CONTENTS
1. Introduction - Presentation of the issue
2. The Life cycle of an electronic device
3. Issues
4. The Impacts of Electronic Waste
5. Sources of E-Waste
6. Solutions
7. Conclusion
8. Questionnaire
9. Bibliography
9.1. Books
9.2. Articles
9.3. Online (World Wide Web) Sources
10. Appendix
INTRODUCTION
The phenomenon of discarded electronic or electrical waste has generated worldwide attention and concern as it is a global problem that is getting bigger by the day. This concern is justified due to the effects of environmental pollution that e-waste causes. An estimated 50 million tons of e-waste is produced each year, globally, and this is projected to rise even further. America is the world’s largest producer with China a close second.
Electronic waste, E-waste, e scrap or Electronic disposal waste electrical and electronic equipment are the different names for the same thing. Electronic waste is defined to be an electronic device that is near its useful life or is at the end. E -waste is becoming a growing problem all over the world. The main source of E-waste is the Information Technology (IT) industries and the way these industries impact on the environment by the amount of resources these industries use in manufacturing product, the amount of power consumed by these equipment, the speed of production as well as the dangerous chemicals that are used to produce these electronic devices and the pollution caused across board. An example is how a computer circuit contain many chemical elements such as gold, copper, cadmium and many more.
Air pollution results out of indiscriminate burning of these scrap materials which leads to the release of dangerous chemicals in their gaseous forms and ash into the atmos...
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...ns of electronic devices even after the older versions still work?
10. Do you buy new versions of electronic devices upon release?
11. Do you have any electronic devices?
12. If Yes please list
13. After your electronic devices become damaged beyond repair (or obsolete), what do you do with them?
14. Are you aware of electronic waste recycle programs?
15. Are you aware about environmental hazards caused by improperly discarded electronic equipment?
16. If yes, please list
17. How do you consider the issue of disapproving foreign imports of second hand electronic devices into Ghana?
18. Have you ever visited the electronic waste section of the Agbogbloshie Marketplace?
19. If yes, what was your impression?
20. Do you have further comments or suggestions concerning e-waste management?
21. If yes please list
Thank you for participating in this survey
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?
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 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
He shares his knowledge on where to look, what to look for, and how to look for it. Closing time at local pizzerias would often yield Eighner a bounty of fresh pizzas. Whether it was from pranksters calling in fake orders or an error on a pizza’s toppings, among the trash was usually a healthy supply of uneaten, wasted pizzas. Due to their tendency to be careless when tossing out the contents of their refrigerators and pantries, Eighner also frequented dumpsters in the areas where college students lived in order to find provisions. College students can be in the habit of throwing everything out when the semester is over or in preparation for an upcoming holiday. Often the food tossed in with the trash is well within its expiration or sell by date, or have minor flaws. All of this waste is a welcome sight to people like Eighner who count on others to quickly lose sight of the value of things. This behavior is characteristic of a majority of society, where it has been engrained in people’s minds since childhood, the action of “out with the old, in with the new.” An example of this can been seen in technological advances, such as smart phones. Every few months it seems a newer model is released to the public, and without hesitation or consideration of the perfectly good phone in their possession they MUST acquire the new one.
Stephania A. Cornier, S. L. (2006). Origin and Helth Impacts of Emissons of Toxic By-Produts and Fine Particles from Combustion and Thermal Treatment of Hazardous Wastes. Environmental Health Perspectives, 810-817.
As several years pass to what is now the Information Age, technology is continuing to grow where human hands determine its impact. The countless ideas engineers have and the goal of creating it becomes clearer as it benefits humanity and their endeavours. An engineer’s accomplishments of surpassing the boundaries of the impossible are from the unique innovations from people’s ingenuity. An analogy of this comparison is the similarities of an idea to a seed. In relation, a seed follows a pattern to grow until they reach the point where they can sprout to life and be beneficial to society. Because society has become interdependent by technology, the outcomes shall affect not only society, but the environment also. However, various occurrences
Although the world as a whole has become greater and greater as each decade passes, the world has experienced a decline that overpowers the good that has happened in this century. Technology wise, the world has used this to our advantage, and become a greater and smarter world each day. However, the technology is a main reason for the world’s downfall.
In addition, individuals dispose off their electronic waste wrongly, and it ends up in the incinerators, where toxic gases are produced.
emerging or new market. It can originate from new technology or new market opportunities (Eliashberg, J., Lilien, G. L., & Rao, V. R. 1997). Literature defines product development as exploiting an untapped market opportunity and turning it into a value product for customer satisfaction. Development and introduction of a new product requires extensive research on understanding customer needs, market structure, emerging trends and analysing the internal & external competitive market environments. To evaluate customer satisfaction previous researches provide strong relationship between customer satisfaction and product quality, product features and value for money. ***
Waste incineration units produce a lot of carbon dioxide gas approximately around one third of the greenhouse gasses. It also impacts people’s health as they get exposed to the toxic emissions by breathing in the air or consuming contaminated food and water. Additionally, when the garbage gets burnt by the incinerators they end up as ashes which are then emitted from the chimneys, including the toxic materials and end up in specialist landfill sites for hazardous waste.
In old batteries, there is a toxic lead that is causing health problems for the Taiwan people who are disposing these batteries (Gay, 12). Space is becoming a landfill from the excess of space flights and the radioactive supplies from nuclear reactors, which could come to our atmosphere and explode (Gay, 13). When businesses run out of space to dump their toxic trash they go to poor nations because they do not have strict safety regulations (Gay, 31). The landfills on Earth are not the only place trash is getting put. The ocean is being trashed with plastic bags, soda can holders, and large fishnets, which are harming dolphins, turtles, sea lions, and others (Gay, 69). Military bases in the U.S have more hazardous waste and are responsible for contamination in soil and waters (Gay, 83). There are other hazards happening because we are throwing away so much stuff that companies have to remake all of those products. Incinerators are places where waste is burned to ashes and if we recycle these can go away. Incinerators cause sulfur dioxide, carbon m...
Boudier, F. & Bensebaa, F. (2011). Hazardous Waste Management and Corporate Social Responsibility: Illegal Trade of Electrical and Electronic Waste. Business and Society Review, 116, 29–53.
a. “The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates our average (across different products and industries) recycling rate to be 32.5%. What happens to the remaining unrecycled waste? The EPA explain that 12.5% are burned in incineration facilities (spewing hazardous emissions to the atmosphere) while the remaining 55% (well over half of the estimated 251 million tons of solid waste we produce in a year) are deposited in the landfills throughout the country.” (What is recycling 7 reasons why we should 2008)
Factories and transportation depend on huge amounts of fuel--billions of tons of coal and oil are consumed around the world every year. When these fuels burn they introduce smoke and other, less visible, by-products into the atmosphere.
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.