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An essay about e waste
Solution and conclusion for e-waste
An essay about e waste
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1. Problem definition
1.1. What is E-waste
E-waste, or "Electronic waste", includes discarded computers, electronic equipments, entertainment consoles, mobile phones, televisions and many more. It comprises used electronics for reuse, resale, salvage, recycling, or disposal purposes.
1.2. Amount of E-waste
Rapid changes in technology and falling prices have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of electronic waste around the globe. An estimate of 50 million tons of E-waste is produced each year (Sthiannopkao S, 2012). This means every year one person’s share of e-waste is about 11.5 pounds, and is almost as heavy as a house cat. This cat-sized E-waste which contains lead, cadmium, beryllium, or brominated flame retardants is a serious problem to the land, water, and even humans (Treehugger, 2012).
1.3. Main part of E-waste
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.
To make things worse, e-waste is very hard to recycle. One reason is that there are no strict rules for the...
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Prakash, S., & Manhart, A. (2010). Socio-economic assesment and feasibility study on sustainable e-waste management in Ghana.
Robinson, B. (2009). Review: E-waste: An assesment of global production and environmental impacts. Science of the Total Environment, Vol. 408, 183-191.
Treehugger. (2012, January 26). This E-Waste Infographic Raises More Questions than It Answers. Retrieved from Technolygy: http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/e-waste-infographic-raises-more-questions-it-answers.html
Yu, J., Welford, R., & Hills, P. (2006). Industry responses to EU WEEE and ROHS Directives: Perspectives from China. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Vol. 13, No. 5, 286-299.
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
The article “Our E-Waste Problem Is Ridiculous, and Gadget Makers Aren’t Helping” by Christina Bonnington explains that our landfills are being filled with unused electronics of yesteryear. In 2011, there were 41.5 million tons of electronic wastes in landfills. In 2016, they projected the number to go up to 93.5 million tons. Specifically, our old products are in landfills now such as, HP computers, computer towers, cell phones, and batteries. The reason for all the waste is the human race is buying the newest electronics and not disposing of their unused and unwanted electronics properly. Also, not all of the unused electronics are recyclable. E-waste has a huge negative effect while in landfills because electronics breakdown and they breakdown
The e-waste trade is an exploitative industry in which electronics, circuit boards, old TV’s and desktops that are of no more value, get dumped into third world countries such as Ghana, Vietnam, Malaysia, Pakistan, Hong Kong, and many others. The people of these third world countries than burn the electronics in order to collect the remains and scraps of copper and iron that can be sold for money. The smell and burning smolder of plastic from the computers and old TV’s are incredibly toxic, slowly killing the children, women, and men that burn these e-waste remains in order to create a living for themselves. Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim all have theories that can be applied and related to this trade of e-waste. Adam Smith’s theory
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?
Weeks, Jennifer. "Future of Recycling." CQ Researcher, December 14, 2007: 1033-1060. http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/ (accessed November 29, 2011).
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.
I. There seem to be some background points I must go over before I can properly persuade you to recycle; this includes definitions and standard waste makeup.
Throughout the course of history there have been drastic changes in technology. Today, society depends on electronics for everything. This has led to astounding innovations in society. There is a lot of good that comes from the use of these products, but they can also be extremely dangerous to the environment if they are not disposed of properly. The use of different products such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops has skyrocketed in the past two decades.
When we throw out our old equipment, old TVs and computers end up in landfills, there are various toxic metals can cause various environmental problems. Yet even recycling the electronic waste, it might not be good to our environment. Have you even thought of how the United States shipping their electronic waste to some developing countries and the problems it may cause? As the United States passed the laws to recycle the electronic wastes, the companies can ship the electronic waste to the so-called recyclers in other countries legally. Recyclers, however, can be the intermediaries only since they can gain a huge profit from just exporting the electronic waste to other countries. Every year, around 80 to 85 percent of electronic products were discarded in landfills, which include some metals that release certain toxics into the air. Even the electronic wastes consistently bring damage to the environment, people in those developing countries, like China and India, still take this risk since they can make profit by separating the metal parts from the waste. Therefore, it is not an ethical choice to throw our electronic waste.
E-waste, also known as electronic waste include the electronic and electric appliances like television, computers, toasters, kettles, mobile phones, stereo systems, gaming devices, fridge, washing machines etc., almost all the household and official products with electrical components that were out of use. Due to constant product replacement and introduction of new and updated models lead to the growth of e-waste.
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 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...
Efficient waste managing approaches help with reducing and avoiding unpleasant impact on the environment and human health, while allowing financial development and progress in the quality of people’s life. People do not even imagine what is the size and capacity of their activities and the impact they produce on the environment. Garbage is an important ecological problem. It is seems amazing that approximately all of the citizens of the world identify rubbish as a major environmental problem and yet these people still litter. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (2008), an American produces 250 million tons of garbage per year (para.2). There are different circumstances that are based on the society, environmental conditions, occupation and size of each of the different family. As Richmond (2010) stated, if no administration organizations has the responsibility or resources to concentrate their efforts on the waste disposal, then the responsibility to do that is on ...
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.