Transcript We never know the worth of water until the well is dry

https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-e-waste
https://www.causesinternational.com/ewaste/what-isewaste
http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/electronics/whatisewaste/
http://e-stewards.org/learn-more/for-consumers/effects-ofe-waste/who-gets-stepped-on/
http://e-stewards.org/learn-more/for-consumers/effects-ofe-waste/who-gets-stepped-on/
11 facts About E-Waste
1.80 to 85% of electronic products were discarded in landfills or incinerators, which can release certain
toxics into the air.
2.E-waste represents 2% of America's trash in landfills, but it equals 70% of overall toxic waste. The
extreme amount of lead in electronics alone causes damage in the central and peripheral nervous systems,
the blood and the kidneys.
3.20 to 50 million metric tons of e-waste are disposed worldwide every year.
4.Cell phones and other electronic items contain high amounts of precious metals like gold or silver.
Americans dump phones containing over $60 million in gold/silver every year.
5.Only 12.5% of e-waste is currently recycled.
6. For every 1 million cell phones that are recycled, 35,274 lbs of copper, 772 lbs of silver, 75 lbs of gold,
and 33 lbs of palladium can be recovered.
7.Recycling 1 million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by 3,657 U.S. homes in a
year.
8.E-waste is still the fastest growing municipal waste stream in America, according to the EPA.
9.A large number of what is labeled as "e-waste" is actually not waste at all, but rather whole electronic
equipment or parts that are readily marketable for reuse or can be recycled for materials recovery.
10.It takes 539 lbs of fossil fuel, 48 lbs of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water to manufacture one computer
and monitor.
11.Electronic items that are considered to be hazardous include, but are not limited to: Televisions and
computer monitors that contain cathode ray tubes, LCD desktop monitors, LCD televisions, Plasma
televisions, Portable DVD players with LCD screens.
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• Much of the current e-waste generated in rich, developed countries ends up in developing
countries where it often poisons people and the environment. Less affluent people and
areas of the world get stepped on.
• While there is an international treaty known as the Basel Convention to prevent this, the
United States has not ratified that agreement and has almost no policies or laws in place to
prevent e-waste from being routinely shipped off-shore.
• Even in Europe where such exports are banned, there is far too much illegal traffic in ewaste with enforcement lacking.
• In the United States, the laws that do exist are often poorly enforced and have allowed
dangerous conditions in prisons, abandoned warehouses, and in the operations of
irresponsible recyclers where workers are endangered by toxic dust exposure.
• Imagine tossing your broken iPad in the garbage. It’s broken, obsolete and you just want it
gone. But, out of sight does not mean out of mind – or that it’s gone for good.
Irresponsible disposal will come back to haunt you.
• In one scenario, your iPad is delivered to the local landfill. It might end up in a mountain of
increasingly acidic garbage. Over time it corrodes, cracks, and aided by the acidic
environment leeches its toxic heavy metals into the landfill. When the landfill lining
breaches, those metals find their way into our ground or surface water we drink.
• Or maybe your iPad is incinerated and all those toxins such as brominated flame
retardants become cancer causing dioxins or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, made
airborne, settling wherever the wind takes them ultimately ending up in the ecosystem
and eventually on your plate or in your glass.
• What goes around comes around. It all comes right back to us.
• Or, let’s say the e-waste gets shipped away to a place you’ve never heard of in China or
Africa. It’s their problem now, right?
• Not really. The boomerang effect will take this problem right back to your doorstep. How?
Much of our food supply comes from China. And much of it from the very same regions
(Guangdong Province) where the e-waste is “farmed.”
• Also, scientists have now tracked air pollution from China across the globe. Pollutants find
their way via long-range transport in the upper atmosphere, moving pollutants, like
mercury, across the oceans where they fall out in other continents. Ultimately, the cycle
brings toxics from your iPad right back to your home.
Who Pays?
Unless we recycle responsibly, we all pay the price. The environment pays, our loved ones
pay, people you’ve never met pay, future generations pay, and you pay. Most often with your
health and a degraded environment. Let’s not be indebted for a cost we can avoid. Let’s treat
ourselves, our children, and the environment, with respect and dispose of our e-waste the
• E-Waste Hell SBS Dateline:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd_ZttK3PuM
• E-Stewardship Taking Responsibility in the Information Age:
https://vimeo.com/10383952
• 60 Minutes: Following the Trail of Toxic E-Waste:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/following-the-trail-of-toxic-e-waste/
• Sims recycling method:
http://www.simsrecycling.com/newsroom/video/electronics-recycling
• E-Waste Management and Processing Techniques:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmZnEd0Lzuc&noredirect=1