The Truth Behind E-waste
Most everyone has a cell phone, stereo, computer, or some other
electronic device. Electronics have become part of our everyday,
which in turn has developed into a status symbol. You can't be seen
with outdated electronics, so what do you do? You toss them aside and
go out and buy the next greatest invention, and in six months, you do
it all over again. Everyone is guilty of throwing out old
electronics, I know I am. Upon reading phonestory.org, I discovered
the dangers of improper disposal of all this “garbage”, or as it
is better known, E-waste.
The electronics that are in the common house-hold usually contain
lead, mercury, copper, arsenic, cadmium, and beryllium, just to name
a few (Toothman). That is why we can't throw away electronics like we
would other garbage. The majority of what we toss away gets hauled
off to a landfill. If by chance the E-waste that is in landfills
break open and expose these elements, they can seep out into water
streams and our atmosphere polluting our world. With the high demand
for the most up-to-date electronics, the amount of E-waste that
mankind as accumulated over the years is astonishing. The nation
today dumps over 300 million electronics per year. Unfortunately,
only about 20% of that gets recycled causing the amount of E-waste to
pile up. On top of that, about 80% of the E-waste produced in the
U.S. is shipped off to other countries like Asia (“11 facts about
e-waste”).
To rid the world of piles of unused electronics, we should simply
recycle. The problem with recycling E-waste is that it can be very
dangerous. Most of the places that do recycle E-waste are in third
world countries where labor is cheap, and those places aren't
equipped with the tools to properly recycle. The good news is that
some have figured out what how and what you can recycle without the
dangerous conditions, but that is few and far between (Greenpeace
International). Because the majority of our E-waste is exported to
developing countries, proper recycling is still not a common thing.
Proper recycling of E-waste materials should be left up to the
country who has the problem instead of exporting it to underdeveloped
countries. If we chose to export our garbage to somewhere else, we
should make sure that they have the way to recycle the materials in a
safe manner. If we had the facilities to recycle our old electronics,
the amount of pollution that is caused by E-waste can be drastically
reduced and we could preserve and clean up our environment.
Sources:
“Do Something.” 11
Facts About E-waste. N.p. n.d.
Web. 13 April 2012.
Greenpeace International. Where Does E-waste End Up? N.p.
2012. Web. 13 April 2012 .
problem/where-does-e-waste-end-up/>
Toothman,
Jessika. How E-waste Works. N.p.
04 June 2008. Web. 12 April 2012.
<http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/everyday-tech/e-waste4.html>
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