2. The Effectsof ElectronicWaste 2
Abstract
Electronic waste is an environmental hazard that emerged in the 20th century and has grown
exponentially. Electronic waste, also known as e-waste, is any waste that has divulged from any
electronic devices with a multitude of components that contain materials that are toxic, and non-
biodegradables that are not only harmful to the environment, but can have a devastating impact
on the health of people as well. Fortunately, while they contain components that will not
decompose, these items can be recycled, or reused. This paper will examine how electronic
waste effects the environment on a global scale, as well as possible solutions to tackle the
problem. A case study was done on a group of college students that have recently been educated
on electronic waste to determine if their electronics disposal habits would change. The prediction
that there would be a change in habits once the group had insight on both the short-term and
long-term damage showed a significant change.
3. The Effectsof ElectronicWaste 3
Electronic Waste
When thinking about the many environmental dangers that are being faced globally, there
several things that typically comes to mind. There is the rapidly occurring climate change, the
increasing effects of greenhouse gases causing global warming, and overpopulation that is the
leading reason for the massive deforestation that is devastating green land all over the world, and
probably the most obvious of them all, pollution. One environmental hazard that has received
much awareness has been the concern about waste. Due to overpopulation, “the average person
generates 4.3 pounds of waste per day, and approximately 55% of 220 million tons of waste
generated each year in the United States alone ends up in one of the over 3,500 landfills
households consume in numbers,” studies show, from the Centre for Sustainability & Commerce
(How Much Do We Waste Daily, 2016). There have been many campaigns that promote efforts
in combating waste by urging consumers to recycle reusable items such as paper, plastics, glass,
metals, and cardboards/cartons. While there has been much light shed on this topic, media efforts
too often fail to mention electronic waste, its increasing impact on the environment, and what
can be done to reverse the damage already caused.
Electronic waste, also referred to as e-waste, is a term used to describe electronics that
have become defunct or damaged, and are no longer of use. Due to the rapid progression in
technology, the use of electronic equipment has increased exponentially. However, the life
expectancy of those very products have also become shorter, therefore leaving households,
businesses, and government officials with a new dilemma…how to manage the waste it will
leave behind. This poses a major problem. Landfills are already overfilled. To add to this,
electronic waste also contains toxins that can leak into the soil and cause serious irreversible
damage to the environment.
4. The Effectsof ElectronicWaste 4
So what is classified as electronic waste? It consists of anything this is powered
by electricity that is no longer functional (D, 2002). This includes televisions, cellular devices,
kitchen appliances, computers, radios, etc. The components that make up electronic waste that
cause them to be detrimental to the environment are a complex combination of environmental
contaminants. According to an article in the Journal of Environmental Health, substances include
heavy and precious metals such as mercury, copper, palladium, lead, silver, gold, etc. Flame
retardants such as pentabromophenol, polybrominated diphenyl etehrs, tetrabromobisphenol-A,
etc. make up these substances as well (Borthakor, 2016), along with plastics, printed circuit
boards, and glass are materials that are also present, which are not biodegradable. These
electronic goods can be further broken down into three major classifications: white goods, which
are any household appliances, brown goods, these consist of Tvs, camcorders, cameras, and grey
goods, these are items such as computers, printers, fax mahines, scanners, etc (Needhidasan,
2014). White and brown goods expel less toxins in comparison to grey goods. Personal
computers are known to contain highly toxic levels of chemicals. The article, Electronic Waste:
A Growing Concern in Today’s Environment explains that research, “found alarming levels of
dioxin compounds linked to cancer, developmental defects, and other health problems in samples
of breast milk, placenta, and hair (M. Khurrum S. Bhutta, 2011) .” These have been linked to e-
waste that has not been properly disposed of.
