| Cathode ray tubes have been found to fail the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) test and have been classified as hazardous waste. Most of the other components of the end-of-life electronic products have not been tested and classified.; A hazard assessment of e-waste from desktop computers was done. The specific goal was to determine which D-List component would cause desktop computers to be managed as hazardous waste. The quantitative trace analytical methods of SW-846 was applied to determine whether e-waste contained analytes of concern that cause it to be managed as hazardous waste. Analysis was conducted by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP or Method 6010) and/or Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (FLAA or Method 7000) for barium (Method 7080), silver (Method 7760), cadmium (Method 7130), lead (Method 7420), and chromium (Method 7190). Samples used for testing were obtained from e-waste donated to the Computer Recycling Program in the Department of Technology, Hazardous Materials Management Program at Jackson State University (JSU).; The contents (motherboard, hard-drive, CPU, Modem, sound card, video card, and network card) of computer systems were analyzed. The conservative analysis was by FLAA. The concentration of lead from TCLP extract using FLAA was as follows: mother board 5204 +/- 1722 ppm, network card 5857 +/- 1023 ppm, sound card 7225 +/- 3376 ppm, video card 9908 +/- 11961 ppm for an estimated computer system mean of 7049 ppm. The regulatory level for lead is 5.0 ppm. Samples from desktop computer system components were found to fail TCLP due to lead. Further analysis was done using FLAA and/or ICP. The mean concentrations of Ag, Ba, Cd, and Cr from TCLP extract using ICP were as follows: mother board (Ag) 13 +/- 7 ppm, Ba 77 +/- 9 ppm, Cd 13 +/- 7 ppm, and Cr 14 +/- 8 ppm; memory (Ag) 210 +/- 7 ppm, Ba 1500 +/- 1000 ppm, Cd 101 +/- 13 ppm, and Cr 269 +/- 123 ppm; sound card (Ag) 95 +/- 28 ppm, Ba 741 +/- 17 ppm, Cd 16 +/- 9 ppm, and Cr 17 +/- 9 ppm; video card (Ag) 14 +/- 7 ppm, Ba 651 +/- 14 ppm, Cd 15 +/- 7 ppm, and Cr 16 +/- 7 ppm. The regulatory levels for Ag, Ba, Cd, and Cr are 5 ppm, 100 ppm, 1 ppm, and 5 ppm, respectively. Desktop computers system components were found to fail TCLP due to silver, barium (except mother board at 86), cadmium, and chromium.; Different management options were examined. The author agrees with EPA that every company/institution should have an Environmental Management System (EMS). International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 and Executive Order (EO) 13148 could be applied to an institution as well to reduce its hazard footprint. Research revealed the most effective way to reduce the hazard footprint of Jackson State University (JSU) is through environmentally preferable procurement. Therefore, an Environmentally Preferable Procurement (EPP) Program is designed for JSU for management of future e-waste. |
