New Media Concerns

E-Waste
E-waste, or electronic waste, is most easily defined as any type of discarded electronic equipment, such as computers, televisions, stereo systems, electrical components, and mobile phones. Most of these electronic devices have outlived their usable life cycle, and can no longer be used for their original intended purpose. However, they can be reused or recycled into a new product for future use. Computers are often thought of as the main contributors to e-waste, but they are only a portion of all of the e-waste that is being generated. Other forms of e-waste include refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, and other large household appliances. Once these equipments have been used to the fullest or have expired, the consumers dispose the equipments without thinking what will happen to them.



Causes and Effects
Electronic waste, more commonly known as e-waste can be simply classified as the disposal of electrical and electronic equipment. Often time when these products are discarded, there is a lack of consensus as to what should be done with them. Of course there are many options depending on the nature of the product, such as resale, refurbishing, and reuse, but today a lot of electronics are being used in a manner that is detrimental to society in a number of ways. The major issue of e-waste is at an all time high because many companies continue to update new versions of products, without necessarily making them better than the previous versions. “The increasing availability of new electronics, along with the higher number of products built with shorter life spans, has resulted in the current explosion of e-waste”. Usually the consumer falls directly into the trap of the companies, everyone always feels as if they must have the latest of what’s on the market, but don’t really think twice about where their old products are going. Many of our consumers are contributing directly to the e-waste epidemic without even realizing. Every day in the United States, people throw away or recycle their electronic products, but they aren’t necessarily aware of how harmful it can be to the environment we live in. “E-waste contains approximately 1,000 chemicals, including mercury, lead oxide, cadmium, and polyvinyl chloride, which are especially hazardous to human health”. In order to resell electronics, salvage companies have to remove, lead, copper, gold and a number of other valuable metals from them, but by doing this, harmful chemicals are also being released into the air and the water streams. Individuals who are exposed, are then in potential danger of certain health issues such as lung cancer, lung disease, and brain & kidney damage. E-waste not only creates health issues, but it also causes environmental problems as well. Usually when we think of environmental issues, we tend to think that it doesn’t directly affect us—it definitely does in a number of ways. When toxic chemicals are released during the e-waste process, it causes air pollution and water pollution which are extremely essential for human survival. So in a way, health and environmental consequences are intertwined when destroying products in this manner. The idea of attempting to make an additional profit from destroying old products to make new ones is actually intelligent; however, the way that it is being fulfilled is quite extreme. The issue of e-waste could be simply avoided by using safer recycling methods, but like almost everything in this world, it costs. Developed countries should be to blame for the outcomes of e-waste in my opinion. A lot of established countries, such as the United States send electronics that have been disposed of, to more underdeveloped societies to be recycled. In many foreign countries labor is cheap and regulations aren’t very strict, meaning that they can dispose of equipment in almost any way they choose without paying much, but still making a huge profit.



Another effect of e-waste is the fact that the process keeps the underdeveloped country to remain in their current living situations. Many well rounded countries usually send their electronic goods to other countries to fulfill the actual process of re-establishing these products because of the cheap pricing. However, the lack of payment as well as the many health factors that come with dismantling these electronics is not allowing certain places in the world to up rise and become a strong nation like their counterparts. The issue of e-waste has both positive and negative aspects to it. Although the United States makes a great profit from e-waste, it definitely poses many harmful effects toward the individuals who actually destroy these electronics for a living and to our environment. The effects of e-waste doesn’t make the profit worth it, if we allow these type of things to occur in our society, is money more important than the welfare of what lies within our environment ? That is one question that should be answered with the issue of e-waste.

Solutions
As this issue and threat of E-Waste is being identified, now it is important for us to look for possible solutions and alternatives to deal with it. It is believed that many people are unaware regarding what happens when they dispose their electric equipments. The first thing that can be done easily is by educating people about E-waste. Education can be started from primary level, which includes special classes regarding e-waste in schools and colleges. As well as government can also educate people through awareness campaigns/programs using advertisement on newspapers, radios, TV and bill boards. When people will have the knowledge about the effects of E-waste, they will think twice before buying a new electronic product. It will also encourage them to buy more green products, which are more environmental friendly. However, one may think is it government’s duty to spend money on these campaigns/program. The answer to this question can be that government collects taxes from public and spend back on them for public welfare. So, it is their responsibility to protect the environment from pollution and provide healthy living conditions for the tax payers. This method will be cost effective as well as the results can be achieved in quickly. Apart from this, government can fund educational and research institutes to find effective possible solutions which will reduce environmental pollution caused by E-waste. Moreover, instead of disposing electric equipments, individuals can donate their computers, cell phones and TVs to charity organization, educational institutes, non-profit organizations or technology training foundations. This will not only increase the life and usage of the equipments, but also will result in lesser demand of the equipments. Once the product is being used to the fullest, it can be returned to the manufacturer, who can refurbish it and sell back at cheaper price. Refurbishing itself is one sub-kind of recycling. If refurbishing is done in proper way, the amount of E-waste dispose can be reduced by large number. Another step that the manufacturers can take is by making more environment friendly products (green products). Even if these products are more costly and expensive, we as a society have to decide which cost is more beneficial for us to pay: high product price or polluted environment. At same, these changes in cost can be minimize if manufacturers reduce their profit margins and substitute them with recycling cost. Green products have more estimated life and they cause very less pollution compare to common goods we use in our daily life. Furthermore, it is more convenient to recycle them. Manufacturers can also play their part by using less Lead and other toxic substances in their product or by using less harmful substances as an alternative. In connection to recycling of E-waste, responsible authorities all over the world need to take some firm decisions. First of all, the labor which is involved in this process should be professionally trained and certified. Many under-develop countries which dispose E-waste are using child labor, which should be discouraged. Additionally, the place where recycling will take place should be inspected and approved by the government authority. Importantly, the factories or disposal plants should be located far away from city (living area) and the waste shouldn’t be thrown in rivers or canals which provide water for drinking and irrigational purposes. They should have proper equipments as well as appropriate working environment. To prevent from health hazards, workers should be paid for health insurance. Additionally, instead of using only man power, companies can use computers and robots for recycling. Among all these, we as a society have to take responsibility collectively to deal with this problem. Manufacturers should not only think regarding high profit margins and using harmful substances in their product. They should realize that if the effects of their products are dangerous to people, they are included in them also. At same, the consumers should also think when disposing old products or buying new products that do they really need to buy/dispose this. Is it essential for them to buy a new updated product or is the old product not working to its potential and fulfilling their needs? And at last, responsible authorities (government) should have a proper system of check and balance. They should fine heavily to the manufacturers who are not treating the E-waste properly (recycling and disposing).



