1.0 Introduction
Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the fastest growing contributors to the nation’s waste stream. Waste can generally be defined as any material or substance that is of no further use and has been discarded. E-waste in particular is the waste of electrical and electronic equipment that is dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields in order to function (including all components, subassemblies and consumables which are part of the original equipment at the time of discarding) .
This report will outline the development of e-waste as an environmental issue then highlight both the environmental impacts and the economic impacts of e-waste. An analysis of historical attempts in addressing the issue will then be discussed followed by suggestions and recommendations for the consideration of the Australian Government’s Senate Committee on the Environment.
2.0 Development of the e-waste
Rapid changes to technology in the past few decades have led to a dramatic increase in the production of electrical goods and equipment. To stay up to date in this technological age, consumers have constantly upgraded their electronics to replace and discard the outdated ones. Moreover, economies of scale have balanced over time to lower the prices of many electrical goods, further increasing the demand for these products.
In a 2009 study by the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC), in the years 2007 to 2008, of the 16.8 million computers that reached their potential ‘end life’, only 1.5 million were recycled (< 9%) with the remainder being sent to landfill or storage. It is predicted that by 2028 the amassed volume of computers and televisions that reach the end of their useful life is expected to reach ove...
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...e framework to manage waste disposal on a voluntary, co-regulatory and mandatory basis. The Government should implement a mandatory compliance to the legislation on companies that generate a certain amount of revenue from electronics and electrical equipment in Australia.
Lastly, Australia is currently underutilising its existing recycling facilities. These facilities can be promoted for use to manage the recycling of e-waste without increasing any capital costs. It is estimated that our nation currently recycles just 4% of its e-waste, compared to Japan which recycles over 80%. Only 20% capacity is currently being used of all the recycling facilities around Australia. By promoting the collection of e-waste and processing these through our recycling facilities, we will not only manage the growing issue at hand, but also make our current facilities more efficient.
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
A very important issue tied to Canada’s future sustainability is that of recycling. There is currently a shortage of suitable landfill spaces in Canada, and the current landfills produce harmful emissions (Statistics Canada, 2008). Using methods to divert as many of these wastes away from landfills will help to slow their growth and improve Canada’s future outlook. Recycling is one such method.
The article, “Our E-Waste Problem is Ridiculous, and Gadget Makers Aren’t Helping,” by Christina Bonnington, focused the process of electronic devices to be recycled, the challenges of recycling electronic waste, and making devices more recyclable. First, Bonnington described the recycling process. Depending on the condition on the product will determine if it will be reused or stripped down to be destroyed. According to the author, having a simpler design makes the reprocessing easier to bare the electronics for turning into materials. Next, the author mentioned the challenges of recycling. One challenge is how electronics are becoming more compact and tougher to strip apart to separate the materials. Conferring to Bonnington, batteries are
In conclusion to this investigation one thing is clear and that is that recycling reeks benefits to the environment, Recycling material when compared to making material from raw material is a more efficient energy saving and more environmentally friendly way to reuse material that is usually consider as trash such as empty glass, and plastic bottles, or old newspapers. Recycling helps reduce the possible carbon emissions greatly and does reduce the human carbon footprint. But Recycling doesn’t resolve the pollution that is around the world today. Leading to new questions, questions like what about the landfills are they sustainable, and if so for how long. How long until the air becomes unbreathable? How long until Earth becomes its own furnace?
Reduce, recycle and recycle could be a construct that individuals area unit beginning to perceive and to use to each life round the world (GOV.UK, 2013). This knowledge base essay can explore info concerning use by totally different resources that are provided to use such as the web, books, journals and alternative resources that needs to offer American state info on use. This essay can discover use as business, environmental and policy perspective. Use is that the methodology by that we tend to recover valuable resources to be re-used once more and once more. However just one a part of healing the atmosphere, it's a sensible action that people altogether businesses participate in daily routines on recycling (Reclaim, 2013). While recycling is only one part to healing the environment it is a practical action that individuals in all businesses and people take part in every day.
