E-waste: Environmental Impact and Human Health Concerns

In the recent years, it became a trend that everyone owns a couple of different electronic devices. Smart phones, tablets, and laptops are just some of the popular devices people use, buy new ones, and discard old ones every day. When old electronic devices are discarded, they become electronic waste, also known as e-waste, which is a topic of this essay.

E-waste is a term that refers to all used electronic devices that are discarded and intended for reuse, salvage recycling through material recovery, or disposal. According to one research, 48.5 million tons of e-waste has been produced in 2018, and only 20% has been dealt with appropriately. That means that 80% of annual production of e-waste, which is almost 40 million tons, “ends up in landfill, or is disposed by informal workers in poor conditions” (WEF). The main problem here is the fact that those electronic devices in almost every case contain substances that are hazardous for human health and the environment. Most of those substances contain chemical elements such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium, and if e-waste is not handled properly, those substances can easily reach both, people and the environment (Department of Toxic Substances Control). This usually happens at landfills where untrained workers handle e-waste, often not being aware of how harmful the materials they are dealing with can be. When their unprotected skin comes in a contact with various dangerous chemicals, numerous health issues can appear as the result. Some of those issues are kidney damage, muscle weakness, reproductive issues, damage to the immune system, etc. (Ranganathan). In addition to the health issues caused directly by harmful materials found in e-waste, people’s health is endangered by the different types of environmental issues caused by those same materials. Inappropriately managed e-waste causes soil and water solution as hazardous materials reach soil and underground water streams. That way, these materials reach thousands of people through water they drink and food they eat. Not even air is exempted from the pollution because it is a common practice for scavengers to burn old electronic devices at unprotected landfills in order to get to materials such as copper (Ahmed). These are just some of the examples in which e-waste can harm people and the environment when handled unprofessionally and unconsciously.

Factors of the increase of e-waste

Important question to ask is what the causes of the rapid increase in the production of e-waste in the recent years are? A good starting point and a common first guess would be the consumers of electronic devices and their habits. It is true that people became spoiled by the producers and that they expect a new phone or other type of electronic devices almost each year. When their device is broken or simply does not perform as well as it used to, a consumer’s first choice is to discard it without even trying to repair it, and to buy a new one. Even when the old device is taken to a service, it is more likely that a consumer will be offered to buy a new device rather than repairing the broken one. However, many will argue that the producers of electronic devices are those to blame the most for the e-waste issue. Everyone who uses to own a same device for a longer time, knows the feeling of experiencing minor issues with their device as the time goes by. The most common issues people experience are the slowdown of their devices and the incompatibility of new software with their older devices. With new software being created and published every day, the need for newer devices appears among the users because without them, people will not be able to use any of the new features the software offers. This issue is closely connected to a policy known as planned obsolescence. That is a strategy commonly used in industrial design and economics where goods are intentionally produced “with uneconomically short useful lives so that customers will have to make repeat purchases” (Bulow). Although, this term is introduced in the 20th century, it seems that is was never as present in the industry as it is today, especially in the tech industry. A proof that big manufacturers use this strategy emerged in 2018 when Italian antitrust watchdog proved that Apple and Samsung used software updates to intentionally slow down older phones. These two brands were both fined with 5 million euros (Balmer).

Measures to reduce the negative consequences of e-waste 

Being aware of negative consequences of e-waste and other hazardous wastes, the United Nations designed a treaty with the purpose of reducing potential risks. The Basel Convention, as this treaty is commonly known, has the support of 186 parties around the world. Among the other obligations and conditions listed in the convention, two are significant for the issue of e-waste. The first one bans the export of e-waste to developing countries, which protects poor countries around the world from the negative impact of importing e-waste. The second significant measure is designed to put the pressure on manufacturers to invest more in recycling, which significantly reduces the risk of e-waste harming people and the environment. The United States, being the second largest producer in the world behind China, in the only developed country that did not ratify the Basel Convention. In addition to that, it possesses no national law addressing the e-waste issue and the burden of dealing with e-waste falls on the shoulders of the states. As Larmer stated in his article in 2018, “fifteen states still have no e-waste legislation in effect” (Larmer). This is a proof of how the U.S. as a country is not aware and, intentionally or not, not willing to deal with this global issue. Instead, most of the e-waste produced in the U.S. is being shipped to developing countries in Asia. On the other hand, countries of the European Union have “some of the toughest enforcement of e-waste laws in the world” (Larmer). Those laws are proven to be effective as the recycling rates in the European Union of 35% are much higher than those of the U.S.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the exponential growth of electronic devices in recent years has led to a corresponding surge in electronic waste (e-waste), which presents a pressing environmental and health challenge. E-waste encompasses discarded electronic devices that are often laden with hazardous materials, such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium. The improper handling of e-waste has far-reaching consequences for both the ecosystem and human well-being.

References

1. World Economic Forum (WEF). (2019). A New Circular Vision for Electronics: Time for a Global Reboot. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/whitepapers/a-new-circular-vision-for-electronics-time-for-a-global-reboot

2. Department of Toxic Substances Control. (n.d.). Electronic Waste. Retrieved from https://dtsc.ca.gov/toxics-in-products/electronic-waste/

3. Ranganathan, J. (2018). Electronic waste: A global hazard. Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 22(1), 1-2.

4. Ahmed, A. (2018). Burning e-waste: The toxic smoke rising from Asia. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-43915372

5. Bulow, J., & Summers, L. (1986). The desirability of constraints on government borrowing. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 101(3), 753-767.

6. Balmer, C. (2018). Italy fines Apple and Samsung over 'planned obsolescence'. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-antitrust-idUSKBN1F31NL

7. Larmer, B. (2018). The World's E-Waste Is Piling Up, and China Has Had Enough. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/the-worlds-e-waste-is-piling-up-and-china-has-had-enough

8. United Nations Environment Programme. (2021). Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. Retrieved from https://www.basel.int/TheConvention/Overview/tabid/1271/Default.aspx

9. Velis, C. A., & Booy, D. M. (2003). Solid waste and recycling policies for electronic waste in developing countries: a review. Waste Management & Research, 21(1), 21-30.

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10. Robinson, B. H. (2009). E-waste: an assessment of global production and environmental impacts. Science of the Total Environment, 408(2), 183-191.