Everyday is seems like a new piece of technology comes out, and another one of your possessions gets outdated. It’s getting harder to keep up with the “latest new thing”. Pressure on people to always be updating their electronics has led to a giant surge of E-waste. E-waste is the surplus, obsolete, or broken electronic devices that become un-discard able garbage. Although it is great for the economy that people have to update things like cell phones, computers, televisions, and especially refrigerators, the dark side of the matter is that nobody knows what to do with the rest of it.
Although there are laws and regulations in the U.S. the prevent people from irresponsibly disposing of outdated goods, there are many countries that just don’t really care about the problem. What ends of happening is there are mass amounts of E-waste that are shipped off to these developing countries and improperly disposed of. You would be surprised how many poisonous materials go into the making of these products and even more surprised at how close in contact people are coming to them.
A child sits amoungst a pile of wires and E-waste
By 2020, E-waste levels in some of the most affected countries (Including India, South Africa and China) will increase by some 500 percent. Not all countries are suffering from imported waste, in fact, China has banned imported E-waste, but is still suffering in its own toxins being the number two contributor to the problem, second to the United States. In 2010 China produced 2.3 million tons of E-waste, U.S. produced 3 million.
Toxins in computers include barium, beryllium, cadmium, hexavelent chromium, lead, mercury, phosphorus, and PCBs. In China, a popular form of disposal is burning the waste, which released deadly toxins into the air. Children actually play in the mountains of trash that has accumulated in their backyards. Some computer manufacturers such as Dell, HP, and Apple have committed to making more eco friendly computers in response to pressure from local organizations such as Greenpeace.
Maybe the UN can band together and set some international laws in stone. Awareness of the subject is increasing and hopefully we wont be seeing those predicted numbers ten years from now.
Read from:
UN: Tidal Wave of E-Waste Poisoning Developing Nations
On Technewsworld.com
