Eg2401 Unit 1 Assignment
EG2401 Project Report
Ethics of EWaste
Table of Contents
1. Abstract4
2. Introduction5
2.1 Identification of Ewaste5
2.2 Phenomenon of increasing Ewaste6
2.3 Current ways to handle Ewaste8
3. Cause analysis of Ewaste9
3.1 International mapping of Ewaste10
3.2 Personal demand of consumer electronic11
4. Effects consideration of Ewaste11
4.1 Risks of toxic substances in Ewaste12 …show more content…
4.2 Real case study on effect of Ewaste13
5. Ethics concerns13
5.1 Ethical concerns of the governments14
5.2 Ethical concerns of the corporations15
5.3 Ethical concerns of the engineers16
5.4 Ethical concerns of the nongovernment organizations16
5.5 Ethical concerns of the consumers17
6. Recommendations18
6.1 Government18
6.2 Cooperation19
6.3 Engineer 20
7. Limitations21
8. Conclusion22
References23
Appendix24
1. Abstract
Rapid growth and and change in electronic product field, leading to a continuous stream of producing new products and a wide array of discarded products needing appropriate management. This report start with the introduction of electronic waste (Ewaste) and show the phenomenon of increasing Ewaste in global view in section 2. Meanwhile, the highlight of international mapping flows of Ewaste with supported data analysis presents the causes of this global problem. Due to the presence of toxic substances in many electronic products which can cause problematic exposures during recycling or disposal, if these products are not properly managed, we make a detailed research on the effect of Ewaste with case study in section 4. In addition, section 5 considers ethic concerns regarding to the Ewaste problem, particularly the trade in Ewaste in various perspectives, including government, cooperation, engineer, nongovernment organization and consumers. Finally, some widespread, convenient, affordable and practical recommendations with basic analysis of impediments in applying them are provided in section 6. The report ends with a conclusion that summarizes overall opinion relating to the Ewaste problem as well as an expectation of future study.
2. Introduction
According to the newspaper STRAITS TIMES reported on Thursday, October 20 2011,
Apple has sold more than four million iPhone 4S smart phones since it was released for only one week in seven countries: Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and
United States. Hence, it can be predict that the number of iPhone, iPad and Macintosh computer that Apple shipped to consumers every year is definitely enormous. Where will those items be in future? Maybe some of such items gather and recycle properly. However, it is more than likely that those electronic that are popular with people now but discard in a toxic dump somewhere overseas a couple of years later, leaching toxic chemicals into
ground, air, and water, contributing to a global epidemic of improperly disposed electronic waste (EWaste).
2.1 Identification of Ewaste
As is well known, the development of technological innovations drives the improvement of standard living, prosperous economy as well as provision of sufficient convenience and entertainment. However, concomitant with the benefits of technology brings about problems in environment pollution and social responsibility. According to studies by the United
Nations, between 20 and 50 million tons of ewaste are generated globally each year with an amount growing at a rate nearly three times faster than the overall municipal solid waste stream. (Arensman 2000; Schwarzner et al. 2005). “Ewaste” is defined as the name of electronic products that end of their “useful life”. It includes discarded computers, video cassette recorder (VCR), televisions, cell phones, music players, audio equipment and batteries and so on. Ewastes are considered dangerous because generally certain components in these electronic products contain toxic chemical materials such as lead, aluminum, mercury, and gallium. If disposed improperly, the chemical substance may flow into soil and groundwater causing a potential threat to human health and environment.
2.2 Phenomenon of increasing Ewaste
First of all, the world population increases year by year, the demand of electronic product also increases dramatically, which indirectly affects growing of Ewaste. The following two pictures show the number of personal computers and mobile phones per 1,000 people has worldwide. Figure 1: Personal computers per 1,000 people
Source : World Bank Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRIDArendal http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/personalcomputersper1000people Figure 2: Mobile phones per 1,000 people
Source : World Bank Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRIDArendal http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/mobile_phones_per_1000_people As an example, people in developed countries such as America, Japan afford to buy more electronic products to satisfy their daily requirement.
It is estimated that there are over a billion personal computers in the world at present. In the United States alone, over 50% of
US households owns a computer and there are over 300 million obsolete computers. …show more content…
(US
National Safety Council).
Furthermore, due to the advance of technology makes such electronic products cheaper and more powerful, people frequently to buy a new machine to accommodate the newer generations of technology than it is to upgrade the old.(Hawari &Hassan) Particularly, Intel whose mission focus on hardware and Microsoft whose mission is software, constantly generate new programs that fuel the demand for more speed, memory and power. That is the reason why personal computers upgrade so fast while perform better. As a result, the junking of electronic products also increases at a faster rate with the lifespan of them is decreasing. For example, the average lifespan of a computer tower was 46 years and computer monitors 67 years in 1997. It has fallen to 2 years in 2005.
Indeed, based on the research data provided by United States Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), it can be clearly seen that the total annual electronic products become obsolete has increased in the last decade. The following table is part of data provide by
EPA that only takes Desktop, cell phones and projection from year 20042009 as ewaste examples. Total Annual Obsolete
Yea
r
Desktops
units(000)
Cell
Phones
Projection
Tons units(000) Ton units(000) s Ton s 200
4
26,628
293,5
76
96,750
17,0
47
887
107,
771
200
5
28,361
322,5
69
116,515
18,6
37
917
112,
333
200
6
28,302
311,5
73
127,790
18,9
78
1,082
133,
623
200
7
29,873
341,2
64
140,305
19,2
35
1,332
165,
836
200
8
30,533
336,8
21
156,315
19,2
01
1,703
213,
730
32,033
357,9
57
168,180
19,8
60
1,970
247,
179
200
9
(Table 1: Total Annual Obsolete electronic products
Source: www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/docs/app1.xls)
To sum up the phenomenon that the amount of Ewaste increases in recent years, the growing of world population is one inevitable factor that contributes the increasing of
Ewaste because almost everyone needs some basic electronic products to support or convenient their daily life. Then, the advance of technology that upgrades the electronic products in terms of low price and better features so fast that attract consumers to buy new generation of electronic products instead of keeping old ones.
