email-id: PRAVEEN.PRAGALLAPATI007@GMAIL.COM

FROM;GODAVARI INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY(GIET);RAJAMUNDRY;E.G.DIST.

ABSTRACT:

Electronics has made life easier for us. But the omnipresence of electronics in modern life has a seamy underside. Certain materials used in electronic products are toxic and pose a threat to the environment. The situation is becoming serious with the increasing use of electronics.

To tackle the situation, the industry is resorting to green electronics. Green electronics focuses on elimination of harmful elements and components, and recycling of electronic products at the end of life. Among the harmful elements are lead, cadmium, mercury and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE).

Electronic devices are becoming a bigger and bigger part of our lives, especially as they get smaller and smaller. We use them as tools and toys to communicate, work, enjoy media, and be expressive. Greening your electronics is a matter of knowing what tech to get, how to use it best, and what to do with it when its useful life is done. Many of these best practices aren’t things you’ll read in the instruction manual, either.

What is green electronics ?

Green electronics is an ideal that refers to environmentally friendly digital devices. Before the idea was brought forward, a considerable percentage of components involved in the manufacturing process of most electronic and digital devices were very toxic. Chemicals such as lead and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) were commonly used in the manufacture of items like LCD screens and laptop computers. The green electronics initiative is often seen as an extension of a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) plan because of its environmental core ideas.

Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) describes loosely discarded, surplus, obsolete, broken, electrical or electronic devices. The processing of electronic waste in developing countries causes serious health and pollution problems because electronic equipment contains some very serious contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium and brominated flame retardants. Even in developed countries recycling and disposal of e-waste involves significant risk for examples to workers and communities and great care must be taken to avoid unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaching of materials such as heavy metals from landfills and incinerator ashes.

But why lead is used in electronic components? Lead can meet performance requirements in a cost-efficient manner. A tinlead solder alloy is usually used to join computer components to printed circuit boards (PCBs). Lead can be easily remoulded and refined.

Lead has the highest recycling rate of all the industrial metals in the world. In the US, around 80 per cent of all the lead is used in automotive batteries and more than 95 per cent of these batteries are recycled. Leads natural properties like low melting point, high strength, ductility; fatigue resistance, high thermal cycling, joint integrity, corrosion resistance, malleability and long life are well suited to electronics applications.

Lead is essential to the production of many highly technical products. It plays a vital role in space exploration, energy conservation and telecommunications.

So recycling of electronic components has also assumed importance.Semiconductors are the basis of all the electronic components and lead is the glue that binds all the semiconductor devices to make them work efficiently. Lead is used to a large extent in solders used in electronics. Without the use of lead solders and leaded glass, you would not be able to safely sit in front of your computer. Lead alloy solders enable your computer to send electronic data. Around 90 per cent of all electronic components contain some lead. There are many technological and economic challenges before the initiative to produce lead-free components. Efforts are being made to find feasible and cost- effective ways to reduce lead in electronic products.

Lead was discarded from paints, ceramic glazers and plumbing solders years ago due to its poisoning effects, but the solders used in electronic applications were not targeted for such elimination because of their limited utilization and disposal. However, within the last decade, microelectronics has made significant strides resulting in widespread utilization and disposal of components containing lead solders.

It is estimated that one billion pounds of lead are contained in obsolete computers in the US alone. Two computers become obsolete for every three purchased. For the year 2005, this ratio is estimated at 1:1. That means we have to recycle computers as fast as we make them and that too efficiently. It will be costly to recycle these products because it is difficult to extract the usable metals, but the cost of recycling is minor compared to the cost of cleaning up if electronics are landfilled or incinerated

Threats

Electronics is one of the many industries that produce and use chemicals that are harmful for human health and even the environment. For ex. the Dell Latitude D630 laptop contains mercury, a metal that can damage the nervous system. It contains hundreds of parts but sadly, none of them is made from recycled material, yet we can say that it is one of the most eco-friendly notebooks in town. The reason for this is that the notebook does not contain lead, PVC and other nasty chemicals that are commonly found in PCs. When computer waste is land filled or incinerated, the toxic materials and emissions contaminate the water resources and air.

