Life cycle assessment of electronic waste treatment

• Life cycle assessment of electronic waste recycling is quantified.
• Key factors for reducing the overall environmental impact are indentified.
• End-life disposal processes provide significant environmental benefits.
• Efficiently reduce the improper disposal amount of e-waste is highly needed.
• E-waste incineration can generate significant environmental burden.

Life cycle assessment was conducted to estimate the environmental impact of electronic waste (e-waste) treatment. E-waste recycling with an end-life disposal scenario is environmentally beneficial because of the low environmental burden generated from human toxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, and marine ecotoxicity categories. Landfill and incineration technologies have a lower and higher environmental burden than the e-waste recycling with an end-life disposal scenario, respectively. The key factors in reducing the overall environmental impact of e-waste recycling are optimizing energy consumption efficiency, reducing wastewater and solid waste effluent, increasing proper e-waste treatment amount, avoiding e-waste disposal to landfill and incineration sites, and clearly defining the duties of all stakeholders (e.g., manufacturers, retailers, recycling companies, and consumers).