Saturday, January 24, 2015

Project E-Waste


Cell phones, computers, batteries, and televisions... Every year new versions of these products come out!

That's great we're keeping up with technology but what do we normally do when those devices get outdated?

THROW IT OUT.

Throwing these unwanted devices are known as E-Waste. E-Wastes are detrimental to our environment when it's not disposed of the right way. It should be recycled rather being placed in landfills.

In places like Colorado, companies have already started to gain the attention of residents to recycle their E-Waste.

Since e-waste is increasing greatly by the numbers, we don't exactly know what to do with it. Companies gain electronics, but send them off to other countries for more space so they can break them apart and harness the most valuable materials.

However as consumers bring their goods to the company, they illegally transport devices with toxins, to China and have them break it down even more (for cheap labor reasons).

In the area of Guiyu, China, consequences are great. They found that pregnant women are 6 times more likely to end in miscarriages and that 7/10 kids have too much lead in their blood. Guiyu has the highest level of Cancer-causing dioxins in the world. These toxins cause kidney diseases and brain damage. Something should be done about this.

We can't exactly stop the production of E-Waste. That would mean we'd have stop putting out new technology as it's being innovated. But, it's really hard to manage and recycle e-waste. A way we can start to change that, is by slowing down the accumulation of E-Waste Americans are making by placing laws to regulate the manufactures from producing unnecessary amounts of products. Then we can figure out what to do with the waste. To limit the production of e-waste, manufacturers can limit the amount of toxins they use per device and sell their old devices (so other people can use them).

Information Retrieved From http://www.cbsnews.com/news/following-the-trail-of-toxic-e-waste/

~Anna Khairi

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