INTRODUCTION
Health is always considered the most important factor for human’s lives. Without health, we cannot do anything. There are many factors in daily activities that can affect your health such as food, drinks, soil, water, air, or we can say the environment around us. Because the environment plays a vital role to human’s’ health, we are trying to do everything to conserve the environment. However, there are still some activities that we might think they are safe for us and the environment; it they actually kills us in far the future. One of them is recycling electronics equipment. Nowadays, electronic waste (e-waste) is increasing rapidly in the US and many people know that they should not just throw e-waste in the garbage can because it can be delivered to the landfill, burned and leave over chemical substances into water underground . That is very dangerous because it might kill all the trees that groundwater feeds and it could get into our drinking water of us. Therefore, they just end up giving those broken electronics stuffs to an e-waste recycler without knowing where their e-waste will go. However, it was still not safe when you give those broken electronic equipment to e-waste recycler in the past due to not qualified process of recycling and labor safety. Now, E-Stewards Certification, a new recycling program, which is highly qualified for environment and worker safety, has come out. I’m going to discuss why it is dangerous to us before the E-Stewards Certification came out, the definition and the reliability of E-Stewards Certification.
WHY IS RECYLING E-WASTE WITHOUT E-STEWARDS CERTIFICATION REALLY DANGEROUS TO US?
There are about 40 million computers and televisions are discarded every year i...
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...es in the world have an e-Stewards label on their products, where is visible to consumers as well as locations where people can recycle their e-waste. One possible way is that I think in the future, scientist should come up with a new way to make electronics equipments that contains less chemical substances.
Works Cited
[1] Lyman, Francesca. (2010, May 6). The ever-changing Landscape of E-waste Recycling [Online]. Available: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/recycling/changing-e-waste-recycling-landscape
[2] Reed, Amanda. (2010, May 13). The Latest in E-Waste Recycling: e-Steward Certification [Online]. Available: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/011163.html
[3] Lelanew. (2010, January 20). Electronics Recycling to Save the Environment [Online]. Available: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Recycle-Your-Electronic-Equipment-and-Make-Money
...e recycle system to be constantly upgraded with the latest technology when it comes on the market.
Even though electronic waste contributes one percent of waste as discussed earlier, it poses a significant threat to the environment. “RCRA does not, however, cover electronic waste except CRTs, nor does it regulate electronic devices donated for educational or charitable reuse.” The RCRA should implement rules to govern e-waste because e-waste not only affects lives in the United States, It affects everyone globally. E-waste typically finds its ways out of the United States and ends up in developing countries like
Electronic waste, or any waste for that matter is an inevitable part of an economic system where the destruction of an ecosystem is the primarily source of resources that are used to create the product. The waste that occurs from this process has to be disposed of in some way and more often than not, it is disposed of carelessly with out consideration to the affect it would have on the environment or the very people that create and let capitalism live on, “The political economy approach also defers progress on environmental issues to a pint after economic ones are solved” (Robbins et al. 2010, 114). And if this continues there may be no place left for the excess waste created by capitalism.
... Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "E-waste: The Global Impact." Processor (30 Jan. 2009). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 6 May 2014.
We believe It manufacturers, the Waste Management Industry and Governments are constantly seeking new and also innovative methods for you to reduce your environmental impact regarding the operations.
The current major stakeholders that are investing within the industry are environmentalist and e-waste companies in which there purpose is the dumping of a total of 47.4-million computers, 27.2 million televisions, and 141 million mobile devices annually into landfills. Programs such like these are collaboration with the big companies such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Dell. Their purpose is to start up a computer-recycling program that will help recycle their products for a fee of $10 per item.
“I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?”