2.3 Current ways to handle Ewaste
Figure 3: Flow chart of modelling electronic product life
What is discarded as waste in one place can return with value added elsewhere. Ideally, the best way to treat those Ewaste is to recycle properly, reproduce and reuse them.
However, it is not easy to make such ideal way come true because people have to consider all factors including legality, cost, profit and efficiency and so on. After analysing all possible ways, they have to choose the optimal one thus may ignore ethic issues.
Specifically, according to the recent US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) study, only small portion of electronic waste were recycled compared to the number of new products put on the market for the same year.
(Table 2: Distribution of electronic products by management methods
Source: www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/docs/app1.xls)
From the above table, it can be noticed that the amount of recycled electronic products only has less than 20 percentage for year 1999 to 2007. In contrast, the total disposed products unfortunately had more than 80 percentage of total end of life (EOL) products. The reason that cause the low rate of recycling various in different regions. Generally speaking, for the developed countries, the cheapest Ewaste recycling option is to send Ewaste overseas such as China or India. In developing countries, the recycling system normally is not perfect.
Hence, the argument of developed countries which generate much of these wastes have been exporting them to poorer countries comes up.
3. Cause analysis of Ewaste
Majority of electronic products contain high toxicity chemical material which make safe disposal expensive. It is more perceptible in some developed countries whose environmental regulations are stricter. In order to circumvent high cost of handling ewaste, what those industrialized countries do is to export ewaste to some developing countries where environmental standards are low and working conditions are poor. On the other hand, most developing countries are lack of reasonable waste removal equipment and technical capacities to ensure the safe disposal of ewaste and proper recycle.
3.1 International mapping of Ewaste
Figure 4: Global trade in ewaste, 2001
Source: Josh Lepawsky & Chris Mcnabb (Mapping international flows of electronic waste)
Figure 5: Global trade in ewaste, 2006
Source: Josh Lepawsky & Chris Mcnabb (Mapping international flows of electronic waste)
From the two figures that show the international trade of Ewaste, several broad trends in the data are apparent. First, it is known that Europe, America and Asia are the three largest trading areas in terms of Ewaste. Moreover, within the three largest Ewaste trading areas, the majority trading form is internal trade and Asia is the biggest acceptor of Ewaste both in 2001 and 2006. Second, the shifts of Ewaste trading in some regions such as Africa, Middle East and Oceania, are obvious between year 2001 and 2006. For example, the trade of Africa saw significant growth in total volume, but also experienced significant shifts in its orientation. Whereas in 2001 Africa had been exclusively externally oriented, by 2006 it had developed significant internal markets for ewaste materials.
Such shifts reflect the growing use of digital technologies by consumers and businesses within these regions as they experience relative increases in wealth over time.
What such trade relationship reflect is demand for the material components, particularly
metals, into which ewaste can be broken down, reprocessed and fed back into the production of new goods.
3.2 Personal demand of consumer electronic
In terms of individual consideration, almost everyone contribute to increase ewaste. The advances in technology continue to improve and enrich our lives, product life cycles are getting shorter. More people especially for young people who have a taste for fashion and life quality are willing to relax their busy life with advanced electronic products such as iPhone, iPad and labtop. Besides, they upgrade these electronic products so frequently that eventually increase ewaste. Moreover, rapid growth and change in such product sector, leading to a constant stream of new product offerings and a wide number of obsolete products needing appropriate management, which involves various difficulties.
4. Effects of Ewaste
The fact we know that chemical materials inside ewaste would lead to environment pollution and impact human health without proper handling or incomplete recycling system.
The need for widespread, convenient and affordable opportunities to reuse/recycle electronics is necessary and urgent. Reuse and recovery of electronics conserves energy and materials embodied in used electronics and reduces the environmental impact of these products.
To address the effects of ewaste, the first important step is to explore ewaste in detail to know what kind of chemical material really make the such ewaste hazardous. Take the computer as an example. On average a computer is 23% plastic, 32% ferrous metals, 18% nonferrous metals (lead, cadmium, antimony, beryllium, chromium and mercury), 12% electronic boards (gold, palladium, silver and platinum) and 15% glass. Only about 50% of the computer is recycled, the rest is dumped. The toxicity of the waste is mostly due to the lead, mercury and cadmium – nonrecyclable components of a single computer may contain almost 2 kilograms of lead. Much of the plastic used contains flame retardants, which makes it difficult to recycle. (United Nations Environment Programme)
4.1 Risks of toxic substances involved in Ewaste
Material like mercury can spread out in the water easily, and then it is transformed to methylated mercury which can accumulate in living organisms and concentrate through food chain especially via fish. Methrlated mercury causes chronic damage to the brain if
people eat it without awareness.
Lead as a kind of chemical material that is usually use in electronic products can cause damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, blood system and kidneys in humans. Lead accumulates in the environment and has high acute and chronic toxic effects on plants, animals and microorganisms.
Cadmium compounds are classified as toxic with a possible risk of irreversible effects on human health. Cadmium and cadmium compounds accumulate in the human body, particularly in kidneys. Cadmium is absorbed through respiration but is also taken up with food. Brominated flameretardants are a class of brominated chemicals commonly used in electronic products as a means for reducing flammability. In computers, they are used mainly in four applications: in printed circuit boards, in components such as connectors, in plastic covers and in cables. They are also used in plastic covers of TV sets and in domestic kitchen appliances.
4.2 Real case study on effect of Ewaste
Indeed, the disposed electronic products have caused serious health problem in Guiyu,
China, where there are thousands tons of wasted electronic recycled from the worldwide.
