After listening and reading our new brief I did some research on some of the hazardous materials found in electronics. I found that the biggest problems were:  lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Lithium, Nickel, Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and Arsenic.

According to ewaste.com
“Most electronic waste goes through a recycling system called a WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), which not only recycles 95-98%, by weight, of all e-waste passed through it but ensures that any data left on hard drives and memories are thoroughly destroyed too.
* Picking Shed – first all the items are sorted by hand and batteries and copper are extracted for quality control.
* Initial Size Reduction Process – items are shredded into pieces as small as 100mm to prepare the e-waste to be thoroughly sorted. This is also where the data destruction takes place.
* Secondary Size Reduction – the small debris is shaken to ensure that it is evenly spread out on the conveyor belt before it gets broken down even more. Any dust extracted is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.
* Overband Magnet – using magnets, steel and iron are removed from the debris.Metallic & Non-Metallic Content – aluminum, copper, and brass are separated from the non-metallic content. The metallic can then be reused and resold as raw materials.
* Water Separation – water is used to separate plastic from the glass content. Once divided all raw materials can then be resold.”

The article from ewaste.com is reassuring, however, although almost everything can be recycled, I find a bigger problem is people don't bother to recycle old electronics and would rather throw it out instead as it is more convenient.

References:
http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/campaigns/toxics/science/chemicals-electronics/
http://ewasteguide.info/hazardous-substances
http://www.ewaste.com.au/ewaste-articles/how-is-electronic-waste-recycled/