I am on the way to find out or quantify the E-waste pollution on one recycling organization so , I want to know best sampling method from the soil and the way to analyze.
Hi Dr J. C. Tarafdar
Thanks a lot for doc sending
There are very useful for Abdrie Seid Hassen ' s questions
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Safia
E or electronic waste is rich in heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic, mercury, lead etc. These waste when dumped in the soil get liquefied by rainfall thereby making the metallic components to migrate through the soil into the ground water aquifer. So to determine the type of pollutants you need to delineate the area into plots, take soil samples at different profiles, and ground water samples, and send to the laboratory for physicochemical analysis.
Well, E-waste as it were are those wastes emanating from electronics hardware. Since they are not liquid wastes per say, they are dumped somewhere in the environment were they constitute nuisance in the environment. Ideally, the resulting wastes are found in soils around the dumpsites. The best way to sample it is collecting sample at a depth of 0-15 cm, 15-30 cm and 30-45 or 60 cm and at distant interval of 50-100 m apart from center of the dumpsite in order to understand the spread and dispersion dynamics. The best technique for analysis will be ICP-MS
Without an idea of the site surroundings it is difficult to submit precise ideas. Some knowledge about ground water and soil water flow direction would narrow the sampling area. Otherwise you have to follow a sampling grid and distances of 30 m as a first overview are recommended (Kriging). As recommended by Mr Omorogieva you should consider different depths at the sampling point.. If possible you should sample according the soil horizons present in the area. Make sure that your sample material is comparable between the different sampling points. This is best achieved by using the same grain size from each site. Sieving to < 0.125 mm or (better) 0.065 mm is necessary. Otherwise the concentrations you are analyzing are just a function of the grain size spectrum of the sample (high amount of sand = low metal concentrations). Dry at room temperature before sieving; disintegrate the soil by soft pounding. Besides, making the material comparable by using the fines you achieve better results in analysis because the finer the material the higher the metal concentrations. Standard aqua regia digestion should do for your task (followed by solution in 1m HNO3). ICP-MS is the method of choice; however, for a first approach also flame AAS should do (especially for Zn and Cu, which are expected to be found in higher concentrations). Hopefully you can compare with sample material from background situations of the area, e.g samples taken from upstream areas.
Good luck
D. Zachmman
Many of the electronic materials also contain ceramic materials at least in their assembly, so it is advisable to perform analysis for the detection of these ceramic materials that some are very dense and with high temperatures of fusion-sintering.
E-waste is an electronic waste that has a lot of heavy metals such as copper, lead, mercury, etc. The best way to measure the pollutant in the soil is the same for any other pollution. Take a sample of the soil using any of the sampling techniques such as random sampling which is the most common type used for soil. Sample the top soil, 0-15cm and subsoil, 15-30cm and take it to the lab to test for its chemical properties especially heavy metals using atomic spectrometer. Another way is to use handheld XRF soil gun, it helps to detect heavy metals contamination in a medium.
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