Many residents including children are hired to break down the ewastes into component parts by burning them or in nitric hydrochloric acids to remove some precious metals. The chemicals are definitely released and be harmful to people who are exposed within the simple recycle process. It is estimated that Guiyu has the highest number of cancer causing toxins in the world; the river that runs through Guiyu contains up to 2400 times the
World Health Organization’s acceptable threshold for lead. Furthermore, the residents face high rates of risk of miscarriage, respiratory problems and lead poisoning excluding some other unknown health effects.
5. Ethics concerns
The ethical concerns regarding the trade in Ewastes involve five parties. They are the countries that import or export Ewastes, the corporations that produce electronic equipment, the engineers who work in the electronic industry, electronic equipment consumers and lastly, the nongovernmental organizations that concern about human rights
or environment issues. The ethical concerns of each of the parties are analyzed separately subsequently. 5.1 Ethical concerns of the governments
In fact, whether the actions taken by both of the importing and exporting countries are ethical is justifiable. According to the rights approach, people living on the Earth should have the same rights to have a clean living environment. However, via exporting the
Ewastes, the developed countries deprive the rights of having a clean living environment of the people in developing countries who dispose the Ewastes. This is because the dumped electronic equipment may pollute the water and soil and even threaten their health.
Thus, it is unethical for the developed countries exporting Ewastes to developing countries. Moreover, it is unethical for the governments of developing countries allowing the import of Ewastes, since they have the duty to protect their people’s rights.
On the other hand, both of the import and export countries can be considered making an ethical decision if utilitarian approach is applied to analyze the situation. From the viewpoint of the governments of developing countries, importing Ewastes and recycle them can create a lot of job vacancies and promote the economic growth, as a result, the poverty issue can be solved in a large degree. The trade off of the economic growth may only be the clean environment of a village or the health of a small group of people. Thus, the actions taken by the governments of those developing countries are ethical since the benefits are overthrown the costs. Similarly, from the developed countries’ view, handling the Ewastes in other countries not only reduce the cost of disposing due to the low labour cost in developing countries, but also prevent the local environment being polluted by the dumped Ewastes. Therefore, the decision made by the developed countries is ethical since they maximize the benefits of their citizens and minimize the cost. Moreover, the governments of developed countries accomplish the duty of protect the rights of their citizens, which is also ethical according to the theory of duty ethics. Therefore, the trade in
Ewastes from developed countries to developing countries can be considered as an ethical action.
However, there are some dilemmas in the previous analysis. On one hand, the governments of developed countries should not concern the welfare of their own citizens.
As human beings, it is every one’s responsibility to protect the environment of the Earth but not only the local environment. On the other hand, the cost and benefit analysis of importing the Ewastes in developing countries involves the health of people and the condition of the environment. Health and the environment are invaluable and thus it is very difficult to make
an ethical decision based on such analysis.
5.2 Ethical concerns of the corporations
There are two categories of corporations involved in this issue. They are the corporations that produce the electronic devices and the corporations that recycle the Ewastes. Both of the two haves some ethical issues to be considered.
Firstly, according to the Rights Ethics, the corporations have the duties to conserve the environment and protect the rights of having a safe working condition. However, in this case, most of the recycle factories in developing countries such as Indian and China are not proper designed and the workers are not protected from the hazard materials released from the recycle process. Thus, what those recycle factories do is unethical.
Moreover, although the environment protection laws may not be complete or the standard is lower than that in developed countries, and there may be a lack of standard procedure in handling Ewastes, or the developing countries do not have regulations in importing the
Ewastes, however, according to international engineering professionalism, one should respect human rights regardless where they are and when the action is taken. In this particular problem, the recycle companies may suffer from the reduction of profits if they follow the industrial standard in the developed countries. However, those companies should find out a creative middle way to resolve the problem rather than continue polluting the environment.
On the other hand, a large portion of the manufacturers and retailers of the electronic devices provides services for customers in order to collect and recycle the old electronic equipment. For example, Sony’s branch in the United States provides take back recycling program and tradein programs (U.S Environmental Protection Agency, 2011). Such actions taken by the manufacturers seem to be ethical, as they take care not only the quality of their products but also the recycle and discard.
5.3 Ethical concerns of the engineers
For the engineers in the manufacturer companies, according to environmental ethics, engineers are responsible for providing sustainable designs which includes minimizing the environmental impact during usage, manufacturing and dispose. If this principle is applied in the issue of Ewastes, the engineers who design the electronic devices should make sure that the material they use in manufacture should content least amount of heavy metals
such as mercury, and the product can be easily recycled. However, in practical, they have to take the total cost of the product in consideration such that the product can be more competitive in the market. Thus, from the viewpoint of utilitarianism, the engineers have made an ethical decision since, they maximize the benefit of the entire company.
5.4 Ethical concerns of the nongovernment organizations
Besides the countries involving the trade in Ewastes, the nongovernment organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, also have the responsibility to solve this problem. For example, The Basel Convention is an agreement on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention,
2011). It is supported by the United Nations and more than 170 countries have ratified this convention. Other than control the trade in Ewastes, Basel Convention also provides regional technological support in handling hazardous wastes. Such organizations provide superior bodies for the regulation of Ewastes, and make whistle blowing possible.
5.5 Ethical concerns of the consumers
In the discussion of Ewastes, the actions of normal consumers can also be taken into consideration. Nowadays, people upgrade their electronic equipments more frequently than that before. This leads to the increase of Ewastes in the world. From the rights Ethics point of view, it seems unethical if we prevent the public from buying new electronic product unnecessarily, since that violates their rights of consuming. However, from the utilitarianism approach, the regulation of electronic devices consumption can reduce the total amount of
Ewastes and thus it benefit the environment.
6. Recommendations
6.1 Government
The ministry is encouraged to developed legal frame work for ewaste.
