What is E-waste and why do we care? E-waste is short for electronic waste. As technology advances at an exponential rate, the amount of obsolete and unwanted electronics grows at a substantial rate. The final destination for these electronics is either ending up in landfills or getting shipped to a 3rd world countries where they get disassembled for their precious metals in unsafe work conditions. E-waste unlike regular waste, has more harmful toxic characteristic and is more harmful to our natural environment.
What can be done by manufacturers and consumers to reduce E-waste? The GreenPeace report outlined the factors that contribute to the E-waste and ways to re-think how it can be corrected from the corporate and manufacturing process. One such idea is doing away with Planned Obsolescence (Cook & Jardim, 2017) which is designing consumer goods that are rapidly become obsolete and requiring replacing. Instead, products should be designed with higher quality, interchangeable and repairable components. This should make it cheaper to fix and help promote a long-life span for electronics. Consumers play an important role in this by refusing to buy from companies that do not have ethical products.
One of the top companies that scored high on the report was Apple. Apple is pushing for a closed-looped system where they recycle materials and components from their older devices. One machine named Liam was a great example of how this process would work to efficiently dismantle an iPhone within seconds. Whenever closed-loop materials are not available, an open-loop system can be used where recycled materials from other sources are used. The human rights issues may arise if the source of open-loop materials come from a dismantling facility that is not regulated with safety precautions. The photograph showing an e-waste recycler holding an infant near the work area in Guandong, China is concerning.
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Hazardous chemicals in recycling operations, is bad for the workers especially children. Transparency of the supply chain is important to easily identify any ethical, environmental, or human rights issues. The GreenPeace report was eye-opening, it will take consumers to help drive the companies to push for more E-waste reduction. Companies will have to ethically design their products with environmental and public health in mind. Sharing this information will help other consumers make their future electronics buying decisions. Another avenue that I didn’t touch on was pushing for new legislation to help reduce E-waste.
References
- Cook, G., & Jardim, E. (2017, October 17). Guide to Greener Electronics 2017. Retrieved from https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/reports/greener-electronics-2017/
- Leach, A., & Boyd, O. (2017, March 01). Samsung and Greenpeace: What you need to know about e-waste. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/mar/01/samsung-greenpeace-what-you-need-to-know-e-waste-smartphones-recycling
