108 A. Q. Mairizal et al.

Introduction

Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the fastest growing waste streams in Australia.
The rising consumption on electrical and electronic equipment combined with tech-
nological innovations has resulted in a large volume of e-waste in the country. It was
estimated that the e-waste generation in Australia has reached up to 21.3 kg per capita,
making Australia as one of the highest e-waste generation per capita in the world
[1]. It has also been estimated that the amount of e-waste generation in Australia
will continue to increase up to 3.5 million tons (Mt) in 2047 with the increase rate
of 3–5% annually [2]. This high volume of e-waste generation in Australia may
put a significant pressure on e-waste management system to prevent the escalating
problems from e-waste in the future.
E-waste contains a wide range of materials from metals, plastic, and other
substances. E-waste can contain up to 60 elements [3], including the base metals
(BMs) of Cu, Pb, Al, Ni, precious metals (PMs) Au, Ag, Pd, Pt, rare earth elements
(REE) Nd, Gd, Ce, and Dy, and hazardous (halogens, Hg, and Cd). Due to the
presence of hazardous materials, disposing of e-waste in a landfill can cause severe
consequences on the human health and environment. However, e-waste also contains
valuable metals hence attract its recycling to recover the wealth. These valuable
metals on e-waste mostly located in waste PCB (printed circuit boards). The high
potential of metal recovery from e-waste in Australia has attracted research that
focus on quantification of e-waste generation potential in Australia [2] and e-waste
recycling technologies.
The high content of copper in waste PCB and the compatible chemistry of the
precious metals (Ag, Au) with copper makes waste PCB recycling suitable to be
embedded with copper smelting processes. One of the most common routes in indus-
trial practice for waste PCB recycling process is through black copper smelting that
is commonly used for recycling copper scrap [4]. However, the metal recovery of
waste PCB also requires resource and energy consumption for the process. Most of
the current studies on e-waste processing technologies are more focused on metal
recovery rates, based on economic perspective [5, 6], and more fundamental on the
distribution of the valuable elements in the conditions relevant to industrial process
[7, 8].
In order to evaluate the impact of waste PCB processing on the environment,
the current study provides a generic carbon footprint assessment of the recovery of
copper, gold, and silver from waste PCB during its recycling through black copper
smelting. Various scenarios of waste PCB recycling in an Australian setting were
simulated to investigate their overall carbon footprint emission. Three scenarios were
investigated: (1) recycling of waste PCB in a small-scale facility; (2) recycling of
waste PCB integrated with industry; and (3) recycling of waste PCB in a centralized
and large waste facility. Scenarios with electricity sourced from different renewable
energies were also compared and analyzed in this study. Based on the analysis of the
recycling process, the energy consumption, material transport, and carbon emission