Life Cycle Assessment for e-waste treatment: a literature review

Global population and industrialization are increasing, leading to a growing demand for essential resources, particularly in strategic sectors, like the transition to climate neutrality and the production of novel technologies. In this respect waste from electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) represents a urban mine rich in precious and critical raw materials. From a technological point of view the recovery of materials can be realized following different techniques, e.g., electrochemical recovery, pyrometallurgy, biometallurgy, and hydrometallurgy. This paper deals with the environmental impact assessment through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the different methodologies of e-waste treatment.