Biography
Biography: MEAR Francois O
Abstract
The amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) or e-waste generated in the world is growing rapidly. The content of hazardous components in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is a major concern during the waste management phase. Ideally, the materials in electronic products should be re-used when the products reach the end of their lifetime. In the European Union (EU), WEEE represents about 7.5 million tons each year, where computer monitors and TV sets containing cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) represent about 80% of the total electronic waste. In the United States, it is estimated that 300,000 tons of e-waste ended up in landfills in 2000 and CRTs represent about one-third of electronics waste tonnage. The three kinds of glass constituting the CRT monitor contain hazardous and heavy elements (lead, strontium, antimony, barium, europium, selenium etc.) and weigh between 50% and 85% of the total weight of a computer monitor or a television set. Currently, collected monitors are dismantled and treated, and the CRT glass generally ends up in a special landfill licensed for hazardous waste. Hence, in Europe almost all of them are in landfills. As the lead content in these waste products represents as much as 80% of the toxic metals in discard electronics, CRTs represent a clear potential pollution danger to the environment. To investigate the potential applications of waste CRT glass, characterizations of these materials need to be carried out. Waste CRT glass can be classified as being part of either color or black & white monitors, and by their manufacturer. However, at this stage only general CRT glass composition and properties are available, as no systematic studies have been carried out by manufacturers. Several studies have been carried out to investigate how the waste CRT glass could be re-used. CRT glass should be recycled in a closed-loop system (i.e. in the manufacture of new CRTs glass) or an open-loop system (i.e. the glass is used in other outlets).