Developed Countries
The governments of western countries should recycle its own ewaste and take the responsibility of its technology consumption. The poorest, which have not enjoyed the
benefits of the information age, shouldn’t pay for it. The western governments should establish a more equipped and systematic recycling plants in the developing countries and also bear the cost of the machines. Therefore, a universal commitment needs to be signed, so that no country should transport its own ewaste which has recycling equipment to any other countries. Moreover, they should encourage educational institutions to create curriculum design to educate the youth about the global ethical problem of ewaste and promote the incentive to find materials that can easily break down or reuse. Thirdly, advocate the public to create less ewaste by limiting the purchase of electronic commodities and require them not to discard the electronics until they stop working. In addition, bring out local, state or federal laws that require the factories to reuse, repair and recycle the ewaste and ban the action of depositing or dumping the ewaste into the landfills. Furthermore, reward the companies that build reputable recycling system with prize and by boosting their public. Last but not least, provide subsidies for the companies, when they build their own recycle system. The companies can also dispose the recycled product to the state recycle base, while the disposal fees depend on the amount of toxic elements and reusable material in the products.
Developing Countries
For the least developed countries, a better system should be settled up to inhibit the ewaste problem. First and foremost, bring out awarenessraising activities, like exhibitions of the negative impact of the ewaste on the environment and the health of the local citizens. Instead of continuing their work in recycling the material and being unprotected from the dangerous toxic elements to earn a living, they have to shift to another industry. Since the people involved in the recycle process in the developing countries facing the challenge of losing their jobs, the government should provide medical insurance, financial support and jobs for the people who used to work in the recycle industry. They should be educated that they were working unsafely and may get incurable diseases if they continue to direct or indirect contact the toxic and radiate element. In the meanwhile, these countries need to establish a more complete legal framework for ewaste and set up stricter industrial standards as the developed countries. For instance, the brokendown electronics should not be discarded randomly on the land, waste disposal workers cannot deal with the electronics without any protection and political leaders cannot allow any importation of unknown and disqualified ewaste.
On the global level, all countries should build a whistle blowing system and the media need to expose the illegal behavior of the companies and individuals and praise or reward the one who make a great contribution to solve the ewaste problem. Moreover, international conference should be brought out and invite all countries to sign the convention, like the
Basel and Stockholm Convention.
6.2 Corporation
Entrepreneurs are encouraged to conduct comprehensive environmental impact assessments in developing countries to check the extent of the ewaste problem and coming up with relevant solution to improve the living condition of the polluted area. What 's more, they also need to provide instructions and precautions for safety recycle to the recycle base and this information should attach to their products. Global database of the toxic substance should be build by relevant stakeholders. For instance, the recycle of toxic substances like flame retardants. Corporations should alter their traditional linear chain of productionconsumptiondisposal to productionconsumptionrecycleproduction in order to eliminate the final resting place. As a result, the proposition of waste will be reduced and the used electronics will not be regarded as pollutants and toxicity, but as a new term of resources and flow into the new chain commodity production. In addition, design the practices that neutralize the carbon footprint of the commodities in the whole process of the linear chain. Furthermore, reduce use the amount of toxic substances like lead and mercury. Company should involve in the TakeBack Product Responsibility, which is known as Extended Producer Responsibility. The producer will take back its product at the end of products’ operational lives. In order to attract the customers to return the used electronics, the company build a trade in system so that the customers can get a new one by giving back the old with adding a bit amount of money. HP has already implemented this action. It has a recycle base that will collect, recycle and disposal the electronics. In addition, twelve famous mobile phone companies like Nokia, Motorola and Samsung have signed the fouryear partnership with the Basel Convention to develop recycling and reuse strategy.
6.3 Engineer
Engineers should conduct cleaner technology in both the material and the environmentally friendly manufacturing process of the electronics, whose waste is easily recycled. Thus, the green design, material, process, product, recycle and disposal can be achieved. Due to environmental ethics, the designer of the electronics should maximize the reuse potential of the products through more effective design. In addition, they need to study all existing toxic elements in the electronics to renew the global data base in electric and electronic industry.
7. Limitations
Government
Some limitations exist for the award system. Since there is no criterion for the recycle system, it is difficult to define a recycle system as outstanding and require the others to follow their steps. As a result, a stricter industrial standard is required to make the system more complete, like the percentage of waste the plant should recycle each year comparing to the total sale and the amount of material can be reused. Moreover, many countries will not sign the convention. For example, the United States has not signed the
Basel Convention, because shipping the ewaste to other countries is much cheaper and convenient to set up new recycle system in the homeland.
Cooperation
The research and use environmental friendly material in production and built up recycle system increase the capital expenditure. Thus the price of the product will undoubtedly rise by a great amount. Consequently, this may reduce their competitive strength among similar companies and they will lose their share of the market. Therefore, especially for smaller companies with limited financial profit are not able to put aside some money to pursue environmental friendly products and recycle base.
Engineer
Engineers are generally employed by their particular organizations. They will always consider company cost and net income, which may lead their ignorance of green product research and design. Even though they are aware of the illegal action of their companies, they might not dare to informant, for they are afraid of losing their jobs and retaliation. Reference:
[1].
[2].
[3].
[4].
Muaz.H & Mohamedh.H.H, 2008. "EWASTE: ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS
FOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH"
Josh.L & Chris.M, 2010. "Mapping international flows of electronic waste"
Oct 12, 2004 published by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
"Vital Waste Graphics"
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2011). Electronic Waste and eCycling. Retrieved on Oct 18, 2011 from
[5].
[6].
[7].
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling.
