Material Flow Analysis of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment in Ukraine

Abstract

The composition of widespread electronic devices (mobile phone, computer mouse, keyboard, web-camera, monitor) was studied by manual dismantling. The material flow analysis was done for e-waste components. For the case study of Ukraine, five devices under investigation contain over 4 thousand tons / year resources. Most of them (first of all, plastic and metal) can be easily recovered. The content of chemical elements in the components of the electronic devices was determined by X-ray fluorescence analysis. Taking into account the mass of electronic waste generated in Ukraine, the resource potential of metals is estimated. Most of metals are concentrated in mobile phones and monitors (about 2000 tons/year). Apart from common metals, silver, molybdenum, vanadium, rubidium, zirconium, antimony, yttrium, rhodium, bismuth, and gallium were also found.

Keywords

• metals
• material flow analysis
• waste electrical and electronic equipment
• electronic device
• resource potential