Stream of Waste
E-waste and the dumping of the electronic waste materials (primarily in foreign countries such as Ghana) by affluent nations have greatly affected local populations. One of the fastest growing streams of waste is originating from electronics. With new technology being developed at a rapid pace that is largely unparalleled, more materials are being shipped away. Cell phones, televisions, and laptops litter countries not responsible for either the sale or ownership of the products. The waste left over from technology is often sent to companies that claim to be using legitimate means of recycling, but are often shipping the problem away. Localized efforts to promote proper recycling and disposal of electronics will be the most efficient means of hindering effects of e-waste.
Within Ghana is Agbogbloshie, the immense dumping ground for electronic waste. The technological history of first world countries can be seen strewn about the site. Technology made popular in the 1980’s and obsolete VHS players are not an uncommon sight for locals. The remains of each item are quickly dismantled in an effort to find the precious little pieces that might provide income for the poor families. In Ghana specifically, young kids are given jobs burning the plastic. Burning materials spew toxic chemicals and pollutants that greatly affect the health of nearby residents. Given that these are poor areas of the world, the drive to make even the smallest amount of money is very strong. Any financial benefit makes the risk involved immaterial.
The children living amongst the piles of yesterday’s technological marvels developed their own systems of sifting through the unwanted to find value. They place foam on top of components to allow t...
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... profit in trafficking discarded electronics. Positive steps are being taken, but the push for technological advancement has become priority. As new technology is released, more components become obsolete and later, discarded. The solutions offered by the groups mentioned above propose legal solutions and localized solutions. Is it more appropriate to fight the illegal actions that allow for the shipment of waste to third world countries, or should the problem be embraced a local levels to ensure that populations know how to safely and efficiently recycle hazardous products? The waste will find its way to Ghana and Asia regardless. The efforts of international groups to supply locals with the means to properly recycle seems to be the most beneficial choice. The research leads me to believe that the most beneficial programs are taking place in the affected countries.
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 article, “Our E-Waste Problem is Ridiculous, and Gadget Makers Aren’t Helping,” by Christina Bonnington, focused the process of electronic devices to be recycled, the challenges of recycling electronic waste, and making devices more recyclable. First, Bonnington described the recycling process. Depending on the condition on the product will determine if it will be reused or stripped down to be destroyed. According to the author, having a simpler design makes the reprocessing easier to bare the electronics for turning into materials. Next, the author mentioned the challenges of recycling. One challenge is how electronics are becoming more compact and tougher to strip apart to separate the materials. Conferring to Bonnington, batteries are
Since the industrial revolution the United States has experienced tremendous change. This change has created a consumer culture that has resulted in the creation of mass amounts of waste. According to reports, in the year 2003 Americans produced almost 500 million pounds waste. Alone the U.S consumes 30% of the world’s resources and produces 30% of all waste (Conquest, 2). These numbers attest to a consumer culture that has created an undesirable waste problem that is yet to be resolved. However, not everyone is affected proportionately by waste, as predominantly low-income communities live in close proximity to waste related sites. In this paper I will discuss how low-income communities are disproportionately subjected to the detrimental health effects caused by waste, and I will argue that low-income communities have historically and are currently responding to counter the effects of waste to protect their communities.
Capitalism in its purest form is all about maximizing profit at whatever the cost to the workers, economy or environment. In this light capitalism can be viewed as a double-edged sword, in which a company in a capitalistic economy will avoid extra cost at any chance possible even if that means the illegal disposal of harmful secondhand electronics avoiding all the rules and regulations that would make disposal cost extra called E-Waste, to impoverished countries such as China and Ghana. But this in turn hurts the very people that make the system work, which is the second contradiction of capitalism; with the improper disposal of waste that in turns make the workers sick, they then work less or potentially die, but a workers death in underdeveloped countries will have less of an affect on the economy “Because wage structures are lowest in less developed countries, pollution would mean fewer losses in earnings due to morbidity and mortality” (Robbins et al. 2010, 97). And the prime example of the damage that E-waste is causing is in Guiyu, China where irreversible damage has been done to the entire community because of failure to properly dispose of electronics by countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia has led to a surplus of harmful obsolete electronics that have flooded underdeveloped countries all in the name of saving money and avoiding the regulations set about by the U.S. government.
One person's trash is another person's treasure ¬- Unwanted electronics are not to be trashed. Relatives and friends in need can reuse old devices.