Retrieved on Oct 17, 2011 from http://thetechnologicalcitizen.com/?p=2991
Carole.C, Jan 15, 2010 published by Department of Environmental
Protection 17 State House Station Augusta, Maine. "Report on Maine’s
Household Ewaste Recycling Program"
Oct 20, 2011. STRAITS TIME. "Apple profit soars but still misses mark" 2005 Recycling of Electronic Wastes in China & India: Workplace &
Environmental Contamination. Retrieved on Oct 17 from http://www.etakeback.org/press_open/export_waste.htm. Xiang.G.H, & Chan.J.K.Y & Leung.A.O.W & Wong.M.H. 2009. "Environmental impact and human exposure to PCBs in Guiyu, an electronic waste recycling site in China"
Widmer.R & Oswaldkrapf.H & Schenellmann.M & Boani. H, 2005 'Global perspectives on ewaste ' Environmental Impact Assessment Review.
Jul, 2008 published by Office of Solid Waste U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency
Washington, DC. "Electronic waste management in the United
States"
Ethics of EWaste
Table of Contents
1. Abstract4
2. Introduction5
2.1 Identification of Ewaste5
2.2 Phenomenon of increasing Ewaste6
2.3 Current ways to handle Ewaste8
3. Cause analysis of Ewaste9
3.1 International mapping of Ewaste10
3.2 Personal demand of consumer electronic11
4. Effects consideration of Ewaste11
4.1 Risks of toxic substances in Ewaste12 …show more content…
4.2 Real case study on effect of Ewaste13
5. Ethics concerns13
5.1 Ethical concerns of the governments14
5.2 Ethical concerns of the corporations15
5.3 Ethical concerns of the engineers16
5.4 Ethical concerns of the nongovernment organizations16
5.5 Ethical concerns of the consumers17
6. Recommendations18
6.1 Government18
6.2 Cooperation19
6.3 Engineer 20
7. Limitations21
8. Conclusion22
References23
Appendix24
1. Abstract
Rapid growth and and change in electronic product field, leading to a continuous stream of producing new products and a wide array of discarded products needing appropriate management. This report start with the introduction of electronic waste (Ewaste) and show the phenomenon of increasing Ewaste in global view in section 2. Meanwhile, the highlight of international mapping flows of Ewaste with supported data analysis presents the causes of this global problem. Due to the presence of toxic substances in many electronic products which can cause problematic exposures during recycling or disposal, if these products are not properly managed, we make a detailed research on the effect of Ewaste with case study in section 4. In addition, section 5 considers ethic concerns regarding to the Ewaste problem, particularly the trade in Ewaste in various perspectives, including government, cooperation, engineer, nongovernment organization and consumers. Finally, some widespread, convenient, affordable and practical recommendations with basic analysis of impediments in applying them are provided in section 6. The report ends with a conclusion that summarizes overall opinion relating to the Ewaste problem as well as an expectation of future study.
2. Introduction
According to the newspaper STRAITS TIMES reported on Thursday, October 20 2011,
Apple has sold more than four million iPhone 4S smart phones since it was released for only one week in seven countries: Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and
United States. Hence, it can be predict that the number of iPhone, iPad and Macintosh computer that Apple shipped to consumers every year is definitely enormous. Where will those items be in future? Maybe some of such items gather and recycle properly. However, it is more than likely that those electronic that are popular with people now but discard in a toxic dump somewhere overseas a couple of years later, leaching toxic chemicals into
ground, air, and water, contributing to a global epidemic of improperly disposed electronic waste (EWaste).
2.1 Identification of Ewaste
As is well known, the development of technological innovations drives the improvement of standard living, prosperous economy as well as provision of sufficient convenience and entertainment. However, concomitant with the benefits of technology brings about problems in environment pollution and social responsibility. According to studies by the United
Nations, between 20 and 50 million tons of ewaste are generated globally each year with an amount growing at a rate nearly three times faster than the overall municipal solid waste stream. (Arensman 2000; Schwarzner et al. 2005). “Ewaste” is defined as the name of electronic products that end of their “useful life”. It includes discarded computers, video cassette recorder (VCR), televisions, cell phones, music players, audio equipment and batteries and so on. Ewastes are considered dangerous because generally certain components in these electronic products contain toxic chemical materials such as lead, aluminum, mercury, and gallium. If disposed improperly, the chemical substance may flow into soil and groundwater causing a potential threat to human health and environment.
2.2 Phenomenon of increasing Ewaste
First of all, the world population increases year by year, the demand of electronic product also increases dramatically, which indirectly affects growing of Ewaste. The following two pictures show the number of personal computers and mobile phones per 1,000 people has worldwide. Figure 1: Personal computers per 1,000 people
Source : World Bank Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRIDArendal http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/personalcomputersper1000people Figure 2: Mobile phones per 1,000 people
Source : World Bank Philippe Rekacewicz, UNEP/GRIDArendal http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/mobile_phones_per_1000_people As an example, people in developed countries such as America, Japan afford to buy more electronic products to satisfy their daily requirement.
It is estimated that there are over a billion personal computers in the world at present. In the United States alone, over 50% of
US households owns a computer and there are over 300 million obsolete computers. …show more content…
(US
National Safety Council).
Furthermore, due to the advance of technology makes such electronic products cheaper and more powerful, people frequently to buy a new machine to accommodate the newer generations of technology than it is to upgrade the old.(Hawari &Hassan) Particularly, Intel whose mission focus on hardware and Microsoft whose mission is software, constantly generate new programs that fuel the demand for more speed, memory and power. That is the reason why personal computers upgrade so fast while perform better. As a result, the junking of electronic products also increases at a faster rate with the lifespan of them is decreasing. For example, the average lifespan of a computer tower was 46 years and computer monitors 67 years in 1997. It has fallen to 2 years in 2005.
