E-waste
Michelle Aguilar
Writing & Research
Ellis Casey
E-waste
The way that society moves nowadays is based on the development of technology. We communicate, we learn, we transport and we entertain ourselves mainly based on electronic devices. As we develop as a society, technologic has to develop, too. Hence, every time we want to renew our electronics, we first have to disposal the ones we had before. The problem about ‘renewing’ our televisions, mobile phones and computers is that we are creating unnecessary waste to the planet. This type of waste is mostly known as E- waste, E-scrap or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). E-waste is basically discarded electronics destined to as to whether to be recycled or to be disposal “there are three possible outcomes: products may be reused or refurbished, recycled, or disposed”. (Electronics Waste Management in the United States Through, 2009) Whatever the way e-waste is destined to be, those methods pollute not only the environment but also damage people’s health with the scrap components e-waste contain. In recent years, we have noticed the how fast technology is developing. Around 1900, it was an anomaly to have a computer or a cellphone. Normally, people that owned a computer was mostly for job purposes. In contrast with 2014, technology had become accessible for almost everybody that it’s now an anomaly not to have basic electronic devices. In fact, technology had become cheaper than before. In this chart (extracted from the report Electronics Waste Management in the United States Through) shows the rapid pace of consumerism of technology from 1980 through 2010. The chart below shows the years from 2000 to 2010, where all the sales duplicated even 30 times than 20 years ago. One relevant fact is the increasing sales of the electronic products in the market. The total amount of electronic products’ sales only in 2000 was 333,408,552 electronic goods. By the year 2010, the
Writing & Research
Ellis Casey
E-waste
The way that society moves nowadays is based on the development of technology. We communicate, we learn, we transport and we entertain ourselves mainly based on electronic devices. As we develop as a society, technologic has to develop, too. Hence, every time we want to renew our electronics, we first have to disposal the ones we had before. The problem about ‘renewing’ our televisions, mobile phones and computers is that we are creating unnecessary waste to the planet. This type of waste is mostly known as E- waste, E-scrap or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). E-waste is basically discarded electronics destined to as to whether to be recycled or to be disposal “there are three possible outcomes: products may be reused or refurbished, recycled, or disposed”. (Electronics Waste Management in the United States Through, 2009) Whatever the way e-waste is destined to be, those methods pollute not only the environment but also damage people’s health with the scrap components e-waste contain. In recent years, we have noticed the how fast technology is developing. Around 1900, it was an anomaly to have a computer or a cellphone. Normally, people that owned a computer was mostly for job purposes. In contrast with 2014, technology had become accessible for almost everybody that it’s now an anomaly not to have basic electronic devices. In fact, technology had become cheaper than before. In this chart (extracted from the report Electronics Waste Management in the United States Through) shows the rapid pace of consumerism of technology from 1980 through 2010. The chart below shows the years from 2000 to 2010, where all the sales duplicated even 30 times than 20 years ago. One relevant fact is the increasing sales of the electronic products in the market. The total amount of electronic products’ sales only in 2000 was 333,408,552 electronic goods. By the year 2010, the