Use of pelletized waste electronic plastic casings in sorbing metals from water

Discarded electronic waste is an emerging global source of waste concern. in nigeria,monthly consignments of 400,000 used electronics arrive lagos ports monthly. most of these electronics have plastic casings which are usually high density polyethylene (hdpe). plastics possess basic properties needed for adsorptive treatment of water,due to their high carbon content. therefore,the current study aims at investigating the usefulness of pelletized discarded electrical fittings for the removal of heavy metals from water and wastewater. the plastic case of some electronic wastes were pelletized,sieved and mixed with contaminated borehole,river and pharmaceutical effluent samples for treatment purposes. the water samples were sourced from ota,ogun state,nigeria. the initial and post-treatment metal concentrations in the water samples were determined using atomic adsorption spectrophotometer. the river water sample was found to contain chromium and nickel concentrations which exceeded national standard of 0.05 and 0.02 mg/l respectively. the borehole water sample contained iron levels of 0.357 mg/l,which slightly exceeded the national limit of 0.3 mg/l. the pharmaceutical effluent was also found to contain cadmium and nickel contaminant levels of 0.015 and 0.0228 mg/l respectively which exceeded national standard limits of 0.003 and 0.02 mg/l respectively. after treatment with pelletized electrical plastics (pep),all water and wastewater samples had metal removal rates of 93 - 100%,thereby demonstrating that pep has a high potential for removal of heavy metals.