The Electronic Waste (E-Waste) Management and Treatment

Dear Colleagues,

Rapid technological innovation has greatly shortened the life cycle of electronic products. The massive generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has displayed exponential growth with a rate of more than 3–5% annually. In 2016, the global amount of electronic waste, so called e-waste, was approximately 44.7 million metric tons (Mt) and has reached 57 Mt in 2021. In the past few decades, informal e-waste burning had resulted in substantially high levels of air pollution identified at the treatment points and, in turn, posed a threat to the environment and public health. Recently, many advanced technologies have been developed to facilitate metal recovery from WPCBs, including pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, physico-mechanical separation, electrolysis, supercritical fluid, and bioleaching. Among them, the pyrometallurgical processes are generally operated at 300–900 °C and have the disadvantage of high energy consumption and expensive capital investment. Hydrometallurgical processes use cyanide, halide, thiourea, and thiosulfate to recover metals, consuming large amounts of chemical reagents, as well as producing a large volume of effluents. Mechanical beneficiation operations, such as gravity air classifiers, eddy current separation, and magnetic separation have been widely used in e-waste recycling plants worldwide. However, the recovered metals are mixed, and need be refined. Therefore, more in-depth research on e-waste management and treatment need be conducted, including novel techniques development, fate of pollutants and control strategies, the economic appraisal, etc.

In this Topic, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Crushing and separation;
• Bioleaching;
• Metal recovery;
• Thermal treatment and kinetics;
• Fate of pollutants and control strategies;
• Solidification/Stabilization;
• Polymer composites preparation;
• Circular economy;
• Policies.

Dr. Zhitong Yao
Dr. Nuria Ortuño García
Topic Editors