E-waste: A treasure or a disaster?
Due to the technological development that characterizes our age today and the almost complete dependence on electronic devices in various domains, they have become an integral part of our lives, as they have contributed to easily and conveniently serving our needs.
But what is e-waste? Is it a new term? What is its relevance to the environment and health? Is it a disaster?
We will talk about all this and more in this article….
Electronic Waste
- Electronic devices :
Briefly, electronic devices are devices that use electronic materials and tools to control the flow of electrical currents for the purpose of processing information and controlling the system (i.e. to perform a specific function).
Nowadays, devices have become everywhere.
Let’s say a house with four people has four phones, maybe two laptops, home electrical appliances, and lighting, these are all considered electronic devices.
- Electronic waste :
These are electronic devices that have become unusable, either due to a malfunction, expiration, or no longer suitable, or simply newer devices have been released, so the old version is thrown in the garbage, eventually forming electronic waste.
Is it a disaster?
In a report prepared by seven United Nations agencies, the amount of e-waste may increase over the next 30 years from 50 million tons to 120 million tons of waste.
The United States and China are the two leading producers of e-waste, with America producing 7.2 million tons in 2016 and China producing 6.3 million tons in the same year.
The numbers are telling…..
50 million tons of e-waste in 2019
Only 17.4% of e-waste is recycled
E-waste is increasing 3 times faster than the global population, according to Antonios Mavropoulos, President of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA).
The terrifying increase in the amount of e-waste is equivalent to 7.3 kilograms for every human being on Earth.
The developing countries are a cover for the rich countries:
As we mentioned earlier, America and China are among the largest producers of electronic waste, but they export this waste abroad due to fear of its dangers and the difficulty of recycling it, so other Asian countries become a dumping ground for electronic waste.
However, regardless of the fact that these countries will suffer more severe consequences than the rich countries, we are on one planet, so its effects will affect the whole world and there is no escape from that, ineffective dumping of these wastes, such as burning them will cause large carbon emissions that negatively affect the environment, burying them under the soil, will lead to the leak of their chemicals into agricultural lands and then into groundwater.
The impact of e-waste on health:
Human health has become in danger due to the harmful emissions of electronic waste, either by burning it or burying it under the soil and the leakage of harmful substances included in its composition into groundwater, such as Lead, mercury and CFCs, all of which have harmful effects on the nervous system and the respiratory system.
Children are more vulnerable
The International Labor Organization (ILO) has estimated that around 16.5 million children globally work in the industrial sector, of which waste treatment is a sub-sector, and children are often involved in collecting, digging, burning discarded e-waste and manually dismantling equipment.
Because their bodies are still developing, e-waste can affect their skeletal development, nervous and respiratory systems, and lungs function.
An increase in miscarriages, premature births, stillbirths, increased risk of low birth weight and low birth height have also been observed.
Developments and innovations in the field of e-waste management:
Most countries seek to use electronic waste to produce electricity and recycle it, but in reality only 20% of that waste is recycled and many people work to turn it into real wealth, because modern electronics contain copper, tin, silver and gold, that come out of the devices after they are recycled.
E-waste can be recycled in an informal manner and primitive techniques, and here no proper or protective equipment is used, which allows dangerous chemicals to be released from the e-waste.
Formal recycling is done using equipment designed to extract materials from e-waste in a safe way that protects workers from harmful effects, which is an expensive method that is adopted only by rich countries that can afford it, but it is one of the best modern technologies to minimize the risk.
The role of society in facing the issue:
Awareness about environmental concepts and issues continues to provide results, even if they are simple, and our role is to seek to increase environmental awareness and shed light on the possibilities available as much as we can on the importance of reducing environmental risks, so the Syrian Climate Pioneers Foundation, in cooperation with Jadal project, held a collaborative project to transfer the written blog to a visual blog with content creation tools, and the beginning was to publish a video explaining the concept of electronic waste and its impact on the environment and health.
Far away from Syria and especially in Egypt
The E-Waste app has been launched to collect electronic waste from users in cash or in-kind and send it to recycling factories.
Take a picture of the damaged device and the app will show the nearest place where you can put it to return all the components of the device to its original position, separating iron, gold, copper, …….
What’s next….
After all that we have mentioned, can a radical solution be found to stop the growth of these increasing numbers every year? Can our planet handle these numbers of e-waste?