It’s not just the direct impact of some chemicals that can ruin the greenery on Earth, some chemicals are safe when inside the cabinet of your electronic gadget, but once out they can pose a grave danger not only to Earth but also to human health. Any old TV would contain at most 4 pounds of lead, it is safe when it is inside the product but once it is disposed in open, it leaks out and seeps underground, there it can blend with water and harm all people who use the same water for drinking.

Disposal of e-waste e-waste can be disposed in three ways: incineration, landfilling and recycling. 

Incineration. -Incineration entails destroying the e-waste including computers and other electronic devices and components by burning. But this waste contributes significantly to heavy metals and halogen Ted substances. Because of the variety of different substances found together in electro scrap, incineration is particularly dangerous. 

Landfilling.- Landfilling involves disposing the e-waste by burying it, especially as a method of filling in and reclaiming excavated pits. But it has become common knowledge that all landfills leak. Even the best state-of- the- art landfills dont remain completely tight throughout their lifetimes and a certain amount of chemical and metal leaching will occur. The situation is worse for older or uncontrolled dump sites. It has been found that significant amounts of lead ions are dissolved from broken lead containing glass, such as the cone glass of cathode ray tubes, when mixed with acid waters.

Recycling.- Recycling of hazardous products has little environmental benefit -it simply moves the hazards into secondary products that eventually have to be disposed of. Unless the goal is to redesign the product to use non- hazardous materials, such recycling is a false solution. 

What is EPEAT®?

Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool

An easy-to-use purchasing tool to help organizations compare computer desktops, laptops and monitors based on their environmental attributes.An environmental procurement tool designed to help IT purchasers address environmental concerns in their purchasing process for desktop computers, laptops,

integrated systems and monitors.

• Consists of:

Set of voluntary environmental performance criteri System for identifying and verifying products meeting the criteria

• The impacts are across the full life-cycle of IT Materials generation Manufacturing and Assembly Development Operations and Use Disposal and recycling

Objectives Reduction in related CO2 emissions Through utilization of energy efficient systems / components Application of technology from purchasing phase through usage phase and

dispostion of IT equipment Identifying opportunities for improvements and changing behavior and habits Alignment with Corporate Go Green objectives and targets

.

The Green Electronics Survey The products submitted were assessed against four broad groups of criteria:

• Use of hazardous chemical substances, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), brominated flame retardants (BFRs), antimony, phthalates, beryllium and a number of other chemicals.

• Power consumption of the products, assessed by comparing them with the Energy Star standards of the US Environmental

Protection Agency. Points were also given for a number of

other areas such as providing detailed power consumption data

to consumers.

• Product lifecycle, including criteria such as recyclability rate and use of recycled plastic in the product. Long warranty periods and good take-back programmes were also rewarded.

• Availability of data that enables assessment of the energy taken to manufacture the products as well as special innovations that help to reduce the total burden on the environment

Preferred Environmental Attributes

Reduced hazardous substances Increased recycled content Reusability and recyclability Energy efficient Reduced consumable use Reduced and/or reusable packaging Upgradeability End-of-life management options

Main findings

The electronics industry continues to make progress in putting products on the market with reduced environmental impacts, and this is confirmed by the results of Greenpeace’s 2008 Green Electronics Survey. In addition to the overall improvement in the year since the first Greenpeace survey, the product scores are increasingly closer together, suggesting a more competitive environment in a ‘race to the top’ to produce truly green products. There are a number of findings that underline this trend, but also significant shortcomings in certain practices.

• Progress continues with regards to phasing out the use of hazardous chemicals. More products are PVC-free than in the previous year’s survey and fewer RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) exemptions are being used by the manufacturers.

Role of society The society plays a pivotal role in addressing the problem of e-waste. We just have to keep these things in mind: 

1. Identify durable products: When shopping for electronic and electrical equipment, review the products for repair history and consumer reliability ratings. 

