Have you ever heard of the term “e-waste”? If not, you’re not alone. Thankfully two very like minded individuals, Annie Leonard, who is the co creator of the Global Alliance for Incinerator, and Chris Caroll, writer for National Geographic Magazine, dedicated their time to enlighten people into the unseen life cycle of outdated house held tech, “e-waste.” In Leonard’s essay, “The Story of Stuff: Electronics,” and Caroll’s short film script “High Tech Trash,” the reader gets an in-depth understating of the tremendous impact the technological empire has on the environment, and the individuals involved in the circulation of their products. Although Leonard and Caroll concede that e-waste is negatively impacting our environment, due to technologies …show more content…
Leonard created: “a collection of short, animated films that detail the complicated relationships between humans, their stuff, and the environment,” While, On the other hand, Caroll’s “High Tech Trash” was published in National Geographic, and mainly focuses on the “typically unseen, portion of the life cycle”(Leonard 50; Caroll 78). “The Story of Stuff: Electronics,” was originally a short film created by Leonard; however, Leonard published the film’s transcript into an essay type format, which in return gives her essay a more relaxed feel, due to the brevity and style of her content. Although Leonard adds numerous paragraphs entitled “notes” at the end of her essay, the organization of her content is very loose and covers a broad spectrum of the e-waste affair. In contrast, Caroll’s essay is a much longer, more in depth essay into the last portion of the e-waste life cycle, which is when our outdated technology ends up in toxic dumps of foreign countries. By Caroll focusing the majority of his essay on a single aspects e-waste, and the structure he uses to interpret his message, his essay may appeal to a smaller group of people. Leonard, on the other hand, may appeal to a more general group of people, due to the colloquial nature of her essay and …show more content…
Caroll forms relationships with the people that are being affected by the harsh toxins in our e-waste, thus creating an emotional appeal for the reader. For example, Caroll depicts a young boy living in Ghana, and the process he goes through to make a living off our old technological garbage. “With the flame retardant burned away-a process that has released a bouquet of carcinogens and other toxics- the wire may fetch a dollar from the scrap-metal buyer (79). The picture Caroll paints of a young boy surrounded by toxic fumes while burring “e-waste,” to only scrape by with a dollar creates a very unsettling image. Although Caroll and Leonard want to open the readers eyes into the negative effects of e-waste, both use separate focus points, such as Caroll’s detailed imagery and first person point of view on the last “unseen” portion of the e-waste cycle, and Leonard’s brief but chronological order of the entire e-waste
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
I was able to connect with On Dumpster Diving by Lars Eighner because of a couple experiences I have had with dumpster diving. One being about five or so years back when my dad owned a business right beside a Staples Office Supply store and they would share a dumpster that was placed between the two stores. Often I would go there as a kid and do things to try to help out for a little extra money. One of the main things my dad would have me do was take out the trash around the store to the dumpster out back. On multiple occasions when I went out to the dumpster I would find perfectly good stuff that Staples would just throw out because there was a little scratch on it or if someone returned something and they could not sell it again. Office
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure right? Well that's what a lot of people say, but probably not what writer Lars Eighner would say. Being a homeless, dumpster diver back in his youth he would have probably said, “one man’s trash is another man’s survival.”
The book is often cited as an environmental classic - of which there can be little doubt - but it is also said by some to have largely triggered the modern environmental movement. Its warning about the dangers of
In “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood” by Janisse Ray, the junkyard became the huge part of Janisse’s life. She was raised in the junkyard, which had an enormous effect on her personality. Janisse never experienced the same life like her peers did, because, unlike others her life was connected to the junkyard. At first, she was a kid and the only problem that junkyard caused to her was her peer’s negative reaction to it. But, by the time she got older, new difficulties had arisen.
Americans abuse technology by taking advantage of it which can lead to environmental issues. Americans use more energy than most as Mckibben explains, “the average American uses more energy between the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve and dinner on January 2 than the average, say, Tanzanian consumes in a year,” (559). In both essays, the authors discuss how Americans abuse technology and harm the environment, but Jensen's solution to cut technology altogether would be detrimental to our environment. Technology extends our capability to change the world to better suit us. Instead of cutting technology altogether, we should increase our technology in an energy-efficient way to minimize the harm it may
Lars Eighner’s essay “On Dumpster Diving” describes his experience of being a Dumpster scavenger. Eighner began his Dumpster diving about one year before he became homeless. Since he needed to support living with his dog, Lizbeth, he not only ran out of his savings but also had to spend his infrequent income on rent. Therefore, he had to obtain and satisfy his daily necessities from the Dumpsters. During his experience as a scavenger, he gained a lot of knowledge from the art of Dumpster diving. He had enhanced his ability in distinguishing what was safe to eat and what wasn’t. Every time he found something in Dumpsters, he always asked himself,“why was this discarded?” He figured out what was a good time to find fresh food, like pizza, and
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.
In the article “Consumer Apocalypse: WALL-E,” Chris Barsanti explains that the planet “is a planet destroyed by overconsumption, aided and abetted by a sickening web of consumer-industrial-complex propaganda.” Amanda Yesilbas, Katharine Trendacosta, and Annalee Newitz echo this argument in the article, "13 Post-Apocalyptic Stories That Actually Teach Valuable Lessons," when considering the film Logan’s Run: they state, “garbage in, garbage out” which solidifies the idea that if we treat the earth like garbage, we will get garbage in return. Although there are many more examples, these films help connect the idea that nature and the environment are fragile things that must be cared for and not abused. They want to push the ideal of conservation in a subtle and fantastical way; making you stop and think of what could become of the planet if we do not take care of
1. This proverb tells u sto guard our hearts and mids. What is the reason for this?
Once again, the novel hints at a problem in our own society. The continuous dumping of chemical waste and radiation will pile up to cause serious health and environmental concerns in the future. The novel warns us of the future of our environment if we continue to mistreat
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.
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.
The United States produces “about 8.25 billion tons of solid wastes each year” (Russell 1). People do not realize the impact they have on our planet and environment. When people throw anything in the trashcan, they are contributing to the destruction of our planet. The number landfills in the United States are decreasing, but the amount and volume of waste being thrown into the new landfills is increasing (Russell 4). Because of this escalating amount of garbage, Methane which contributes to global warming is an outcome of these landfills (Russell 7). As a result, our planet is suffering because of this epidemic. The garbage being put in the landfills could be recycled, but not enough businesses, ...