Thursday, April 22, 2010

Electronic Waste: The Growing Problem With Planned Obsolescence

In today’s society, new technology becomes obsolete almost the second that it is purchased. There is always something new and shinier than the things that we already own. Add this to a capitalistic society, and we are almost certainly destined for an excess of “old” technology that needs a place to go. E-waste is the term commonly used to refer to this sort of refuse. While there are a myriad of recycling programs to help deal with these things that are no longer wanted, most often they tend to end up in landfills and incinerators or, more recently they have been exported to developing countries. It has been estimated that as many as 20 percent of unwanted computers end up in landfills. This can add up to over 4 million tons of e-waste a year and leach hazardous chemicals into the environment that can have irreparable damage. Many gadgets that are not thrown into landfills are incinerated, which is a large problem as this can release heavy metals into the atmosphere. Another way that this trash is dealt with is to export it to developing countries. This is currently not illegal in the United States and it is estimated that anywhere between 50 and 80 percent of the waste that is supposed to be recycled is actually shipped out this way. Many countries are currently trying to end this practice by implementing bans on the import of e-waste. There has to be a better way that this problem can be dealt with. Planned obsolescence may aid the economy, but it is harming the environment.

10 comments:

  1. I have seen a couple of documentaries on this topic. There are a couple countries in Asia, where the vast majority of this "e-waste" is sent to be "recycled". In these areas the electronic waste towers above the villages. The harmful chemicals and components of these products, affect the people and environment in which they are stored. This is environmental racism on a global scale.

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  2. I have seen many documentaries as well on the topic of e-waste. In this movie I watched called "Manufactured Landscapes" focused on taking photographs of the immense amounts of e-waste. In these pictures, it shows the huge piles and piles of e-waste and the runoffs into the local freshwater systems. There was this photo of children climbing on these piles and it shows that these children are being exposed to the dangerous chemicals that come from this waste. Its shocking to see how our country takes advantage of land that is not our own with dealing with waste instead of finding ways to recycle the material instead.

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  3. The development of new technology is clearly inevitable but it is amazing with so many advance in this technology there hasn't been improvements on how to dispose of it properly. You would think there would be a new inventive way to recycle gadgets in a more environmentally friendly way. Dumping our problems on developing countries should not be are go to solution.

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  4. I agree that the major problem with this is that developing countries are receiving our so called recyclable waste and turning off Americans from recycling. If people are going to be recycling their e-waste, which they should, there needs to be some assurance from recycling and trash companies that this e-waste is not going to developing countries. Large scale recycling companies need to make sure that e-waste that they send to smaller companies and further on down the line don't end up in developing countries. I think that if large scale companies could assure that the e-waste isn't going to other countries, it would be an incentive for more people to recycle their e-waste.

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  5. A solution to the problem of planned obsolescence is making manufacturers responsible for the full life of the product. This would create a closed loop and incentivize manufacturers to create products using sustainable methods.

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  6. Lack of education is a major component to this problem. It is good that people try to recycle these products but I am sure that the majority does not know that these materials are not getting recycled. There are places that you can take phones and electronics to that replace broken parts and then give them to poorer families or battered women's shelters. I think that if more consumers were aware of this they would take their discarded products to these places.

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  7. It is interesting to me that the electronics industry was founded on the idea of modularity; however, this modularity only seems to be applied to the economic side of a product, like new graphics cards or hard-drives. most things in a computer are made as a one shot use, but not to be reusable or recyclable.

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  8. In the end, it comes down to the fact that consumerism is the foremost perpetrator of environmental degradation, right behind militarism. Consumerism is founded on the idea of planned obsolescence and the unfortunate human desire to always have the newest trendiest stuff. This translates right over to the consumption of electronics, and although a better recycling method for such goods would be beneficial, a real solution can only come from a change in human desire to consume less.

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  9. For too long people have operated with a ambivalence to the final resting place of their much loved electronics. Education on this topic is lacking and much more should be done to inform the public of the harms of just putting such items in the trash and better education must also be provided to tech the public about the correct places to bring these items, because in all honesty sitting here thinking about it i still have no idea where the right place is to discard my old electronics.

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  10. I think the speaker we had visit us from Waste Management provided some hopeful statistics regarding disposal of e-waste. He said they are now operating e-waste facilities where they can recycle 100% of the material in a computer. I also just saw a commercial the other day wherein Best Buy offers to take your old computers and recycle them for you. Right on.

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