Government efforts and laws regarding E-waste
United States

As electronic waste is a recent and upcoming problem, the first laws that regulate it were put into action in the year 2003. California was the first state to have e-waste laws, and it is one of the few states that actually have such laws. Out of the 50 states, only 25 enforce e-waste laws. Each of these states have their own set of rules and regulations concerning e-waste; some states handle the problem differently from others. For example, California have people pay a fee for recycling e-waste while New York provides free recycling services. Although each state has their own specific set of rules, there are general ideals that are shared between the laws. It is agreed that e-waste should be properly taken care of by the manufacturers who produce it and nearly all of the states that enforce e-waste laws leave the responsibility of recycling to the manufacturers. Most of the states have manufacturers register at the local Department of Environmental Protection annually, allowing the states to keep tabs on manufacturers that produce electronic devices. Some states, such as Illinois and Indiana, require manufacturers to recycle a certain amount of closed electronic devices a year. Manufacturers are fined a fee if they fail to recycle enough e-waste to meet the quota. Some states also have the manufacturers provide recycling services for consumers. There are other states that have no proper e-waste laws, but have disposal bans on electronic devices. Citizens are fined for disposing electronic devices as regular garbage. Instead, they must properly dispose of their e-waste at recycling companies. States that have such disposal bans include Arkansas, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Because e-waste has only started becoming a problem within the past decade, the United States are still trying to find a way to properly and efficiently deal with it.

International

The United States is not the only one who is actively trying to push for proper e-waste disposal. Europe also has their own systems of disposing e-waste. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) is the European's attempt at cleaning e-waste disposal. The WEEE Directive sets collection targets for the country, similar to the United States, and from there the country works to properly dispose the collected e-waste. In the last year, the WEEE Directive had set a goal of collecting 2 tons of e-waste and successfully met the quota. This year, the organization will be pushing to collect even more e-waste than last year and are also working on preventing illegal exports of e-waste to other countries. Australia is another continent that has recently adopted a few of their own e-waste laws. Australia, like Europe and the United States, is pushing for recycling used and old electronic devices. Similar to the policies of the United States, Australia is putting the responsibility of recycling on the manufacturers. They have a clause called the “Extended Producer Responsibility,” shortened as EPR, which requires all manufacturers and importers of televisions and computers to collect and recycle these products. Australia's government is currently developing more regulations concerning e-waste through with their Environment Protection and Heritage Council. Australia also banned landfills of e-waste, promoting the recycling of e-waste. Although there are some countries that are working for a cleaner disposal of e-waste, there are many countries that simply do not care for the matter. China is perhaps the greatest example of this. Almost 70% of the entire world's e-waste is dumped onto China. Once the e-waste reaches china, poverty stricken civilians heat and melt e-waste, extracting valuable parts while trashing garbage parts. This is the worst and unfortunately, the most popular way, to deal with e-waste. Not only does it harm the people who are disposing the waste first hand, but pollution is also spreading worldwide from disposing e-waste in this fashion. Rivers that were once flowing with life become barren with pollution. Children who live around the area are impacted harshly, suffering from the pollution first-hand. In countries like China, India and Ghana, little is done to fix the e-waste problem. With such an easy method to earn money, there is no desire for these countries to spend more money to properly dispose e-waste. As of now, e-waste is a problem only certain groups of people can tackle. Normal civilians have no way of properly disposing e-waste by themselves; they must rely on certified recyclers and organizations. The best an average civilian can do is to collect their old electronic devices and hand them over to the manufacturers that produced them. However, the world's major powers should push for a cleaner disposal of e-waste around the world. The countries that are already working towards the goal, such as the United States, should encourage other unmotivated countries such as China and India. As the situation stands, a majority of the world is ignoring the problem that e-waste poses and the only way to prevent further damage is for the world to join forces and formulate a solution together.

Conclusion
With the advancement in technology and science, every problem has a solution; so does the E-waste. It is importance for every individual to realise that if we as a society don’t take the responsibility to solve this issue, we are harming our own self. This growing problem in the world is largely ignored or misunderstood. Millions of tons of E-waste are dumped each year and the problem continues to grow. So it is important for us to play our part in solving this problem instead of blaming others before it is too late.