Learning about e-waste

Francesca M. Kerton

doi:10.1515/ci-2024-0416

Article Open Access

Learning about e-waste

Francesca M. Kerton
Francesca Kerton is a Professor of Chemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. She is the current Chair of both the Canadian National Committee for IUPAC and IUPAC’s CHEMRAWN committee. She is a member of the Global Conversation on Sustainability Task Group and was the Task Group Chair for the project 2022-016-1-021—Effective teaching tools and methods to learn about e-waste.

Published/Copyright: October 16, 2024

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From the journal Chemistry International Volume 46 Issue 4

In 2021, the CHEMRAWN XXII conference “E-waste in Africa” was held in Lagos, Nigeria using a hybrid model to allow global involvement during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. This milestone in our conference series came 43 years after the first CHEMRAWN Conference, which was on “Future Sources of Organic Raw Materials.” One of the recommended outcomes from the Future Actions Committee Report formulated at CHEMRAWN XXII “E-waste in Africa” was to “Develop a course in e-waste for university students.” As a result, a resource page on e-waste was developed and is available via the IUPAC website (https://iupac.org/e-waste/). More resource pages are now being considered on topics related to world needs for sharing IUPAC’s vast knowledge and allow IUPAC to fully embody its vision as an indispensable worldwide resource for chemistry.

Another initiative is the compilation of a special issue of Chemistry Teacher International and that has been published in June 2024 (Vol 6 Issue 2) as a result of a project conducted to provide educational materials and insights for students and teachers working in secondary and tertiary education. This involved collaboration between three standing committees and two divisions of IUPAC, namely CHEMRAWN, Committee on Chemistry Education (CCE), Committee on Chemistry and Industry (COCI), the Inorganic Chemistry Division (Div II), and the Chemistry and the Environment Division (Div VI).

Knowledge about chemical problems related to e-waste handling and recycling is limited even among well-educated chemists. Secondary and University chemical education is critical due to the central role that chemistry plays in sustainable development and developing new, clean technologies. Most students have cell/mobile phones and access to computers, but many may be unaware of end of life or more general life cycle considerations for such devices. This special issue presents e-waste from a chemical perspective, and as an open-access venue can be shared broadly and inspire educators to develop their own ideas on this important topic related to sustainable chemistry.

Promotional flyer for the e-waste educational webinar provided as part of this project

In anticipation of this CTI special issue, a webinar was held in collaboration with the educational foundation Beyond Benign during October 2023 and which served as an IUPAC/IYCN Global Conversation on Sustainability event. It is archived here: https://www.beyondbenign.org/webinar/e-waste-management-in-brazil-diverse-approaches-for-a-sustainable-future/ . Juliana Vidal (Canada, Beyond Benign) was a co-moderator with me.

Cintia Milagre (Associate Professor, Institute of Chemistry – Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil) shared their work with a local recyclable materials cooperative and a university-wide initiative to prevent e-waste going to landfill. Marcela Cordeiro Cavalcante de Oliveira (Graduate of the Professional Master’s Degree in Chemistry on a National Network – PROFQUI – Chemistry Department – Universidade Federal Rural De Pernambuco, Brazil) discussed approaches to teaching electrochemistry and redox processes related to batteries. Finally, Karen Ouverney dos Santos, a High School Chemistry Teacher at Colégio Talentos Internacional, and her students (involved in the Chemistry Olympiad) enthusiastically shared their experiences and experiments regarding the importance of correct disposal and potential ecotoxicity of batteries.

Another article in the special issue, describes metal separation and recovery from waste ink-jet cartridges for students in high school/secondary schools. Many of the articles in this special issue have been written by authors in Brazil but the experiments undertaken could be performed and investigations undertaken by students around the world. We hope you enjoy reading the papers and find them useful in your own teaching.

For more information and comment, contact Francesca Kerton <fkerton@mun.ca> | https://iupac.org/project/2022-016-1-021

See CTI issue content https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/cti/6/2/html

About the author

Francesca M. Kerton

Francesca Kerton is a Professor of Chemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. She is the current Chair of both the Canadian National Committee for IUPAC and IUPAC’s CHEMRAWN committee. She is a member of the Global Conversation on Sustainability Task Group and was the Task Group Chair for the project 2022-016-1-021—Effective teaching tools and methods to learn about e-waste.

Published Online: 2024-10-16

Published in Print: 2024-10-01

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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