Yet there is a side to the computer that most people don't see. When you go to buy a computer at Fry's or Comp-USA, you rarely, if ever, think about what will happen to the computer when you are done with it. When you buy the Pentium III with 512 MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, and 52x CDROM it is hard to imagine it ever becoming obsolete. Yet in two years, it is a piece of junk. And most of this goes into landfills. One computer user writes that she has "discovered that they are excellent at collecting dust and holding up bags of rice, but other than that... [she is]... at a loss to know where to unload this stuff" (USA Today, Jun 99). Despite 11% of the personal computers being recycled, "by the year 2004, experts estimate that we will have over 315 million obsolete computers in the US.
As the population of Victoria is rapidly growing, with an approximate and anticipated population growth of 8.9 million people by 2043, the Victorian government has integrated the waste management approach. This approach has been integrated into the lives
‘Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle’ are what a person chants if someone mentions the word recycling. Nicks J defines recycling as ‘[T]he processing of waste materials in order to make them reusable” (11). Individuals who recycle are not just throwing papers in green bins, or cans in blue; in fact, they are helping the environment more than they can imagine. People who want to preserve and protect their planet take the initiative to recycle waste materials. Rather than throwing away old plastic or glass bottles, aluminum cans, and certain types of paper, one can simply recycle them, and they will go through a cleaning and the remanufacturing process to be remade into a new usable item. There are many benefits of recycling, but a lot of people will argue against it. As Bauer, Mary states, “[Recycling] is a messy process That uses caustic chemicals and produces harmful byproducts and emissions” (12). Regardless, recycling programs have been implemented in many places such as California and Georgia and have been successful. Hence, individual’s states in the United States should make recycling mandatory because recycling will reduce E-Waste pollution, reduce waste, and benefit the economy.
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.
The information age has created the electronic industry which is the fast growing manufactory industry in the world (Electronic Waste Toronto). This includes the manufacturing of laptops, cell phones and TVs. The sales of those devices increase exponentially while the sales of traditional large machines like refrigerator and washing machine are at a steady state. This is due to people’s eagerness to new technology. In addition to that, the rapid change of the new technology causes devices to have shorter life span. People now change their devices just to experience newer technologies. For example, TV’s lifespan is now less than 7 years while in the past, it was over 10 years (Visualizing The World's E-Waste Problem, 2013). So the main contributor of the E-waste is the equipment which is changed frequently.
Is the importance of driving capitalism truly more important than the wellbeing of the consumer? All these questions are relevant to consumers because planned obsolescence is a reality in our current economy. By analyzing the example of incandescent light bulbs as well as the ethics versus the benefits of planned obsolescence, it can be concluded that planned obsolescence is not beneficial for the consumer but necessary for the current development of society until we can find an alternative to this waste-based society. The light bulb was one of the most important inventions of the 19th century. Houses could be alive when the day got dark, no more was there the risk of having your house burnt down.
Recycling is such a fantastic way for us to reuse the waste we once throw. Yet, not everything is easy to be done in this world. There many difficulties that face recycling process economically and socially. Usually In order to recycle, waste paper needs to be sorted and treated from any Impurities. Which means that companies will loss finance because there must be someone or something that could sort or treat these papers. Another problem is that to start recycling, companies needs a lot of good recyclable supply to pick it up; after all, they need good economic benefits (Problems with Recycling, 2014). According to the Waste and Resources Action Program, there are some barriers p...
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.
Recycling is of great importance, and its importance is economic and environmental. It preserves natural resources, reduces depletion, reduces the amount of waste, reduces its growth, conserves the environment, cleanses it of some harmful waste, reduces unemployment and creates opportunities. New work.
Wastes are the products of our consumptions in our daily life routines such as lunch, work, school and other things we do. Little things such as throwing out a piece of paper, we are producing waste by the seconds. After we consume a product we usually throw out what’s left that can’t be consumed any further. Results in producing waste, substance that are born after it’s been use or consume by us. At the end of each day we throw out a bag full of garbage, all of the materials in that bag (paper towels, cans, leftover foods and many other material’s) all of these are waste. Hospitals produce medical waste such as use needles for treating patients. Corporations produce papers, plastics, tires, steels, cans and many other type of solid waste which contribute to the pollutions that cause health risk and other environmental issues.