Environmental Safety, E-Waste, and Workplace Practices
What this domain covers
This short but mark-rich domain covers safe handling of equipment and people, and the correct disposal route for electronic waste.
Core rules
- E-waste is discarded electrical and electronic equipment: CPUs, monitors, printers, cables, batteries and cartridges. It contains lead, mercury, cadmium and flame retardants, so it must never go into ordinary bins or be burned.
- Route it to authorised recyclers or producer take-back schemes, and wipe or physically destroy storage media before handover. RoHS restricts hazardous substances in new equipment; take-back rules make producers responsible for recovery.
- Electrical safety: earth the supply, do not overload sockets, keep liquids away, and never open a PSU or CRT, because capacitors hold charge after power-off.
- Use CO2 or dry-powder extinguishers on electrical fires; water conducts.
- Workplace practice: ESD precautions, correct lifting, ergonomic seating and monitor height, eye breaks, PPE, and a written record of every repair and handover.
Worked example
A school replaces ten CRT monitors. Reasoning: CRTs contain leaded glass and a charged tube, so they are hazardous e-waste, not general refuse. The correct action is to log the assets, remove and wipe any storage, and hand the units to an authorised e-waste recycler with a receipt, not to a scrap dealer who may break them in the open.
Traps
- Treating the computer's recycle bin as e-waste recycling.
- Using water on an electrical fire.
- Putting lithium batteries or toner cartridges into normal waste.
- Handing over a disk without sanitising it.