Indeed, based on the research data provided by United States Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), it can be clearly seen that the total annual electronic products become obsolete has increased in the last decade. The following table is part of data provide by
EPA that only takes Desktop, cell phones and projection from year 20042009 as ewaste examples. Total Annual Obsolete
Yea
r
Desktops
units(000)
Cell
Phones
Projection
Tons units(000) Ton units(000) s Ton s 200
4
26,628
293,5
76
96,750
17,0
47
887
107,
771
200
5
28,361
322,5
69
116,515
18,6
37
917
112,
333
200
6
28,302
311,5
73
127,790
18,9
78
1,082
133,
623
200
7
29,873
341,2
64
140,305
19,2
35
1,332
165,
836
200
8
30,533
336,8
21
156,315
19,2
01
1,703
213,
730
32,033
357,9
57
168,180
19,8
60
1,970
247,
179
200
9
(Table 1: Total Annual Obsolete electronic products
Source: www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/docs/app1.xls)
To sum up the phenomenon that the amount of Ewaste increases in recent years, the growing of world population is one inevitable factor that contributes the increasing of
Ewaste because almost everyone needs some basic electronic products to support or convenient their daily life. Then, the advance of technology that upgrades the electronic products in terms of low price and better features so fast that attract consumers to buy new generation of electronic products instead of keeping old ones.
2.3 Current ways to handle Ewaste
Figure 3: Flow chart of modelling electronic product life
What is discarded as waste in one place can return with value added elsewhere. Ideally, the best way to treat those Ewaste is to recycle properly, reproduce and reuse them.
However, it is not easy to make such ideal way come true because people have to consider all factors including legality, cost, profit and efficiency and so on. After analysing all possible ways, they have to choose the optimal one thus may ignore ethic issues.
Specifically, according to the recent US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) study, only small portion of electronic waste were recycled compared to the number of new products put on the market for the same year.
(Table 2: Distribution of electronic products by management methods
Source: www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/docs/app1.xls)
From the above table, it can be noticed that the amount of recycled electronic products only has less than 20 percentage for year 1999 to 2007. In contrast, the total disposed products unfortunately had more than 80 percentage of total end of life (EOL) products. The reason that cause the low rate of recycling various in different regions. Generally speaking, for the developed countries, the cheapest Ewaste recycling option is to send Ewaste overseas such as China or India. In developing countries, the recycling system normally is not perfect.
Hence, the argument of developed countries which generate much of these wastes have been exporting them to poorer countries comes up.
3. Cause analysis of Ewaste
Majority of electronic products contain high toxicity chemical material which make safe disposal expensive. It is more perceptible in some developed countries whose environmental regulations are stricter. In order to circumvent high cost of handling ewaste, what those industrialized countries do is to export ewaste to some developing countries where environmental standards are low and working conditions are poor. On the other hand, most developing countries are lack of reasonable waste removal equipment and technical capacities to ensure the safe disposal of ewaste and proper recycle.
3.1 International mapping of Ewaste
Figure 4: Global trade in ewaste, 2001
Source: Josh Lepawsky & Chris Mcnabb (Mapping international flows of electronic waste)
Figure 5: Global trade in ewaste, 2006
Source: Josh Lepawsky & Chris Mcnabb (Mapping international flows of electronic waste)
From the two figures that show the international trade of Ewaste, several broad trends in the data are apparent. First, it is known that Europe, America and Asia are the three largest trading areas in terms of Ewaste. Moreover, within the three largest Ewaste trading areas, the majority trading form is internal trade and Asia is the biggest acceptor of Ewaste both in 2001 and 2006. Second, the shifts of Ewaste trading in some regions such as Africa, Middle East and Oceania, are obvious between year 2001 and 2006. For example, the trade of Africa saw significant growth in total volume, but also experienced significant shifts in its orientation. Whereas in 2001 Africa had been exclusively externally oriented, by 2006 it had developed significant internal markets for ewaste materials.
Such shifts reflect the growing use of digital technologies by consumers and businesses within these regions as they experience relative increases in wealth over time.
What such trade relationship reflect is demand for the material components, particularly
metals, into which ewaste can be broken down, reprocessed and fed back into the production of new goods.
3.2 Personal demand of consumer electronic
In terms of individual consideration, almost everyone contribute to increase ewaste. The advances in technology continue to improve and enrich our lives, product life cycles are getting shorter. More people especially for young people who have a taste for fashion and life quality are willing to relax their busy life with advanced electronic products such as iPhone, iPad and labtop. Besides, they upgrade these electronic products so frequently that eventually increase ewaste. Moreover, rapid growth and change in such product sector, leading to a constant stream of new product offerings and a wide number of obsolete products needing appropriate management, which involves various difficulties.
4. Effects of Ewaste
The fact we know that chemical materials inside ewaste would lead to environment pollution and impact human health without proper handling or incomplete recycling system.
The need for widespread, convenient and affordable opportunities to reuse/recycle electronics is necessary and urgent. Reuse and recovery of electronics conserves energy and materials embodied in used electronics and reduces the environmental impact of these products.
To address the effects of ewaste, the first important step is to explore ewaste in detail to know what kind of chemical material really make the such ewaste hazardous. Take the computer as an example. On average a computer is 23% plastic, 32% ferrous metals, 18% nonferrous metals (lead, cadmium, antimony, beryllium, chromium and mercury), 12% electronic boards (gold, palladium, silver and platinum) and 15% glass. Only about 50% of the computer is recycled, the rest is dumped. The toxicity of the waste is mostly due to the lead, mercury and cadmium – nonrecyclable components of a single computer may contain almost 2 kilograms of lead. Much of the plastic used contains flame retardants, which makes it difficult to recycle. (United Nations Environment Programme)
4.1 Risks of toxic substances involved in Ewaste
Material like mercury can spread out in the water easily, and then it is transformed to methylated mercury which can accumulate in living organisms and concentrate through food chain especially via fish. Methrlated mercury causes chronic damage to the brain if
people eat it without awareness.
Lead as a kind of chemical material that is usually use in electronic products can cause damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, blood system and kidneys in humans. Lead accumulates in the environment and has high acute and chronic toxic effects on plants, animals and microorganisms.
