were development, testing and validation of a complex of technologies for the advanced recovery of IT and Telecommunication Waste materials, based on:

• Minimum energy consumption, no secondary waste generation
  
• Dismantling and intelligent separation (mechanical, electrical and electrochemical) of IT & Tellecommunication Waste materials, in order to obtain new or recycled materials, with increased purity and economic value, and their reintroduction into production
  
• Minimize shredding / sorting / separation operations to reduce material loss, contamination and significantly reduce electricity consumption
  
• Recovery of plastics resulting from non-polluting chemical technologies and their reintroduction into the economic circuit
  
• Continuous monitoring of technologies in order to minimize the impact on the environment
  

Environmental impact assessment is the assessment of the environmental consequences (positive and negative) of a real plan, policy, program or project before the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental impact assessment" is usually used when applied to real projects by individuals or companies, and the term "strategic environmental assessment" applies to policies, plans and programs most often proposed by state bodies.

The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) defines an environmental impact assessment as "the process of identifying, predicting, assessing and mitigating relevant biophysical, social and other effects of development proposals before major decisions are taken and commitments made.

The most difficult problems associated with the management of printed circuit boards or printed wiring (PCBs), resulting from waste electronic equipment, are environmental and health hazards that result mainly from current disposal techniques. The toxicity of PCBs poses a significant challenge in terms of disposal and treatment, in this regard much evidence has been published of the negative effects of PCB disposal on human health and the environment.

Within the Trade-IT project, the environmental impact assessment was performed for two technologies: electrostatic separation and selective dissolution and electrodeposition, using the "cfi" software developed for this purpose. The conclusion of this assessment is that globally, both electrochemical processes have a very low impact on the environment.

The various negative effects on the environment and human health are divided in 14 impact categories. Based on the potential to cause load (pollution) on the environment, a compound is evaluated using a simple ABC classification (high, medium, low relevance).

The 14 impact categories are divided into six impact groups (GIs), each representing an important area in terms of environmental, health or safety aspects. which carried out the environmental impact assessment.

The method of computing the environmental impact factor is presented here.

The cfi software user manual is presented here.

The validation of the cfi program was done with data published in two research articles, and the results of these validations are presented in the CFI-SOFTWARE section: here. si here.

In the TUTORIALS section, video tutorials are available for the use of the cfi software implemented and for exemplifying its use for assessing the environmental impact of the technologies developed in the project.