1. Introduction
Technology is great because it makes life easier. It provides a quick and efficient form of communication, connects us to others, and saves lives among an array of other usages. But the electronic pieces used to make this technology may eventually make life hell. Electronic waste, or e-waste, consists of lead, mercury, cadmium, cobalt, arsenic, selenium, and other dangerous substances. It currently accounts for 5% of the United States’ solid waste, and experts predict that one billion pounds of e-waste will compile over the next decade (3). Twenty-five states have begun implementing policies to combat this future environmental harm by enacting e-waste laws; this includes Indiana in what is known as the “Indiana E-Cycle”.
The Indiana E-Cycle policy affects two separate groups of people, manufacturers and the general public. Manufacturers are now forced manufacturers of TVs, computers, laptops, keyboards, printers, fax machines, DVD players, gaming systems, and video cassette recorders, to finance and implement their own e-waste recycling program (7). The second groups affected are households, public schools, and small businesses. They are now obligated to e-cycle all e-waste to a local e-cycling centers.
Manufacturers have the harsher set of requirements. They are obliged to follow a detailed schedule that starts with the mandatory registration to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. They do this by paying a preliminary $5,000 fee. This cost is variable to each year after depending on how they do on the recycling agenda. This recycling agenda then conditions manufacturers to recycle at least 60% of the total weight for the electronic items they sell during the first year this is sanctioned. In the s...
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...ent of Environmental Management, or IDEM, is an environmental protect program whose mission is to protect human health and the environment throughout the state (6). They also staff nearly one thousand people residents. With the Indiana E-Waste Law, manufacturers of e-waste products are required to pay a start-up registration fee of $5,000 followed by annual registration fees of $2,500 plus a variable amount depending on how much e-waste they recycled (6).
With IDEMs core mission to provide environmental oversight and assistance, an increased capital for this organization would not only help in managing e-waste but other areas as well. Research shows that adoption of environmental management systems has been proven to improve the condition of the environment as a whole (4). In addition, higher capital for the IDEM will grow the organization also creating more jobs.
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
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.
The United States, as well as the world, is more and more dependent on electronics. Everything around us runs on electricity; from the cars we drive, our dependency on mobile electronics we use, all the way down to the cappuccino machines that make our favorite beverages. We love our electronics. Last year alone “retail sales of consumer electronics fell just short of $1 trillion in 2011,” reports John Laposky of TWICE magazine, and those sales “are predicted to hit $1.04 trillion in 201...
Waste regulation in the United States did not always consist of large green Groot trucks arriving weekly on Fridays, strict EPA environmental protection laws, and the widespread implementation of teaching children to “save and recycle” in schools. In fact, the US has a long and disheveled history with waste management, with some infamous disasters longing to be forgotten. Neal Stephenson’s Zodiac, a self-dubbed “eco-thriller,” tackles in a fictional setting some of these waste management dilemmas using politicians, industry/company leaders, media, and technology. Stephenson’s 1988 novel was published at a time of heightening public consciousness of waste management and addresses the core factors of regulating this crisis,
Reduce, recycle and recycle could be a construct that individuals area unit beginning to perceive and to use to each life round the world (GOV.UK, 2013). This knowledge base essay can explore info concerning use by totally different resources that are provided to use such as the web, books, journals and alternative resources that needs to offer American state info on use. This essay can discover use as business, environmental and policy perspective. Use is that the methodology by that we tend to recover valuable resources to be re-used once more and once more. However just one a part of healing the atmosphere, it's a sensible action that people altogether businesses participate in daily routines on recycling (Reclaim, 2013). While recycling is only one part to healing the environment it is a practical action that individuals in all businesses and people take part in every day.
Various recycling policies will allow us to see what federal law may enforce. For example, in California, various recycling policies have been implemented, one in which the consumer pays more for a product to fund that product’s recycling. You could call it a recycling tax. In 1989 the “Recycled Newsprint ... ... middle of paper ... ...
The environmental performance of numerous tech companies has been evaluated and since Apple has grown over time, it has received more attention. There has been a frequent campaign against Apple by different environmental organisations such as Greenpeace requesting for the elimination of hardware components that are non-recyclable hardware components, a comprehensive plan that would make the products of Apple not end up in the waste and the removal of toxins from iPhone hardware (Apple Inc. 2016). As much as such campaigns affect the operations of Apple Inc., they are good since they help in the conservation of the environment thus having a good impact on the
Recycling has many benefits not only does it help the environment by reducing the amount of landfills witch cost tax payer dollars in addition to ruining the environment around them. It can help reduce the cost of making a new product such a plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and paper. In addition to this some recycling companies will pay citizens a small amount f...
• Organize and conduct information, education and communication ( IEC ) activities on integrated Solid Waste Management Program such as recycling, Re-use, composting, sanitation, proper collection and disposal of solid.
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...
The future for these products is also quite often over looked. The components are not made to be detachable, so the different materials cannot be recycled correctly or recycled at all, which leads to landfills and pollution. Every material, from wood to steel to carbon fibre has an environmental story behind it and these can all be reused, however there is quite often not enough thought into this design aspect. These components are not labelled correctly for recycling and the result is a scarred landscape. However recycling these days has now turned into a way of life for us. Bins are now everywhere marked with the unmistakeable ‘three-green-arrow’ (another remarkable graphic design – now playing a huge role in the way we live), which lets members of the public kn...
Preserving the environment is very important. One way that would be possible is by recycling. Recycling is the recovery and reprocessing of waste materials for use in new products. There are important environmental and economic benefits connected with recycling. Common materials that are recycled consist of aluminum cans, glass, paper, wood, and plastic (“Recycling”). Cleveland, Ohio joined the ranks of requiring recycling and also fines the homeowners for not disposing of waste correctly or leaving cans out too early or too long (McElroy 1). Michele McCay says that recycling is one of the easiest, most tangible ways of taking action for the planet (par. 1). If that is the case, why is it not required in all states? Recycling should be mandatory because it saves natural resources, it conserves energy, and it reduces pollution.
"Recycling | Reduce, Reuse, Recycle | US EPA." US Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 06 Dec. 2011. .