Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) or e-waste is the term used to describe
unwanted old electronic parts and discarded appliances using electricity.
Classification of e-waste
E-waste encompasses ever growing range of obsolete electronic devices such as computers,
servers, main frames, monitors, TVs & display devices, telecommunication devices such as cellular
phones & pagers, calculators, audio and video devices, printers, scanners, copiers and fax machines
besides refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and microwave ovens, e-waste also covers
recording devices such as DVDs, CDs, floppies, tapes, printing cartridges, military electronic waste,
automobile catalytic converters, electronic components such as chips, processors, mother boards, printed
circuit boards, industrial electronics such as sensors, alarms, sirens, security devices, automobile
electronic devices.
The major source of e-waste is the disposal of the hardware and electronic items from formal and
informal sectors like Government offices, public and private sectors, academic and research institutes.
Household consumers are also contributing significant volume of end-of-life electronics products.