2. Repair instead of replace: Repairing an electronic or electrical item may be cheaper than replacing it. 

3. Buy upgradable gear: Some products can be upgraded by replacing a single component instead of the complete unit. This saves money and reduces waste. 

Role of companies Companies need to stick to: 1. Material innovation: Reduce the amount of material used and develop materials that have less environmental impact and more value at the end of life. 

2. Recyclable designs: Design equipments that are easier to upgrade or recycle. 

Recent developments Currently, three proposals are under consideration that will significantly affect the design, manufacture and disposal of all forms of electrical and electronic equipment: 1. Directive on waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The WEEE directive aims at preventing generation of waste equipment and seeks collection of end-of-life equipment for reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery. It also seeks to improve the environmental performance of all economic operators involved in the life cycle of electrical and electronic equipment, particularly those who are directly involved in the treatment of waste equipment.

The proposal covers all the electronic equipment used by consumers and currently not treated before going to incinerators or landfills. It also covers a wide range of professionally used electrical and electronic equipment, such as IT and telecommunication equipment, which are not sufficiently recycled today.

2. Directive on restriction of use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (ROHs). Originally part of the WEEE directive, the phase-out of hazardous substances has now been made into a separate directive. It seeks to harmonise national measures on restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and introduces a substitution requirement for those substances in electrical and electronic equipment, which pose major environmental problems during the disposal and recycling of such waste. This requirement will substitute these substances with less harmful ones. The main substances include heavy metals like lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium. Two types of brominated flame-retardants, PBB and PBDE, also require to be substituted.

3. Working paper for an electrical and electronic equipment directive (EEE). This working paper from the European Commissions Enterprise Directorate General contains the initial draft for a directive that harmonises the requirements concerning the design of electrical and electronic equipment. It aims at ensuring that the overall impact of electrical and electronic equipment on the environment during their life cycle is minimised and specifies provisions for the design and manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment to do this.

Move gaining momentum Whatever the implementation and awareness issues, the transition to lead-free soldering is underway and will accelerate over the next few years, driven by commercial rather than legislative consideration. To keep pace with these changes, the industry will have to react more positively than it did to the elimination of chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs) a decade ago.

Scope

Green IT extends across all phases of the IT Life Cycle By addressing all phases

Selection of energy efficient systems and approaches Influence industry in development of energy efficient systems/components Understand and Improve energy efficiency of systems and facilities Optimize environment (servers, storage, power management, …) Manage resulting eWaste

Extend into other related areas Technology enabling

Telecommuting Teleconferencing

Concept of Execution

1.Diagnose and baseline: Understand your energy use and opportunities for improvement2.Build: Plan and upgrade to energy efficient data centers & IT resources 3.Optimize: Optimize the infrastructure and leverage virtualization and other innovative technologies4.Manage & Measure: Seize control with Power Management5.Reuse Recycle and disposal IT components:Reduce eWaste

Sustaining the Future

The greatest challenges for businesses trying to be eco-responsible are really understanding what that really mean, then making changes that are sustainable over time, while adding business value. Another challenge is balancing the needs of various stakeholders who each have different ideas of what changes should be made.

Some environmental non-governmental organizations would like certain flame retardants removed from electronic products, while the fire safety community is concerned about removing or changing flame retardants in electronics. One problem is that the substitute replacement must be assessed to ensure that environmental and health impacts are lower than the original material; however, since most replacements are fairly new, they have not been necessarily assessed with the same rigor applied to the original materials.

Green computing represents a responsible way to address the issue of global warming. By adopting green computing practices, business leaders can contribute positively to protect the environment while also reducing energy and paper costs..

But, there's one place where electronics should have no impact—the environment. Through responsible use, reuse and recycling of electronics, the consumer electronics industry and consumers can protect and preserve the environment—together

References :

Electronics For You www.zerowaste.org/epeat/files/John_Katz_V1_I3

http://articles.jimtrade.com/1/50.htm

www. green peace.org/raw/content/ green - electronics -survey-2 www.vbep.org/conference/ Green %20 Electronic s

www.all greenrecycling .com

www.my greenelectronics .org