Scientometric analysis of research on end-of-life electronic waste and electric vehicle battery waste

Abstract

Electronic sector is the one of the most rapid developing sector which is also contributing towards uncontrolled handling of waste flows. It not only poses threat to environment but also to public health due to adoption of improper recycling and disposal methods. One of the fastest classified branch of e-waste which has potential to grow in future is end-of-life electric vehicle batteries. This paper presents current body of literature available on two giant data bases i.e. Scopus and Web of Science, focussing on research on environmental impact of e-waste and electric vehicle battery waste. For this purpose two set of keywords are used: Set A (Generalised) -“Environmental Impact of Electronic waste having 1498 research documents on Scopus and 1009 on Web of Science and Set B (Specific) - “Environmental Impact of Electric Vehicle Battery waste” having only 85 and 64 research documents on Scopus and Web of Science respectively. USA, China and Germany are having max imum funded projects. The developing countries, lag behind drastically in terms of funded projects. This scientometric study thus draws the attention towards the urgent need of research in this area in order to minimize the resource depletion and maximize the sustainability.