논문 상세보기
pp.706-712
The development of recycling technology and process of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), also called electronic waste is becoming a growing interest in the world from the perspective of material recovery and resource conservation. In this study we examined the recycling technology levels of WEEE by both group category and recycling process using expert surveys. Based on the results of the expert surveys conducted, the level of large home appliances was found to be approximately 81.1% (± 6.2% std) when compared with that of the advanced countries, while small home appliances and IT equipment and audio/video equipment were 73.5% (± 6.2% std) and 76.2% (± 6.2% std), respectively. In case of recycling pre-treatment process (e.g., disassembly, size reduction, and separation), the technological levels was found to be approximately 82.2%, while the material recovery process followed by the pretreatment process was estimated to be approximately 68.5%. The results of reliability test for the expert survey showed that the values of coefficient of variation (CV) for the pre-treatment process and material recovery process by group category and recycling process are less than 0.5, which is a guidance limit for the coefficient. Based on the statistical tests (ANOVA and t-test), there is no significant difference of the recycling technological levels among the group category (large home appliances, small home appliances, IT equipment, and audio/video equipment. However, the statistical difference between the pre-treatment process and material recovery process within the group category existed (p-value < 0.05) using t-test. In this study, the results imply that there is still a need for developing a variety of more advanced recycling technologies of WEEE to effectively recover valuable metals and materials from it, especially in the fields of metal recovery and extraction processes.