Because the cost of recycling electronic waste surpasses any revenue that can be
generated from the materials in countries with strict environmental regulations, this often means
that it is shipped to other countries, most specifically third world and developing countries that
have low standards for environmental practices. This is especially true for countries like the
United States of America shipping electronic wastes to countries in Asia and Africa. However,
5. The Effectsof ElectronicWaste 5
most recently federal legislation has been introduced to attempt to regulate electronic waste. This
has been enacted through the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (RERA), which was
introduced in 2013 (US Failures in Electronic Waste Regulation Threaten Heakth at Home and
Abroad, 2016). The Responsible Electronics Recycling Act was designed to prohibit export of
electronic waste that has not been tested to outside countries that are not members of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) or the European Union (EU),
or Liechenstein. It also requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, most
commonly referred to as the EPA, to develop procedures that can identify electronic materials
that contain restricted toxic substances that pose a threat or a hazard to the health of the people or
the environment. Finally, the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act imposes criminal penalties
for anyone exporting restricted electronic waste knowingly, which is a violation of this Act
(Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, 2016). The EPA has estimated that out of an estimated
130 million electronic devices that are discarder a year in the United States, only about 14 to 17
percent are recycled. Those numbers are astonishingly low. In addition, approximately 50 to 80
percent of those electronics that are collected for recycling, are exported to developing countries.
Although these discarded materials have met the RERA’s standards for exportation of e-waste,
they still contain materials that are toxic, which have created wastelands for the countries they
are being exported to.
In other developed countries, they have tightened their regulations for e-waste, most
notably in European countries. The European Union has lead in the restriction of use of certain
hazardous materials that are largely found in electrical equipment. However, one of the most
successful examples of e-waste management in the industry can be found in the countries of
Switzerland because they provide incentive for recycling electronic waste.
6. The Effectsof ElectronicWaste 6
To better understand electronic waste practices of the general public, a study was done on
college students that were recently informed on the threat that electronic waste poses to the
environment. The purpose of the study was to determine several things. It was to determine how
aware were the students that participated in the survey on the hazardous effects of electronic
waste before the study, how aware they were on the topic after extensive research and education,
what their electronic waste disposal practices were before being educated on the topic, and what
their practices were after, and if they had and/or would change.
The hypothesis for the study was that the majority of those that participated had little or
no knowledge about electronic waste, the damaging effects on the environment, or what proper
disposal practices were before education. The next theory was that their disposal practices before
education did not include the recycling of their electronics. Finally, the expectation was that after
becoming educated on the topic that most of the participants would be willing to change their
electronic waste disposal habits to a more environmentally friendly option and would be more
conscious of their e-waste disposal in the future.
The survey was emailed to college students. The data on their survey would be recorded
and collected anonymously. The following are the collected survey questions and their statistics:
1. How many electronics devices do you own in your household? 14.3% answered 0-5,
28.6% answered 12-17, 57.1% answered 12-17, while none answered 18+.
2. How frequently do you dispose your electronics? 100% of the people surveyed answered
every 1-5 years.
3. Do you currently recycle electronics when they are no longer functional? 28.6%
answered sometimes, 28.6% answered yes, and 42.9% answered no.
7. The Effectsof ElectronicWaste 7
4. Would you recycle if there was an incentive (i.e tax breaks)? 85.7% answered yes, 14.3%
answered no. 0% answered sometimes.
5. Would you recycle for environmental purposes? 57.1% answered sometimes, 42.9%
answered yes, and there were 0% that answered no.
6. How likely is it that you will change your electronics disposal habits now that you have
learned about the effects of e-waste on the environment? 57.1% answered not sure,
28.6% answered very likely, and 14.3% answered not likely.
While it seems that there is still a long ways to go in educated the general public on the
dangers of electronic waste, there have been strides in changes along the way. The most
important way to ensure that a change is made is by spreading the word, creating awareness,
and recycling responsibly. To find a recycling center near you, visit www.eiae.org.
8. The Effectsof ElectronicWaste 8
References
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and Switzerland. St. Gallen, Switzerland: M.S. thesis, University of St. Gallen; 2002.
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4. Needhidasan, S., Samuel, M., & Chidambaram, R. (2014). Electronic waste – an
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ID 474230, 8 pages, 2011. doi:10.1155/2011/474230. Web. 06 May 2016.
6. "US Failures in Electronic Waste Regulation Threaten Health at Home and
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out.org/opinion/item/32036-us-failures-in-electronic-waste-regulation-threaten-health-at-
home-and-abroad>.
7. "H.R.2791 - 113th Congress (2013-2014): Responsible Electronics Recycling
Act." Congress.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2016.
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/2791>.
