Water purifier to address e-waste pollution

Toxic water waste

Sustainability Problem:

Given the rise of electronic waste, toxic heavy metal pollution in our waters, such as mercury, cadmium and lead, becomes a growing concern. This problem is especially prominent in countries such as China and India, where factories are recovering e-waste from around the world and discharges the heavy metals and other chemicals into the local water bodies as part of the process, which poses a great challenge to provide safe and clean drinking water for the local communities.
There are current solutions that range from chlorination and high-tech filtration systems that could be utilized; however, the issue of high cost and the fact that the processes depends highly on fossil fuels still prevent large scale-implementation of the technologies

Technology:

A renewable heavy metal filter, built from graphene nanotubes, can be rinsed with a simple vinegar concentrate and be reused – then the highly concentrated waste can be evaporated, which leaves a deposit of pure metals that can be reused in many different applications
This process that could remove 99% of heavy metal from the water that passes through it
The filter could be fitted to taps in homes, as well as in industry, to replace existing, non-renewable filtration systems such as reverse osmosis

Technology stakeholders:

Implementation:

Because the technology is made open source and available for everyone, implementation and expansion of the technology could be achieved in various ways
Local governments in countries with water quality concerns could work with NGOs to implement the technology at a large scale, as part of a decentralized process of providing clean water to households
Industry could directly produce these new filters and replace their existing ones, which will cut costs in the long run

Sources:

makeasmartcity