Definition of Terms

Electronic Waste - or e-waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices.

Used electronics which are destined for refurbishment, reuse, resale, salvage recycling
through material recovery, or disposal are also considered e-waste. Informal processing
of e-waste in developing countries can lead to adverse human health effects and
environmental pollution.
Exponential growth - is a specific way that a quantity may increase over time. It occurs
when the instantaneous rate of change (that is, the derivative) of a quantity with respect
to time is proportional to the quantity itself. Described as a function, a quantity
undergoing exponential growth is an exponential function of time, that is, the variable
representing time is the exponent (in contrast to other types of growth, such as
quadratic growth).
Obsolescence - is the state of being which occurs when an object, service, or practice
is no longer wanted even though it may still be in good working order.
Household appliance - devices or machines, usually electrical, that are in your home
and which you use to do jobs such as cleaning or cooking.
Capita - Per capita is a Latin term that translates into "by head." Per capita means the
average per person and is often used in place of per person in statistical observances.
The phrase is used with economic data or reporting but is also applied to almost any
other occurrence of population description.
Economic growth - is an increase in the the production of economic goods and
services, compared from one period of time to another. It can be measured in nominal
or real (adjusted for inflation) terms. Traditionally, aggregate economic growth is
measured in terms of gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product (GDP),
although alternative metrics are sometimes used.
E-waste management system - is also called urban mining. It is the process of
extracting the parts out of the e-waste to either sell or reuse.
Lifespan - The lifespan of a product, organization, or idea is the period of time for which
it is expected to work properly or to last.
Parameters - is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular
system (meaning an event, project, object, situation, etc.). That is, a parameter is an
element of a system that is useful, or critical, when identifying the system, or when
evaluating its performance, status, condition, etc.
Storage - space or a place for storing
Silicon - a tetravalent nonmetallic element that occurs combined as the most abundant
element next to oxygen in the earth's crust and is used especially in ferrosilicon for
steelmaking, in other alloys, and in semiconductors
Computer chips - also called chip, integrated circuit or small wafer of semiconductor
material embedded with integrated circuitry. Chips comprise the processing and
memory units of the modern digital computer (see microprocessor; RAM).
Concrete - is a construction material composed of cement, fine aggregates (sand) and
coarse aggregates mixed with water which hardens with time. Portland cement is the
commonly used type of cement for production of concrete.
Concrete mix - is a combination of five major elements in various proportions: cement,
water, coarse aggregates, fine aggregates (i.e. sand), and air. Additional elements such
as pozzolanic materials and chemical admixtures can also be incorporated into the mix
to give it certain desirable properties.
Compressive strength -or compression strength is the capacity of a material or
structure to withstand loads tending to reduce size, as opposed to tensile strength,
which withstands loads tending to elongate. In other words, compressive strength
resists compression (being pushed together), whereas tensile strength resists tension
(being pulled apart). In the study of strength of materials, tensile strength, compressive
strength, and shear strength can be analyzed independently.
Fly ash - is a fine gray powder consisting mostly of spherical, glassy particles that are
produced as a by product in coal-fired power stations. Fly ash has pozzolanic
properties, meaning that it reacts with lime to form cementitious compounds. It is
commonly known as a supplementary cementitious material. A fine solid particles of
ashes, dust, and soot carried out from burning fuel (such as coal or oil) by the draft.
Amorphous - having no fixed form or shape; not clear or not determined
Crystalline - is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions)
are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that
extends in all directions.
Silicon dioxide - also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula
SiO2, most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms.In many
parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most
complex and most abundant families of materials, existing as a compound of several
minerals and as synthetic product. Notable examples include fused quartz, fumed silica,
silica gel, and aerogels. It is used in structural materials, microelectronics (as an
electrical insulator), and as components in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
Particle size - is a notion introduced for comparing dimensions of solid particles
(flecks), liquid particles (droplets), or gaseous particles (bubbles). The notion of particle
size applies to colloidal particles, particles in ecology, particles present in granular
material (whether airborne or not), and particles that form a granular material (see also
grain size).
Microsilica - is a by-product of the manufacture of silicon and ferrosilicon alloys from
high-purity quartz and coal in a submerged-arc electric furnace.
Silica fume - also known as microsilica, (CAS number 69012-64-2, EINECS number
273-761-1) is an amorphous (non-crystalline) polymorph of silicon dioxide, silica. It is an
ultrafine powder collected as a by-product of the silicon and ferrosilicon alloy production
and consists of spherical particles with an average particle diameter of 150 nm. The
main field of application is as pozzolanic material for high performance concrete.
