Most people don’t know or understand how bad it really is. It will take a lot of awareness and laws to make a national change. Most of our timeworn computers and devices end up in landfills, burners or are shipped to foreign continents. Kingsolver often emphasizes the limitations on natural resources and not recycling electronic waste continues to put restrictions to our resources. Because the electronics we use contain toxic chemicals and other dangerous heavy metals, when the e-waste is dumped into landfills, these toxic chemicals can seep in the soil and pollute our water supplies. This process is not only life threatening to the ecosystem and wildlife, but it’s also dangerous for people living in nearby communities (McGinnis, “Benefits of Recycling”). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has statistics approximating that more than 2,000,000 tons of old electronic appliances are not being properly disposed of each year. Between 2000 and 2007 about 500 million personal computers became outdated and were thrown out (McGinnis, “Benefits of Recycling”). When these toxic chemicals enter the troposphere, people and the environment are at risk. Different ideas have been mentioned regarding what to do with all this e-waste. Crazy ideas such as sending it up into space are mentioned, but an easy option is to send it to an e-waste recycle plant. This must be enforced by laws for people to consider this…
In the article “High Tech Trash” by Chris Caroll, Caroll explains the effects of e-waste (electronic trash). The article mentioned how most electronics that are thrown out, donated to charity, or even recycled still end up in developing countries. “While some recyclers process the material with an eye toward minimizing pollution and health risk, many more sell it to brokers who ship it to the developing world, where environmental enforcement is weak” (Caroll 81). This causes our e-waste to affect other families around the world who worked who most likely worked in sweatshops to produce the products that are being sent back to them. When this should not be the case other countries should not have to pay with their wealth to take care of our…
Recycling Efforts; Apple Is Pressed to Do More. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. B.5. Retrieved July 12, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global…
Imagine your life as you know it completely change for better or for worse. In this essay you will read about how Douglass and Walter are similar people. You will read how Walter and Douglass relate to each other being loyal,determined, and proud.The book Raisin in the Sun is about Walter wanting more money because it would help him and his family have a better life. The Biography of Frederick Douglass is about Douglass standing up to his slave masters and starting a movement for free slaves and equality, Working towards freedom.…
Doug Bandow in “Recycling is Wasteful” claims recycling does not help the environment and is too costly to fund. He gives evidence and reasoning to explain why recycling is more harmful than we think. The authors sub claims are: recycling creates more pollution, resources are not scarce, an easier way of handling garbage, and lastly, recycling costs too much money.…
A syndrome is defined as a “complex of signs and symptoms presenting a clinical picture of a disease or disorder.” A syndrome-based defense is a “defense predicated on, or substantially enhanced by, the acceptability of syndrome-related claims.” Some types of syndrome-based defenses when it comes to parents in particular are parental abuse syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, adopted child syndrome, mother lion syndrome, parental alienation syndrome, Munchausen-by-proxy syndrome, and distant father syndrome.…
Some states in the United States, including California, has implemented the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003, allowing people to cash in their no-longer-used electronic devices when they recycle their no-longer-used technology. The implemented law may be effective in reducing the problem in this country, however, United States is not…
1. Amy B. Perrault Individual Assignment | Number One MBA605 – Business Ethics & Social Responsibility | Jan Ruder, Ph.D. November 11, 2007…
In this survey I asked a few basic questions on the matter of E-waste. Some of the questions that I asked were what doing you do with your old electronics. Do you what happens to your old electronic products. And finally I asked if they knew what E-waste was. The majority of people answered that for their old products they would give them to a friend, sell online, or throw away in the trash. For the following questions none of the people I surveyed knew what actually happened to their products but they could make the guess that E-waste was the discarding of old products, though they did not think it was harmful. After telling them some of the problems with throwing away their old devices they thought more on the subject then they did before. With getting a few more people to know about this subject hopefully they can tell more people about the problem at hand. Since none of the people I surveyed knew about this problem it is obvious that we need to get more people to know about it since we all use electronics. To help solve the problem on electronic waste we need to start taking…
