Problems With E-Waste and What You Can Do About It
What is e-waste? Quite simply e-waste is all of those old electronics that we've got that have become outdated and we don't want them anymore.
As you can imagine, if you stop to think about it for a minute, technology is progressing at a very rapid pace.
This is having a horrible effect on our world.
I was over at a friend's house the other night and he had an entire box (and a pretty big one at that) full of old memory sticks for computers.
Just out of curiosity, we dug through them a little bit and they're all 128MB memory sticks.
Well you would be hard pressed to even find a computer that you could use them in.
While he might be able to sell a few of them on eBay or something, most of them will become e-waste.
There are many reasons that e-waste is becoming such a big problem.
Think about the life span of cell phone for example.
Most people won't keep their cell phone for longer than a year or two and then they'll get a new one.
This is due largely in part to their low initial cost, but also planned obsolescence.
Planned obsolescence is a practice that is employed by large corporations where they develop their products with the intention of having them used for a limited amount of time before they break or can't be used effectively anymore and they have to be replaced.
Now I know you might think that its no big deal for us to have all this waste, however e-waste is a little different than regular household waste that will break down over a fairly short period of time.
E-waste could almost be classified as hazardous waste in that its components don't break down as quickly and contains many chemicals that are dangerous to both the environment and humans.
Some of those chemicals include lead, cadmium and beryllium.
Dealing with the recycling of these products is a very delicate procedure and poses direct risks to the environment surrounding the facility as well as the employees that are doing the work.
There is a huge environmental and human tolls being exacted on developing countries like China and India by companies who seek to have e-waste recycled and mined for precious metals.
What can we do about it you ask? Well first off, don't just throw your old cell phones or computers away.
CRT monitors (the big bulky ones) are particular hazardous and is actually classified as hazardous household waste by the US government.
So what can you do with them? Find a place that shows responsibility in they way they handle and recycle or reuse.
I know it can be tempting to go buy that latest and greatest electronic device, but think a little bit about what all these electronics are doing to the environment and whether its something that you really need or not.
As you can imagine, if you stop to think about it for a minute, technology is progressing at a very rapid pace.
This is having a horrible effect on our world.
I was over at a friend's house the other night and he had an entire box (and a pretty big one at that) full of old memory sticks for computers.
Just out of curiosity, we dug through them a little bit and they're all 128MB memory sticks.
Well you would be hard pressed to even find a computer that you could use them in.
While he might be able to sell a few of them on eBay or something, most of them will become e-waste.
There are many reasons that e-waste is becoming such a big problem.
Think about the life span of cell phone for example.
Most people won't keep their cell phone for longer than a year or two and then they'll get a new one.
This is due largely in part to their low initial cost, but also planned obsolescence.
Planned obsolescence is a practice that is employed by large corporations where they develop their products with the intention of having them used for a limited amount of time before they break or can't be used effectively anymore and they have to be replaced.
Now I know you might think that its no big deal for us to have all this waste, however e-waste is a little different than regular household waste that will break down over a fairly short period of time.
E-waste could almost be classified as hazardous waste in that its components don't break down as quickly and contains many chemicals that are dangerous to both the environment and humans.
Some of those chemicals include lead, cadmium and beryllium.
Dealing with the recycling of these products is a very delicate procedure and poses direct risks to the environment surrounding the facility as well as the employees that are doing the work.
There is a huge environmental and human tolls being exacted on developing countries like China and India by companies who seek to have e-waste recycled and mined for precious metals.
What can we do about it you ask? Well first off, don't just throw your old cell phones or computers away.
CRT monitors (the big bulky ones) are particular hazardous and is actually classified as hazardous household waste by the US government.
So what can you do with them? Find a place that shows responsibility in they way they handle and recycle or reuse.
I know it can be tempting to go buy that latest and greatest electronic device, but think a little bit about what all these electronics are doing to the environment and whether its something that you really need or not.
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