Abstract: Electronic waste (e-waste) is today the fastest growing solid waste in the world, due to its unique characteristics like planned obsolescence, high technology and a fast growing consumer market. It can contain over 100 highly toxic and potentially hazardous substances to human health and to the environment. However, e-waste is a valuable secondary source of high quality finite raw minerals suitable for “urban mining” in which the materials contained should not be lost. The recovery materials from e-waste, also called Reverse Logistics (RL), which includes the insertion and application of sustainable Design, is an environmental and commercial measure of great importance that can only bring benefits to all involved. Unconventional pre-treatments techniques to separate gold-rich components and other parts of e-waste from motherboards, Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) and cell phone plates has not been extensively explored in literature. The aim of this paper is to describe a set of thermo-mechanical and manual techniques in pilot scale to separate gold-rich parts from the others of the e-waste mentioned above. Another goal of this research is to obtain the total mass of gold deposited on the three samples of selected connector tabs from PCBs. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technique was performed and the results were analyzed. With this procedure, the total gold mass could be evaluated.Abstract: Electronic waste (e-waste) is today the fastest growing solid waste in the world, due to its unique characteristics like planned obsolescence, high technology and a fast growing consumer market. It can contain over 100 highly toxic and potentially hazardous substances to human health and to the environment. However, e-waste is a valuable secondary ...Show More
Abstract: Agriculture has a high potential to contribute to poverty reduction and economic development. The sector in United Republic of Tanzania is however dominated by smallholder farmers whose productivity and income remained stagnated due to many challenges, one of which is poor knowledge of market mechanisms and how to link with buyer groups to sell their produce/products. To address this challenge particularly among paddy (rice) farmers in Sengerema District in Nwanza Region, a market linkage approach known as consortia platform model is being employed. This study investigated the effectiveness of this approach (consortia platform) by identifying the benefits or supports derived by the smallholder paddy farmers and also ascertain the change in productivity leading to improvement in level of sales and profitability as a result of their involvement in the platform. The methodology employed is Experimental and Control variable, to investigate any change in productivity and income of smallholder farmers before and after their membership of the consortia platform. Mixed methods of both qualitative and quantitative were employed to gather data using structured questionnaire, Key Informant Interview (KII), Focused Group Discussion (FGD) while both primary and secondary data were equally gathered. The result clearly showed an improved market opportunities and increased value addition for the famers, which has ultimately resulted to increased incomes of the smallholder producer. These benefits primarily result to: (i) improved access to markets and information; reduced transaction costs, reduced post-harvest losses, enhanced food safety, improved product quality and increased producer (farm gate) price.Abstract: Agriculture has a high potential to contribute to poverty reduction and economic development. The sector in United Republic of Tanzania is however dominated by smallholder farmers whose productivity and income remained stagnated due to many challenges, one of which is poor knowledge of market mechanisms and how to link with buyer groups to sell the...Show More