Electronic Waste: A Global Problem

Do you remember your first computer? I sure remember mine, it was a 286 IBM. Well, it wasn't actually ours, but because my mom worked for the elementary school, we got to borrow one for the summer, it even had Windows 3.1 on it! Wow, it was an amazing piece of technology. At least it was in 1990 anyway. A few years down the road the school replaced them for newer models…but what happened to the old models? Well, the odds are that it got put in a giant pile of electronic waste and was shipped overseas to dumped. The dumping of electronic waste is a growing problem with huge environmental consequences.

Just what is electronic waste? It is any piece of technology that has been discarded by its original user. The European Union defined electronic waste as including small and large household appliance, office equipment, entertainment electronics, lighting equipment, electronic tools, medical appliances, surveillance equipment, and automatic issuing systems. It can be nearly anything that has or had a circuit it in at one time or another.

So it's garbage, What's the big deal? Untreated Electronic that gets dumped is an environmental disaster. Electronic waste often includes a number of heavy metals and toxins which are dangerous to human life. For example an older computer with a CRT monitor includes lead, arsenic, antimony trioxide, polybrominated flame retardants, selenium, chromium, cobalt and mercury. If electronic waste is burnt, these chemicals can easily get into the atmosphere and into the soil.

The amount of electronic waste is growing so rapidly that the head of the UN's environmental program, Achim Steiner, issued a warning about the subject. He specifically warned that over 50 million tones of waste from electronic is created annually, of which a good share goes untreated ever year. The Basel Action Network has reported that at least 100,000 computers a month are being brought through the port of Lagos alone, which is in Nigeria.

In the same message, Steiner urged additional countries to take part in the Basel convention which limits the types of hazardous waste which can be shipped overseas. If countries which receive a large amount of electronic waste were to sign onto the convention, the electronic waste would have to be recycled instead of being dumped, lessening the environmental damage greatly.

Fortunately, the recycling processes for electronic waste is improving. Some of the components can be reused, while others can be melted down for the raw materials. Additionally a number of states have enacted a number of pieces of legislation that limit the types of electronic waste which can be placed in landfills. Federal legislation was introduced but stalled by industry lobbyists. Many Asian countries have mandated electronic waste recycling as well.