There are many solutions proposed by various peoples, groups, and organizations. One solution is to turn to what is called a circular economy. Also might be know for the principles "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle"(Qiao p.253). A circular economy is an economy focused on more ethical and sustainable production and development. According to Qiao(2013), “The circular economy concept was first introduced in the 1960s by American economist K. Boulding”(p.254). A circular economy focuses on recycling and reusing resources. It also aims to reduce the amount of energy and resources used. As Qiao states, “the circular economy is an economic development model that pays all its attention to the quality of development, use of science and technology, resource savings and clean production”(p.256). That mean s it focuses on being as environmentally friendly as possible. This goes hand and hand with another solution.
The amount of waste is gradually increasing with economic development in Japan. The government attempts to reduce such wastes by promoting recycling low. In addition, recycling has recently become the focus of public attention, because it is a big problem that the amount of CO2 emission is increasing in the country, and people expect that the recycling will be a good solution for increasing amount of CO2 emission. There are however, some problems to encourage recycling, especially in terms of that recycling is not efficient way to reduce CO2 emission, recycling takes high cost and people don’t have knowledge about recycling very much.
up and can become an environmental problem. In 2014, 41.8 metric tonnes of e-waste was created
Environmental pollution has been a major concern to many stakeholders due to the related adversities that are associated with the practice. Human beings in general are well known to like having comfort and convenience at the minimum costs possible. The results of this has been the focus on the short term gains with little or no thought spared for the long term consequences of our behavior. Environmental problems are usually long term and the solution to these problems will only be realized at a higher cost if the remedy is not initiated early enough. Management of solid waste has come with a lot of challenges especially when recycling issues come to board. Solid waste management through recycling is something that has to do with behavior change among the population. According to environmental psychologists, recycling has been referred to as a ‘commons dilemma’. This means that natural resources are being overused due to the existing conflict between individual and group interests. Nevertheless, the government has taken center stage in conservation of the environment through the initiation of the recycling programs.
As humanity develops new technology, the magnitude and severity of waste increases. When computers were developed, it widely was believed that the need for paper would be eliminated. On the contrary this was widely proven false and we are now utilizing more paper than ever. Canada is not an exception as the typical Canadian generates an average of three pounds of solid waste each day1. This alone shows what a careless species we have become- using and disposing materials without even considering the damage we are causing. With half a trillion tones of waste around the world, only 25% may be reused for a second or third time and less than 5% can be renewed limitlessly1. These facts are true only in developed countries. Since these traditional waste reduction methods have been proven inefficient, we must endorse new innovative technology to arrive at a solution.
Preserving the environment is very important. One way that would be possible is by recycling. Recycling is the recovery and reprocessing of waste materials for use in new products. There are important environmental and economic benefits connected with recycling. Common materials that are recycled consist of aluminum cans, glass, paper, wood, and plastic (“Recycling”). Cleveland, Ohio joined the ranks of requiring recycling and also fines the homeowners for not disposing of waste correctly or leaving cans out too early or too long (McElroy 1). Michele McCay says that recycling is one of the easiest, most tangible ways of taking action for the planet (par. 1). If that is the case, why is it not required in all states? Recycling should be mandatory because it saves natural resources, it conserves energy, and it reduces pollution.
Recycling is important in the effort to preserve our environment for future generations. We are running out of locations to put landfills. Recycling is a simple and effective way to reduce the amount of waste stored in landfills, yet many people do not know how easy it can be. For example, whenever I go to Shoprite® and I b...
Environmental health has been a very important issue to talk about internationally these days. We, human beings are leading the earth toward its edge unconsciously. We are using natural resource more than we give to the Mother Nature. Day by Day, people are aware of what damage they do the environment, but they do not care of fixing this damage. In a very simple step, the road of a better healthy environment will begin; recycling is the best idea that illustrate the previous point. To Andrew Roper, recycling is the conversion of waste products into new materials, such as waste paper that can be converts into new paper goods (n.d). There are many types of recycling, for example, there are glass, paper, metal, plastics, textiles and electronics recycling (Evans , 2011). This research will focus on recycling papers in the United Arab Emirates, the benefits or recycling and its effect on the environment, the difficulties of recycling, the process of recycling paper, and the finals products of recycling.