Cadmium compounds are classified as toxic with a possible risk of irreversible effects on human health. Cadmium and cadmium compounds accumulate in the human body, particularly in kidneys. Cadmium is absorbed through respiration but is also taken up with food. Brominated flameretardants are a class of brominated chemicals commonly used in electronic products as a means for reducing flammability. In computers, they are used mainly in four applications: in printed circuit boards, in components such as connectors, in plastic covers and in cables. They are also used in plastic covers of TV sets and in domestic kitchen appliances.
4.2 Real case study on effect of Ewaste
Indeed, the disposed electronic products have caused serious health problem in Guiyu,
China, where there are thousands tons of wasted electronic recycled from the worldwide.
Many residents including children are hired to break down the ewastes into component parts by burning them or in nitric hydrochloric acids to remove some precious metals. The chemicals are definitely released and be harmful to people who are exposed within the simple recycle process. It is estimated that Guiyu has the highest number of cancer causing toxins in the world; the river that runs through Guiyu contains up to 2400 times the
World Health Organization’s acceptable threshold for lead. Furthermore, the residents face high rates of risk of miscarriage, respiratory problems and lead poisoning excluding some other unknown health effects.
5. Ethics concerns
The ethical concerns regarding the trade in Ewastes involve five parties. They are the countries that import or export Ewastes, the corporations that produce electronic equipment, the engineers who work in the electronic industry, electronic equipment consumers and lastly, the nongovernmental organizations that concern about human rights
or environment issues. The ethical concerns of each of the parties are analyzed separately subsequently. 5.1 Ethical concerns of the governments
In fact, whether the actions taken by both of the importing and exporting countries are ethical is justifiable. According to the rights approach, people living on the Earth should have the same rights to have a clean living environment. However, via exporting the
Ewastes, the developed countries deprive the rights of having a clean living environment of the people in developing countries who dispose the Ewastes. This is because the dumped electronic equipment may pollute the water and soil and even threaten their health.
Thus, it is unethical for the developed countries exporting Ewastes to developing countries. Moreover, it is unethical for the governments of developing countries allowing the import of Ewastes, since they have the duty to protect their people’s rights.
On the other hand, both of the import and export countries can be considered making an ethical decision if utilitarian approach is applied to analyze the situation. From the viewpoint of the governments of developing countries, importing Ewastes and recycle them can create a lot of job vacancies and promote the economic growth, as a result, the poverty issue can be solved in a large degree. The trade off of the economic growth may only be the clean environment of a village or the health of a small group of people. Thus, the actions taken by the governments of those developing countries are ethical since the benefits are overthrown the costs. Similarly, from the developed countries’ view, handling the Ewastes in other countries not only reduce the cost of disposing due to the low labour cost in developing countries, but also prevent the local environment being polluted by the dumped Ewastes. Therefore, the decision made by the developed countries is ethical since they maximize the benefits of their citizens and minimize the cost. Moreover, the governments of developed countries accomplish the duty of protect the rights of their citizens, which is also ethical according to the theory of duty ethics. Therefore, the trade in
Ewastes from developed countries to developing countries can be considered as an ethical action.
However, there are some dilemmas in the previous analysis. On one hand, the governments of developed countries should not concern the welfare of their own citizens.
As human beings, it is every one’s responsibility to protect the environment of the Earth but not only the local environment. On the other hand, the cost and benefit analysis of importing the Ewastes in developing countries involves the health of people and the condition of the environment. Health and the environment are invaluable and thus it is very difficult to make
an ethical decision based on such analysis.
5.2 Ethical concerns of the corporations
There are two categories of corporations involved in this issue. They are the corporations that produce the electronic devices and the corporations that recycle the Ewastes. Both of the two haves some ethical issues to be considered.
Firstly, according to the Rights Ethics, the corporations have the duties to conserve the environment and protect the rights of having a safe working condition. However, in this case, most of the recycle factories in developing countries such as Indian and China are not proper designed and the workers are not protected from the hazard materials released from the recycle process. Thus, what those recycle factories do is unethical.
Moreover, although the environment protection laws may not be complete or the standard is lower than that in developed countries, and there may be a lack of standard procedure in handling Ewastes, or the developing countries do not have regulations in importing the
Ewastes, however, according to international engineering professionalism, one should respect human rights regardless where they are and when the action is taken. In this particular problem, the recycle companies may suffer from the reduction of profits if they follow the industrial standard in the developed countries. However, those companies should find out a creative middle way to resolve the problem rather than continue polluting the environment.
On the other hand, a large portion of the manufacturers and retailers of the electronic devices provides services for customers in order to collect and recycle the old electronic equipment. For example, Sony’s branch in the United States provides take back recycling program and tradein programs (U.S Environmental Protection Agency, 2011). Such actions taken by the manufacturers seem to be ethical, as they take care not only the quality of their products but also the recycle and discard.
5.3 Ethical concerns of the engineers
For the engineers in the manufacturer companies, according to environmental ethics, engineers are responsible for providing sustainable designs which includes minimizing the environmental impact during usage, manufacturing and dispose. If this principle is applied in the issue of Ewastes, the engineers who design the electronic devices should make sure that the material they use in manufacture should content least amount of heavy metals
such as mercury, and the product can be easily recycled. However, in practical, they have to take the total cost of the product in consideration such that the product can be more competitive in the market. Thus, from the viewpoint of utilitarianism, the engineers have made an ethical decision since, they maximize the benefit of the entire company.
5.4 Ethical concerns of the nongovernment organizations
Besides the countries involving the trade in Ewastes, the nongovernment organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, also have the responsibility to solve this problem. For example, The Basel Convention is an agreement on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention,
2011). It is supported by the United Nations and more than 170 countries have ratified this convention. Other than control the trade in Ewastes, Basel Convention also provides regional technological support in handling hazardous wastes. Such organizations provide superior bodies for the regulation of Ewastes, and make whistle blowing possible.