Bulk density - also called apparent density or volumetric density, is a property of
powders, granules, and other "divided" solids, especially used in reference to mineral
components (soil, gravel), chemical substances, (pharmaceutical) ingredients, foodstuff,
or any other masses of corpuscular or particulate matter. It is defined as the mass of
many particles of the material divided by the total volume they occupy. The total volume
includes particle volume, inter-particle void volume, and internal pore volume.
Specific gravity - also called relative density, ratio of the density of a substance to that
of a standard substance.
Specific surface - the ratio of the total surface of a substance (such as an adsorbent)
to its volume : surface area (as of a finely divided powder) per unit mass.
Portland Cement – is a hydraulic cement made by finely pulverizing the clinker
produced by calcining to incipient fusion a mixture of clay and limestone or similar
materials.
Density - is a measurement that compares the amount of matter an object has to its
volume. An object with much matter in a certain volume has high density. An object with
little matter in the same amount of volume has a low density.Density is found by dividing
the mass of an object by its volume.
Absorption - is a physical or chemical phenomenon or a process in which atoms,
molecules or ions enter some bulk phase – liquid or solid material. This is a different
process from adsorption, since molecules undergoing absorption are taken up by the
volume, not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption). A more general term is
sorption, which covers absorption, adsorption, and ion exchange. Absorption is a
condition in which something takes in another substance.
Angular shape - a shape having one or more sharp angles
Crushing value - is defined as the ratio of finess passing a standard sieve produced by
crushing under standard condition to the weight of coarse aggregate expressed as a
percentage.
Impact value - gives a relative measure of the resistance of an aggregate to sudden
shock or impact, which in some aggregates differs from its resistance to a slow
compressive load.
Printed circuit boards - mechanically supports and electrically connects electronic
components or electrical components using conductive tracks, pads and other features
etched from one or more sheet layers of copper laminated onto and/or between sheet
layers of a non-conductive substrate. Components are generally soldered onto the PCB
to both electrically connect and mechanically fasten them to it.Printed circuit boards are
used in all but the simplest electronic products. They are also used in some electrical
products, such as passive switch boxes.
Resistor - is an electrical component that limits or regulates the flow of electrical current
in an electronic circuit. Resistors can also be used to provide a specific voltage for an
active device such as a transistor.
Nickel - is a natural element obtained from the core of the earth. It has silver white color
with a shining base and golden tint in it. Nickel is said to be useful for its properties of
being ductile and corrosion resistant. Nickel is extracted from two ores - magmatic
sulfides and laterites.
Ceramic - relating to the manufacture of any product (such as earthenware, porcelain,
or brick) made essentially from a nonmetallic mineral (such as clay) by firing at a high
temperature.
Atoms - is the defining structure of an element, which cannot be broken by any
chemical means. A typical atom consists of a nucleus of positively-charged protons and
electrically neutral neutrons with negatively-charged electrons orbiting this nucleus.
However, an atom can consist of a single proton (i.e., the protium isotope of hydrogen)
as a nucleus. The number of protons defines the identity of an atom or its element.
Ionic Bond - is when a positively charged ion forms a bond with a negatively charged
ions and one atom transfers electrons to another. A chemical bond between two ions
with opposite charges, characteristic of salts. Also called electrovalent bond .
Covalent - the interatomic linkage that results from the sharing of an electron pair
between two atoms. The binding arises from the electrostatic attraction of their nuclei for
the same electrons. A covalent bond forms when the bonded atoms have a lower total
energy than that of widely separated atoms.
Glass - a hard, brittle, noncrystalline, more or less transparent substance produced by
fusion, usually consisting of mutually dissolved silica and silicates that also contain soda
and lime, as in the ordinary variety used for windows and bottles.
Elasticity - the ability of an object or material to resume its normal shape after being
stretched or compressed; stretchiness.
Poisson ratio - is the ratio of transverse contraction strain to longitudinal extension
strain in the direction of stretching force. Tensile deformation is considered positive and
compressive deformation is considered negative. The definition of Poisson's ratio
contains a minus sign so that normal materials have a positive ratio.
Linear Expansion - is the result of reversible and irreversible swelling, which is caused
by the release of residual compressive stresses imparted to the composite material
during the composite pressing process.
Tensile Strength - is a measurement of the force required to pull something such as
rope, wire, or a structural beam to the point where it breaks.The tensile strength of a
material is the maximum amount of tensile stress that it can take before failure, for
example breaking.
Isotropic - having a physical property which has the same value when measured in
different directions.
Fragile - easily broken or destroyed