Apple has been no stranger to environmental concerns regarding their manufacturing and supply chain abroad, most recently a report from five independent environmental organizations in China in August accused the company of taking “advantage of the loopholes in developing countries environmental management systems” and awarding contracts to known polluters. Yesterday Apple responded to the accusations in a three-hour meeting with five Chinese environmental NGOs, admitting fifteen of their current manufacturing partners are contributing to pollution in surrounding areas by agreeing to perform audits of the companies. This followed several meetings with Apple following the group’s report in August, including one with Apple execs in Cupertino.…
The article offers information on several ways to recycle an old Mac computer from Apple Inc. It is suggested to donate the computer, if it is still in working condition as recycling by donating old electronics will increase the percentage. To recycle computers, it is adviced to sell it as many online services in addition to eBay Inc., and Craigslist Inc., buy used electronics. If the device is too old for secondhand use, it is recommended to find an electronics recycler. The electronics recycling, like Earth911.com is a viable option for electronics that are not suitable for manufacturer recycling. It is reported that many retailers and electronics vendors are following Apple's integrating recycling into the electronics lifecycle.…
Electronic waste makes up to 70% of toxic waste. When Alex Lin heard this he wanted to reduce the amount of E-waste in the world. In takepart.com Alex states, “I don’t see anything uncommon of it, My friends and I have been doing this since fifth grade. It’s become part of our life style.” This quote proves Alex Lin is a teen activist because he is doing what he thinks is right and will not stop until he fixes the E-waste problem. Alex Lin held a Metech International to hold an E-waste recycling drive that collected over 21,000 pounds of electronics to have the daily E-waste and recycle it properly. However, once Lin and his team discovered that reusing computers was much more efficient than recycling, they decided to create a computer-refurbishing program. “To make this sustainable,” says Lin in takepart.com, “we worked with the Westerly School System to incorporate A+ Certified Computer Repair class’s curriculum.” He has used refurbished computers to create media centers in developing countries like Cameroon and Sri Lanka to foster computer literacy. E-waste, or electronics garbage, is the fastest growing section of the U.S. trash stream. In 2007, Americans discarded more than 112,000 computers daily, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Alex and his team tried to pass a bill to stop E-waste but The bill didn't pass. “We are disappointed; we had put in all this time and they didn’t listen to us.” says Brodie in takepart.com. Though there's no federal law banning E-waste, although 20 states have passed legislation mandating statewide E-waste recycling. The state of Rhode Island, were Alex lives, has passed a law of dumping electronics thanks to Alex Lin. This shows Alex Lin has made a difference because without him nobody would have tried to cause a federal law stopping E-waste in many states and countries. Since…
I found groups such as, the Coalition for American Electronics Recycling (CAER), which was directly concentrated on the issue of waste caused by technology. With “More than 140 companies and supporting members” I gathered that there was a strong sense of urgency and support for this issue. The CAER works to push legislation in the United States for recycling policies which would require “domestic recycling of untested, nonworking e-waste.” This more pragmatic approach, saw the problem of electronic waste from the standpoint of safety and security yet required for the government to act before anything could be…
In this day and age, what people use to communicate with one another or store data has evolved over the years. With new electronic devices which seem to be always showing up on the shelves of electronic stores, are being bought by a great number of consumers. Though, what used to be in their place, no longer can be found in many stores. Nonetheless, if those ancient devices are still being manufactured. What once played a role in peoples' everyday lives, could now be boxed in somebody's basement, gradually collecting dust. Some of these gadgets would be the portable CD player, the pager, and the floppy disk.…
60 Minutes “The Wasteland” brings to light the harsh realities of where America’s electronic recycling is ending up. Many companies are illegally shipping computers, phones, televisions and other electronics known as e-waste overseas to poor parts…