1. Introduction The Government of Canada defines e-waste as ‘surplus electronic and electrical equipment that is not suitable for reuse'[1]. After the completion of the usage life and with no any further reallocation possible electronic assets are generally classified as waste.
The Government of Canada disposes of a broad range of electronic and electrical equipment. For the 2011-2012 fiscal year, federal government spending in this area was estimated to be $1.2B and included computer, laboratory, medical, security, telecom, audio-visual, and office equipment [1]. A list of e-waste is provided in Annex 1 and Annex 2.
Environment Canada reports that volumes of e-waste are increasing by 4% annually across the country [2].
It is now almost
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Technical Assistance and Strategy
All federal departments and agencies are made responsible to handle their e-waste in consistent with the Treasury Board Directive on Disposal of Surplus Materiel, the Policy on Government Security and the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy keeping sound environment management practice. These departments are expected to maximize reuse and are responsible for material management costs like sorting, packaging, data sanitization, handling, recycling, etc. Further they are also responsible for the tracking and reporting of the disposal of the e-waste. [1]
Further, various agencies play significant role in providing policy level support and technical assistance. The most important ones are listed below:
• Environment Canada coordinates environmental policies and programs for the Government of Canada. This organization engages itself both on national and international level in issues related to the management of e-waste. For instance, it supports and further strengthens measures for environmentally sound management.[1]
• Natural resources Canada provides technical and policy advice regarding sustainable development and wise use of mineral and metal resources of Canada in national and global level. It tracks recycling activities of scrap metal, new facilities and processing technologies and activities related to market like import, export, prices,
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Recycling Programs at the Provinces: The provinces in Canada have their own recycling programs. These programs collect fund as a disposal fee charged to the customers during purchase of the designated equipment types. Also the Government of Canada pays the fees when it purchases the equipment in a province. To facilitate the process, each program runs a website illustrating information regarding the qualifying items, recycling fee and procedures to supply material to program along with necessary contact information. [1]
6.2.2. Standing Offer: E-waste that cannot be sent to the provincial recycling program and has no further reuse value are directed to the Standing Offer. It can be said as the last option to recycle the e-waste that cannot otherwise be managed. [1]
Annex 1 –Conforming Materiel
Following list contains equipment which are considered e-waste after being considered unsuitable for reuse.[1]
• IT Equipment o Analog computer o Automated Teller Machine (ATM) o Bar Code Scanner o Calculator o CD Rom Drive o Compact Discs o Computer Disc Drive o Computer keyboard o Computer mouse o Computer terminal o Copying equipment o Data tapes o Data Diskettes o Flash Memory Cards o Joystick o Mainframe Computer o Media Storage Devices o Microcomputer o Minicomputer o Monitor (CRT, LCD, Plasma) o Desktop computer o Personal Computer (handheld, laptop, notebook, notepad) o Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) o Point of Sale (POS) terminal o Printer o Computer
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
What is the current state of the recycling programs in Canada? Do some provinces recycle more than others? How can the amount of recycling in a nation be increased? What does the future hold in terms of recycling initiatives?
More than $31 billion worth of food is wasted every year in Canada and when energy, water and other resource costs are factored in the true cost could be up to as much as $107 Billion each year according to a report published by Value Chain Management International, a consulting firm, which suggests that millions of kilograms of food is wasted every year in Canadian homes, restarants, & grocery stores. This finding shows a 15 % increase from their findings four years ago when the cost was $27 Billion,in 2010. They also go on to say that this is 2% of Canada s GDP and larger than the total economic output of the poorest 29 countries on the planet.
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.
In 1986, a waste treaty between Canada and the U.S. was signed by American lawmakers concerning the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste. Under the terms of this treaty, the EPA is to receive notification of these shipments, and then would have 30 days to consent or object to the shipment. Since 1986 Canada has shipped its garbage to Michigan to be dumped into landfills and the provisions of this treaty have never been enforced. But now is the time for them to be enforced and stop the importing of Canada's garbage.
Businesses in central Wellington (New Zealand) will recycle cardboard and exchange unwanted materials for free of charge they conjointly get Fines of up to $400 if you permit out rubbish that is unsuitable for collections.
A. Recycling is the recovery of useful materials such as paper, glass, plastic and metals from the municipal solid waste stream to use to make new products, reducing the amount of virgin raw materials needed. (http://www.epa.gov/waste/nonhaz/municipal - I plan to cite on PP)
A Peripheral device is any external device attached to a computer. Without Peripherals a computer is just a box full of wires, transistors and circuits, which is able to: - 1. Respond to a specific set of instructions in a well-defined manner. 2. Execute a prerecorded list of instructions (a program). The only problem being that without any input Peripherals you cannot tell the computer to do any of the above processes, and if you could, without an output device of some kind, the computer has no way of delivering the result to the user! Examples of peripherals include printers, disk drives, display monitors, keyboards, and mice etc. These can be separated into two categories: - Input devices An input device is any machine that feeds data into a computer. For example, a keyboard is an input device. Input devices other than the keyboard are sometimes called alternate input devices. Mice, trackballs, and light pens are all alternate input devices. Output devices An output device is any machine capable of representing information from a computer. This includes display screens, printers, plotters, and synthesizers. C.P.U. Central Processing Unit Fig One Section One -- Developments in Peripherals in the Last Few Years There have been many advances in the field of Peripherals over the last few years. Even the humble keyboard and mouse have been re-invented to produce the Ergonomic keyboard and the cordless and laser mouse. There have also been advances in monitors such as flat screen displays and LCD screens. But there have also been advances in technology, which although not new, have been made commercially available for home use such as the digital camera, scanners, digital video camera and the colour printer. To look at some of the advances in detail we should put them into their categories. Output Devices Printers Printers have developed from the daisy wheel printer to the thermal printers of today. Other advancement in printers have been the laser printer (Same technology as photocopiers), which is used commonly in offices as it produces very high quality text and graphics. I general the Printer has developed in four areas. It has made improvements in the quality of type, the speed in which it can print, the quality of graphics and the number of fonts now available. Monitor (Display Screen) Monitors a few years ago were usually monochrome, displaying only two colours.
...es site requires detailed planning by the agencies of the country, such as the Department of Energy in the US. The long-term isolation of the high level waste is usually done in rural areas and it is suggested that planning, construction and operations of repositories would result in significant socio-economic effect(Finsterbausch 1980).The economic and social cost outweigh the social and economic benefits.
Further, “In 2008, nearly 13 tonnes of waste were generated by Canadian households. Of this, more than 8.5 million tonnes were disposed of in landfills or incine...
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.
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 ...
Input is really important for the computer. Through this device, users are allows to enter data or instructions into a computer. It changed something on the screen through the response. There are many kinds of input device for users to select depending on their application to get the result they want. There are many input technologies, for example, keyboard, pointing device, trackball, touch screen, touchpads and audio input. These devices can help users to connect with computer system directly.
"Recycling | Reduce, Reuse, Recycle | US EPA." US Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 06 Dec. 2011. .
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...