During the fall of 2012 we partnered with Hewlett Packard and the Department of Toxic Substance Control on a project related to the informal e-waste recycling sector. An interdisciplinary team of students from Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Environmental Science and Public Health worked with scientist at HP to characterize the processes and emissions from common e-waste recycling practices. This information informs changes to the design of consumer electronics that minimize the use of harmful substances, as well as identifying emerging contaminated from newer generations of electronics. The student team produced a comprehensive report for HP which they presented to the materials division in December. They presented the report to an international HP audience in May of 2013 and later submitted an edited version of the report along with colleagues from HP to the European Commission that oversees the RoSH standards.
