Bioleaching: urban mining option to curb the menace of E-waste challenge

Abstract

Resource Recovery from Waste Electronics has emerged as one of the most imperative processes due to its pressing challenges all over the world. The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is one of the typical E-waste components that comprise large varieties of metals and nonmetals. Urban Mining of these metals has received major attention all over the world. The existing treatment procedures used extensively for the resource extraction are hydrometallurgy and pyro-metallurgy and crude recycling practices in the informal sector. However, these methods are prone to cause secondary pollutants with certain drawbacks. Also, the existing informal recycling procedures resulted in insignificant occupational health hazards and severe environmental threats. The application of biotechnology is extensively exploited for metal extraction and emerged as one of the sustainable and eco-friendly tools. However, a limited field-scale study is prevailing in the realm of resource recovery from E-waste using bioleaching method. Hence, the application of bioleaching requires more attention and technical know-how in developing countries to curtail crude practices. The application of bioleaching in E-waste, including its available methods, kinetics mechanism associated opportunities, and barriers, have been discussed in this paper. A glance of E-waste management in India and the menace of 95% crude E-waste recycling are also elaborated. The incentives toward profit, socio-economic, and environmentally sustainable approaches have been delineated based on critical analysis of the available literature.