Environmental Impacts of E-Waste

🌱 What happens when e-waste is disposed informally?

Environmental contamination and pollution often occur when e-waste is disposed of informally. The process of dismantling, shredding, and melting materials from e-waste can release contamination into the air, soil, and groundwater. Moreover, when rainwater seeps into e-waste, this can form a liquid saturated with toxic components – called “leachate” – that can sink deep into soil and contaminate groundwater. This can be a particular problem in older landfills, which may not always sufficiently curb toxins from leaking.

🌱 What is the impact on air?

Low value e-waste is commonly burned. Through the process of burning, informal recyclers try to recover valuable metals – such as copper – from the e-waste. Air contamination can occur when informally disposed e-waste releases particles or toxins. These can, in turn, create health risks to humans and animals by, for example, damaging respiratory health or causing chronic diseases and cancers. To recover higher value materials – such as gold and silver – acids and other chemicals are often used. As the higher value materials are often highly integrated in electronics, they need to be desoldered or treated with chemicals. This process releases fumes which can be highly dangerous to informal recyclers. The fumes released can also harm both humans and animals “thousands of miles away from recycling sites”. Depending on where the fumes travel to, certain regions or ecosystems can become chronically polluted, thereby endangering both given species and biodiversity on the whole. The air pollution can also contaminate soils and degrade the water quality.

🌱 What is the impact on soil?

When e-waste is improperly disposed of, heavy metals and flame retardants can seep into the soil. Moreover, the burning, shredding, or dismantling of e-waste can release large particles that may deposit themselves on the ground, where they then contaminate the soil. This pollution can also cause contamination of groundwater, crops, and microorganisms found in the soil. For example, soil contaminated with heavy metals can cause illness or decrease the productivity of farmland. Moreover, as pollutants often remain in soil for a long period of time, animals often “end up consuming affected plants, causing internal health problems”.

🌱 What is the impact on groundwater?

Following from soil contamination through e-waste, heavy metals – such as barium, lead, lithium, and mercury – often leak downwards into the groundwater. From the groundwater, the heavy metals travel into streams and rivers, and even distant ponds and lakes. The acidification and toxification of the water make it unsafe for plants, animals, and communities. Acidification can notably “kill marine and freshwater organisms, disturb biodiversity and [severely] harm ecosystems”.