Essay about 2 solution of E-waste problem

“Future archaeologists will note that at the tail end of the 20th century, a new, noxious kind of clutter exploded across the landscape: the digital detritus that has come to be called e-waste” (Carroll 3).

This statement by Carroll shows the epidemic of e waste that the entire globe is suffering from. E waste from our definition is used electronics such as TVs, phones, computers, and radio. As technology advances new and advances electronic appliances are brought in the market which attracts consumers, therefore consumer in pursuit of elegance, quality or even prestige opt out of their old devices and go for the new more technological devices. This has created a major problem of disposing the old and used devices and over the years the total numbers of e waste have been in the rise. “Gordon Moore, co-founder of the computer-chip maker Intel, observed that computer processing power roughly doubles every two years. An unstated corollary to "Moore's law" is that at any given time, all the machines considered state-of-the-art are simultaneously on the verge of obsolescence” (Carroll 3). This shows us that the problem is here, which keep on the same way of consummating electronic devices, and the more we still doing the same thing, the more that we will get in bigger problem.

Various researches give various values for the amount of e waste that have been dumped not only across U.S but also all over the planet. However, both agree that the amount of e waste is alarming and have been on the increase over the recent years. For example, more than about 130 million still working phones were retired in 2002 in the U.S alone and the number have been increasing with the years. In Japan phones are said to be discarded a year after purchase (Slade 6). In the U.S it is said that about 98 million cell phones took their last call in 2005 (Carroll 3). The computers on the other hand are said to have decreased in lifespan from about 4.5 years in 1992 to about 2 years in 2005. This has led to large amount of e waste about 20 million per year globally. The digital migration of TVs from analog to digital has led to generation of about 25 million yearly e wastes of TVs in the US alone. In total according to the UNEP if all e wastes are tallied they could amount to about 50 million tones yearly (Carroll 3). This brings us to the question, what has led to this high number of electronic waste?

Each and every day Samsung, Apple, Microsoft and other information giant companies announce a new model, which they claim to be better than the previous model. New phones with more advanced or even new technologies are manufactured; TVs, which are better than the already existing versions are, invented daily, Laptops or PC with bigger RAM or internal memory or even better graphics enter the markets. This technological advancement is one of the major factors that have led to increase in the amount of e waste (Slade 6). Everyone is rushing to have the best of the available be it phone, computer, and TV. In town meanwhile discarding their old devices. Another factor to be blamed for this trend is the advertisements which keep showing why this new electronics are the best, the adverts tells people how the new phone is the hype in town or how you now have a chance of watching your football live in HD screens and much more amazing things. This have brought confusion to consumers where they keep changing from one device to the other just to experience what they are promised and some even buy these devices for prestige. For example, some people changing their phones every month like shoes just for the sake of prestige. This in return has led to people discarding their old phones or other devices (Slade 6). Lastly lack of recycling and increase in the use of these electronic devices all over the globe has also led to this menace we are facing. No good recycling policies have been put in place to help curb the rise of e waste. We through them aimlessly without the knowledge they have to our environment. This has intern created lots of problem to both our life as humans and to the entire environment.

In term of doing business, the U.S import their devices outside the country. Moreover, Ads and media play a huge role in this (Leonard). Which has a huge impact on the develop countries. According to Chris Carroll, “In the United States, it is estimated that more than 70 percent of discarded computers and monitors, and well over 80 percent of TVs, eventually end up in landfills” (Carroll 3). As shown from above expert E- waste pose a great threat to the environment, they may leak various toxic compounds such as lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium and many more. For example, India being the highest recyclers of this waste has their soil contaminated with this compound. Loni has almost 147 times the expected control of this toxic compounds (Bradley 1). These compounds have adverse effects on the plant, terrestrial animal and even aquatic life if they are carried along with water to water bodies. They kill most of these organisms thus interfering with the ecology of the planet. They also cause mechanical damage to the organisms and also prohibit growth of these organisms. Other effects to the environment include air pollution due to bad habit of disposing them through burning, this not only leads to deposition of toxic fumes in the atmosphere, and they may help perpetuate the effects of global warming and ozone layer destruction.

The effects on human life is also inestimable, these problems range from pulmonary diseases as a result of fumes from the smoke of the burning of these e waste. The smoke also has effect on one’s nervous system and are nauseating (Carroll 2). They also contaminate drinking water disposing man to myriads of problems. “Drinking water has also been contaminated, the study found, with observable amounts of toxic metals. One sample in each region even contained mercury – 710 times the Indian standard limit in Mandoli, and about 20 times the limit in Loni” (Bradley 1). These toxics when accumulated in the body may lead to damage of kidney, lungs, brains and other important body organs. They are also said to be carcinogenic and may cause cancer.

Increase of e waste in the developed countries have led to exporting this waste to the developing countries with China being the largest importer followed by India, Nigeria and Ghana in that order this is according to the Environmental Science and Technology study, carried out in 2005 (Bradley 1). In the case of India 80% of all the imports originate from U.S. Most of this developing countries import of the used products where the good products are re-used while those that are not useful the copper wires and other valuable parts are extracted. This poses the individuals extracting them to the above named problems of contamination by the toxic compounds. In addition the plastic parts are burnt posing the air pollution. Children of as low as 10 years take part in this processes thus exposing themselves to dangers of contamination, which might be much severe to them.

In short, e-waste is serious and big problem that needs proper addressing and as soon as possible so as to combat the side effects associated with them. Developed countries should also be discouraged from dumping these wastes to developing countries.

Works cited

Bradley, Laura. “E-Waste in Developing Countries Endangers Environment, Locals.” US News and World Report. 1 Aug. 2014. US News. Web. 11 February 2015. 22 Jan. 2015.

Carroll, Chris. "High-Tech." National Geographic Jan. 2008.1-3. Print.

Leonard, Annie. The Story Of Stuff. Dir. Louis Fox. Produced by Free Range Studio. Story Of Stuff.org.2007. Film

Slade, Giles. "Insatiable, That's Us." Conference Board Review. 44.6 (2006): 12-14. Business Source Premier. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.