Support action by central and native government, businesses and civil society take advantage of these opportunities (The best recycling programs in US & around the world, 2012)
According to Gale opposing view points, “the cost of collecting, sorting, and proceeding recyclables can, for some materials, be higher than that of creating new raw materials” (Gale). This goes to show that even sometimes, recycling an item such as steel or paper or whatever, can cost more than actually make a new material from scratch, aka raw material. Not only that, but the places where the give mentioned provides a recyclable bin, they cost money also. A different type of trash machine comes to pick it up, more money there. The driver gets paid. The employees at raw recycling factor, which probably don’t do much, also get paid. All these unnecessary funds going to waste while the are people starving in the nation. While there are people around the world who don’t even have safe, clean water to drink; yet the government goes and spends on recycling
Humankind produces and consumes with little regard for waste. Susan Strasser’s Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash focuses on consumption’s byproduct; trash and what humankind has done to dispose of their waste over the past decades. Strasser catalogues an often deemed unsophisticated part of our modern society as being “central to our lives yet generally silenced or ignore” (p.36), throughout her book elucidating on the premise that one’s own view and opinion of what is deemed as trash varies greatly from person to person. Strasser explicates to the reader the rise of mass markets across the world and the impacts that production and consumption have on the creation of trash. Strasser begins to follow the story of trash in the pre-colonial
... converting plastic waste into useful products are being affected by pollution; this contamination is found within containers where plastics are collected. But the same risk of pollution carries downside consequences in which workers and people responsible for cleaning and disinfecting the plastic materials are not doing the best to eliminate plastic waste, and to disinfect the infected bacteria and microorganisms from the atmosphere and environment. Organizations from China and India are the largest in the world, they collect and purchase used plastic from United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America (Minguez 2013). These companies do not bother to sanitize the products before the recycling process; for this reason the planet earth is getting a worse environmental condition, and it is destroying lives of living beings, and natural resources as well (Uddin 2014).
Solid waste can be classified in different types, depending on their source, household waste is generally classified as municipal waste; industrial waste as hazardous waste or hospital waste as infections waste. It quite obvious that South Africa environment is deteriorated by the illegal dumping area that around here. Solid waste is a major problem this country is facing at the moment. The province that is experience this major problem is Gauteng province, this an urban area am taking about, and since it’s clear that over population is the cause of the problem. Gauteng province is an over populated than rural area .solid waste pollution is refuse or garbage that people use in their everyday life in their house, such as plastic
America and Europe are at the top of the list for most waste generated according to Waste (4). This is very visible because there’s litter on every street in the towns and cities, as well in lakes, beaches, and rivers. The book Waste by Rob Bowden states that the amount of waste produced is increasing at a rate faster than population growth. About 1.5 million computers, in the U.K, are thrown away each year and most end up in landfills. There are 3 types of waste which are Municipal Solid Waste, Industrial Waste, and Hazardous waste. MSW includes waste from public garbage cans and local dumpsters. Industrial Waste includes massive amounts of waste water that is contaminated with chemicals. Hazardous waste is the most dangerous as it presents a danger to human health and the environment. Solutions for waste disposal take time because people need to consider their lifestyle and limit the amount of waste they generate. A good start is to recycle items such as paper, cans, plastic, and clothes. This way they don’t end up in landfills, beaches, or streets. Another solution is to join organizations that go around places to recycle, or organizations that demand the reduction in the amount of products that are being
Traditional methods of waste disposal have proven to be ineffective and have caused harmful effects on the environment. The most popular and inexpensive way to get rid of garbage is burial, but burying your problems does not necessarily mean getting rid of them. Landfill sites pose as severe ecological threats as these mass garbage dump yards overflow with trash and frequently contaminate our air, soil and water with hazardous wastes. About 400 million tons of hazardous wastes are generated each year1. A large-scale release of these materials can cause thousands of deaths and may poison the environment for many years. For example many industrial companies around the world cannot afford to enforce the strict pollution regulations set by many developed countries. This usually forces these types of companies to move to developing countries where pollution regulations are very lenient. These developing countries knowingly accept environmentally hazardous companies usually because they are in desperate need of employment. The harmful effects of these companies were clearly illustrated in the 1960s and 1970s when residents living near Minamata Bay, Japan, developed nervous disorders, tremors, and paralysis in a mysterious epidemic. The root was later found to be a local industry that had released mercury, a highly toxic element, into Minamata Bay. The disaster had claimed the lives of 400 people1. Since 1970 you can bet that a lot more than 400 people have died as a result of waste disposal. If the type of waste disposal were cheaper and effective we wouldn’t have to deal with waste problems, which still plague mankind today.
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 ...
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...