5.5 Ethical concerns of the consumers
In the discussion of Ewastes, the actions of normal consumers can also be taken into consideration. Nowadays, people upgrade their electronic equipments more frequently than that before. This leads to the increase of Ewastes in the world. From the rights Ethics point of view, it seems unethical if we prevent the public from buying new electronic product unnecessarily, since that violates their rights of consuming. However, from the utilitarianism approach, the regulation of electronic devices consumption can reduce the total amount of
Ewastes and thus it benefit the environment.
6. Recommendations
6.1 Government
The ministry is encouraged to developed legal frame work for ewaste.
Developed Countries
The governments of western countries should recycle its own ewaste and take the responsibility of its technology consumption. The poorest, which have not enjoyed the
benefits of the information age, shouldn’t pay for it. The western governments should establish a more equipped and systematic recycling plants in the developing countries and also bear the cost of the machines. Therefore, a universal commitment needs to be signed, so that no country should transport its own ewaste which has recycling equipment to any other countries. Moreover, they should encourage educational institutions to create curriculum design to educate the youth about the global ethical problem of ewaste and promote the incentive to find materials that can easily break down or reuse. Thirdly, advocate the public to create less ewaste by limiting the purchase of electronic commodities and require them not to discard the electronics until they stop working. In addition, bring out local, state or federal laws that require the factories to reuse, repair and recycle the ewaste and ban the action of depositing or dumping the ewaste into the landfills. Furthermore, reward the companies that build reputable recycling system with prize and by boosting their public. Last but not least, provide subsidies for the companies, when they build their own recycle system. The companies can also dispose the recycled product to the state recycle base, while the disposal fees depend on the amount of toxic elements and reusable material in the products.
Developing Countries
For the least developed countries, a better system should be settled up to inhibit the ewaste problem. First and foremost, bring out awarenessraising activities, like exhibitions of the negative impact of the ewaste on the environment and the health of the local citizens. Instead of continuing their work in recycling the material and being unprotected from the dangerous toxic elements to earn a living, they have to shift to another industry. Since the people involved in the recycle process in the developing countries facing the challenge of losing their jobs, the government should provide medical insurance, financial support and jobs for the people who used to work in the recycle industry. They should be educated that they were working unsafely and may get incurable diseases if they continue to direct or indirect contact the toxic and radiate element. In the meanwhile, these countries need to establish a more complete legal framework for ewaste and set up stricter industrial standards as the developed countries. For instance, the brokendown electronics should not be discarded randomly on the land, waste disposal workers cannot deal with the electronics without any protection and political leaders cannot allow any importation of unknown and disqualified ewaste.
On the global level, all countries should build a whistle blowing system and the media need to expose the illegal behavior of the companies and individuals and praise or reward the one who make a great contribution to solve the ewaste problem. Moreover, international conference should be brought out and invite all countries to sign the convention, like the
Basel and Stockholm Convention.
6.2 Corporation
Entrepreneurs are encouraged to conduct comprehensive environmental impact assessments in developing countries to check the extent of the ewaste problem and coming up with relevant solution to improve the living condition of the polluted area. What 's more, they also need to provide instructions and precautions for safety recycle to the recycle base and this information should attach to their products. Global database of the toxic substance should be build by relevant stakeholders. For instance, the recycle of toxic substances like flame retardants. Corporations should alter their traditional linear chain of productionconsumptiondisposal to productionconsumptionrecycleproduction in order to eliminate the final resting place. As a result, the proposition of waste will be reduced and the used electronics will not be regarded as pollutants and toxicity, but as a new term of resources and flow into the new chain commodity production. In addition, design the practices that neutralize the carbon footprint of the commodities in the whole process of the linear chain. Furthermore, reduce use the amount of toxic substances like lead and mercury. Company should involve in the TakeBack Product Responsibility, which is known as Extended Producer Responsibility. The producer will take back its product at the end of products’ operational lives. In order to attract the customers to return the used electronics, the company build a trade in system so that the customers can get a new one by giving back the old with adding a bit amount of money. HP has already implemented this action. It has a recycle base that will collect, recycle and disposal the electronics. In addition, twelve famous mobile phone companies like Nokia, Motorola and Samsung have signed the fouryear partnership with the Basel Convention to develop recycling and reuse strategy.
6.3 Engineer
Engineers should conduct cleaner technology in both the material and the environmentally friendly manufacturing process of the electronics, whose waste is easily recycled. Thus, the green design, material, process, product, recycle and disposal can be achieved. Due to environmental ethics, the designer of the electronics should maximize the reuse potential of the products through more effective design. In addition, they need to study all existing toxic elements in the electronics to renew the global data base in electric and electronic industry.
7. Limitations
Government
Some limitations exist for the award system. Since there is no criterion for the recycle system, it is difficult to define a recycle system as outstanding and require the others to follow their steps. As a result, a stricter industrial standard is required to make the system more complete, like the percentage of waste the plant should recycle each year comparing to the total sale and the amount of material can be reused. Moreover, many countries will not sign the convention. For example, the United States has not signed the
Basel Convention, because shipping the ewaste to other countries is much cheaper and convenient to set up new recycle system in the homeland.
Cooperation
The research and use environmental friendly material in production and built up recycle system increase the capital expenditure. Thus the price of the product will undoubtedly rise by a great amount. Consequently, this may reduce their competitive strength among similar companies and they will lose their share of the market. Therefore, especially for smaller companies with limited financial profit are not able to put aside some money to pursue environmental friendly products and recycle base.
Engineer
Engineers are generally employed by their particular organizations. They will always consider company cost and net income, which may lead their ignorance of green product research and design. Even though they are aware of the illegal action of their companies, they might not dare to informant, for they are afraid of losing their jobs and retaliation. Reference:
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