By: Erica Harden May 13 th, 2014

 Electronic waste, or e-waste, is electronics equipment that isn't properly recycled. Computers, cameras and cell phones are filled with highly toxic materials, like lead, mercury, cadmium and brominates flame retardants. To make matters worse, much of our e-waste is recycled (often illegally) overseas using sub- standard methods that do more harm than good.

 Landfilling, together with uncontrolled export and dumping in developing countries, is often the destination for e- waste arising in North America. Of the electronic equipment sent to "recyclers," a percentage is exported to Asia and Africa where it is frequently mishandled, causing pollution and harm to human health.

 April 2013) Roughly 40 million metric tons of electronic waste (e-waste) are produced globally each year, and about 13 percent of that weight is recycled mostly in developing countries. About 9 million tons of this waste— discarded televisions, computers, cell phones, and other electronics—are produced by the European Union, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). And UNEP notes that this estimate of waste is likely too low.

 E-waste is basically caused by the rapid growth of technological devices, increased population, and even human mentality. These reasons all, some more or some less, contribute to the growth of e-waste. Below is an explanation of each of these reasons in detail so you can fully understand the cause of e-waste.

 It’s difficult. I don’t think you can just blame one person. I think you need to look at everything. You do need the policies in place and you do need the awareness among the consumers and you do need awareness among the recyclers. The reason it happens is because there is a chance to make a profit out of something like this.  It’s easy to say yes if you put [in place] a policy that it should stop, but the actual implementation is much more difficult than the policy which is already in itself quite difficult. So I don’t think it’s possible or even right to try to blame somebody because it’s right across all the stakeholders who have to play a role in solving the problem.

 There is a development of a formal recycling infrastructure in quite a lot of developing countries now — not to say it’s going to change things completely. The informal recycling sector is still very strong in many countries. That’s certainly the case in India, that’s certainly the case in Nigeria and that’s certainly the case in Ghana. You have lots and lots of people engaged in e-waste and it’s not overnight that they can be converted into formal recyclers.

 You have to think about the three R’s principle: reduce, reuse and recycle. From a consumer point of view, the first thing to do would be to say ‘do I really need a new mobile phone?’ If you really do need a new mobile phone then ask if there is somebody else who can use [your] old mobile phone. So you have the reduce, then you have the reuse. And if nobody can use that mobile phone it’s best to recycle it than to let it sit in your drawer, really, because there you don’t have any chance of recovering the value of the mobile phone.

 Shed light’s on the fact that most of the recycling is part of a scheme to scavenge for parts that are still useful and worth money, and the people doing this scavenging work are often in underdeveloped areas of the world, are exposed to toxic chemicals, and, through their work, cause toxic chemicals to be released into the environment all in the name of profit.

 The success stories drove home that you have to be pretty motivated to recycle e-waste. You have to be willing to drive the stuff somewhere -– often at a designated hour -– or to pay someone to take it away, for starters. Next time I have e-waste to recycle, I’ll contact The 4th Bin, a for-pay recycler in New York City (which was praised by several readers) for a quote. But, like many of you, there is a limit to the effort and money I am able to devote to throwing stuff away.

 Laws and policies concerning the proper management of electronic product discards are evolving rapidly. Since certain components of electronic devices may be considered hazardous due to heavy metal or other constituents, the end- of-life handling of some electronic discards is regulated by either federal (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act--RCRA) or State (Health and Safety Code) hazardous waste laws, or both. New regulations regarding the proper management of Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) found in computer monitors and televisions were recently approved.

 From my understanding yes it could happen again, electronic is still happening in today’s world. Most people think when they throw away their old equipment it’s gone forever well it’s not about 80 percent of that material, very quickly, finds itself on a container ship going to a country like China, Nigeria, India, Vietnam, Pakistan — where very dirty things happen to it," says Jim Puckett, the executive director of the Basel Action Network, which works to keep toxic waste out of the environment.

 Medical waste falls into one of four categories: infectious, hazardous, radioactive, and "other."¹ Infectious, hazardous, and radioactive materials represent only a small portion of all medical waste, but attract the most concern. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that infectious waste constitutes between 10 percent and 15 percent of the medical waste stream.¹ Most is packaging, food stuffs, etc. and is similar to that which is generated by any public facility such as schools.

Chinese baby sitting of a pile of e waste.

 This is the ugly side of e waste.

Young Asian girl showing the effects of exporting E-Waste from the UK.

 A RIVER RUNNING THROUGH GHANA, I FIND IT VERY SAD TO SEE THOSE PEOPLE HAVE TO LIVE THORUGH ALL THAT FILTHY STUFF.

 Thanks for taking the time out to look at my PowerPoint, I'm very sure you have learned something that you never knew, because I know I have learned a lot just by doing this PowerPoint. Thanks once again