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.