It has recently been brought to my
attention that old electronics cause horrible health concerns to people all
around the world. Electronics, such as computers, phones, and TV’s, contain very
toxic substances, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, beryllium and
brominated flame-retardants. These
toxic materials in electronics can cause cancer, reproductive disorders,
endocrine disruption, and many other health problems if this waste stream is
not properly managed. (e-stewards.org) Sounds like a death wish to me. Even
knowing this horrific information, society continues to send old electronics to
areas where humans live. Now that I have knowledge on this topic I want to
spread awareness and stop the world distribution of old electronics.
According
to e-stewards.org, an electronic recycling business, in 2012, global sales of new
equipment included 238.5 million televisions, 444.4 million computers and
tablets, and 1.75 billion mobile phones. All of these electronics become
obsolete within 1-3 years of purchase. They are then shipped across seas to
China and neighboring countries that will accept old electronics. It only seems
that these numbers will go up over time and the crisis will grow larger. In
2008, CBS 60 minutes ran an award-winning documentary on the e-waste crisis
that has been seen by 25 million viewers. People know about the issue yet they
continue to be apart of the problem. I’m sure that my family and I have
contributed to e-waste because we are too lazy to take our old electronics to a
credible landfill. I am a person that cares about others even if I have never
met them. So from this point on I am pledging to take my old electronics to the
right facilities that will not bring it overseas. I am going to continue to
convince my family and others to do the same. I love doing things like this so
I feel that I am making a positive impact on the world. I also think that there
needs to be more businesses in America that take old electronics and recycle
them without any harm to society.
On
the other side of things, the Chinese encourage countries to bring old
electronics over to there landfills so that they can scrap the metals for
resale. Countries gladly bring all of their electronic waste over just to get
it off of their homeland. To fix this issue their needs to be an arrangement
between both sides, the world and china, to stop the harmful disposing near
human civilization. An estimated 70-80% of the e-waste that’s given to
recyclers is exported to countries with developing economies. (e-stewards.org)
There needs to be a way for recycling plants to destroy e-waste and keep the
community out of dangers way.
Learning
about the crisis on e-waste was a very interesting experience for me. I’m
always looking for ways to make an impact on the world and the beautiful people
that live all over. Recycling old electronics seems like something that is
easy, but everyday there are hundreds of thousands of old toys being thrown out
the wrong way. If the world comes together on this crisis I believe we could
save a lot of health issues in the countries that hold the worlds e-waste.
No comments:
Post a Comment