1. Paul Zohil
E-waste Problems
The amount of electronic waste has been steadily accumulating over the years globally
and within the United States. Obviously electronic waste is not biodegradable and it does not go
away or naturally disintegrate. In 2000 US landfills had 4.6 million tons of e-waste, now we
export it to other third world nations, such as India, China and Africa. The average American
home has a collection of accumulated broken electronics that have yet to be disposed of. The
main problem with allowing e-waste to be buried in landfills whether they are in the US or some
other country is that the various harmful toxins leach into the soil, air and water. To fix the
problem, we need to increase the availability of electronic recycling and improve recycling
techniques. There need to be more electronic waste disposal centers and improvements in these
recycling centers. Existing trash centers need to be able to separate and collect electronic waste
in a convenient and more manageable way. The global community needs to define and clarify
what e-waste is and how it should be properly disposed. E-waste needs to be taken care of or
else it will end up causing more harm to our environment than fossil fuels ever could.
According to my survey, some people don’t recycle small electronics which is why they
end up in landfills. I think this happens because recycling electronics is not readily available to
everyone. For large appliances, it also seems that according to the survey that most people don’t
recycle them themselves. They either get the people who brought the replacement or take it to
the dump. Neither seem to be recycling the electronics, again perhaps revealing that it is not
easy to recycle electronics the way our current system is. The most obvious problem seems to
be that in first world countries people don’t want to take the time to properly do things like

2. dispose of e-waste. People in these countries believe they have more important things to do. If
you look at e-waste exports they are always going to third world countries to be disposed of.
People in first world economies don’t’ really seem to care too much about that. The
unavailability of easy to find and use e-waste disposal sites is one of the first things that should
be fixed to improve the way e-waste is treated.
To fix the problem of availability of electronic recycling there are a few things that the
US could do. One is that trash services could create a separate e-waste recycling service. This
would enable people to not have to specifically perform the task of bringing the electronics to
somewhere themselves. Two, is to make e-waste recycling more available. One way to do that is
to hold government cleanups like they do with guns’ amnesty programs. This way electronics
don’t just get randomly trashed. They could even offer a fee when the dead electronic is handed
over. Three, someone might be able to set up a business that collects e-waste. It seems
somewhat profitable to collect and sell the materials used in electronics. We could set up a
collection program like Purple Heart that would pick up e-waste. In our own neighborhood we
know there are metal recycling guys who come around and collect our old metal items, like
grills, cages, wheelbarrows, etc. The problem with all of these ideas is that they won’t just
happen. Action needs to be taken by the current trash companies, the government or even
individuals. It is clear a change is needed.
The current way that people go about recycling e-waste even when they do it, also needs,
improvement. If this is not improved even if availability increases, we won’t be able to keep up
with the influx. Currently when recycling e-waste there are separate plants built specifically for
it. This enables them to recycle in very controlled settings so that they won’t harm the
employees and the environment. Of course some things cannot be recycled like plastics, and

3. they are moved to the dump. The development to improve techniques for recycling e-waste
needs to be done so we can stop the current harm that e-waste is bringing to our planet. Even
though increasing the number of these plants would help it wouldn’t solve the fundamental
problem that the materials used in electronics are harmful to our environment, no matter how
much we recycle.
One such idea is to improve the recycling of e-waste is to change the way electronics are
manufactured so that they can more easily be taken apart. That way parts that can be reused will
be more easily reused and those that are dangerous can be more safely removed. Let’s plan for
the future instead of waiting to fix it after the electronics have already been made. Let’s design
electronics from the beginning with recycling in mind. This could save a lot of time and money.
Although there is a problem of motivation with the manufacturer's. A more feasible approach
might be to strip the hazardous materials in a plant and ship the rest to be recycled. This would
allow what is left to be easily worked with and processed outside the controlled environment.
While the hazardous materials could be properly recycled or disposed of.
The idea to create a company based upon e-waste recycling may be more profitable than
we think. Maybe there is value in it and not just from looking at the material benefits. One
million cellphones could net a company about 1.5 million dollars in gold price alone. If you
include the labor cost, it would still be a hefty sum. Then there are the other raw materials like
copper, silver and palladium according to epa.gov A major hiccup is the need for a large amount
of startup money. Not just anyone can start a company like this because of the environment
needed for recycling e-waste. Also it would require research and an entrepreneur’s style.
The problem with both these solutions is that they are easy to discuss, but difficult to
accomplish. It is a lot easier just to wait for some science head to come up with some weird way

4. to easily separate out the raw materials instead of creating laws and enforcing laws that may
make it more difficult on first world citizens. Other than the actual recycling problem there exists
the enforcement of our existing rules. The fact that a lot of e-waste ends up in regular dumps and
there still exists the sometimes illegal exportation of e-waste to third world countries.
A lot of people who answered my survey revealed that their e-waste will end up in the
dump simply because of convenience. Meaning that they don’t take the time to properly recycle
electronics and they end up just throwing them away like all other trash. This leads to the fact
that there is a lot of e-waste in landfills and other dump sites which can cause severe
environmental problems. These problems became even more complicated when laws were made
to prevent e-waste from being put into our landfills. All we would up doing was exporting the
problem overseas to foreign countries like India and China and a lot of African countries. This is
also illegal. The reason that exporting e-waste is easier is not only because of the caution needed
when recycling e-waste. There is also the problem of separating out the e-waste itself which
makes it easier to ship the whole pile out instead of separating the trash from the e-waste.
The problem with the e-waste that’s mixed in the trash is it can sometimes be sparse like
a cellphone in a trash bag or obvious like an appliance delivered to the dump. Yet all of these
items have some impact on the environment. According to www.epa.gov ”For every million cell
phones we recycle, 35 thousand pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and
33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.” Looking at this fact tells us that everything can add
up no matter how small it seems at the time. As Ben Franklin said “a penny saved is a penny
earned” even he realized that things given time will build up.
This part of the e-waste problem needs a proper solution so that e-waste will cause less
damage to our environment. The only seemingly feasible solution would be to invoke fines, like

5. the littering fines seen on the highway. This may cause some discontent and enforcing it may be
troublesome. Perhaps these fines would not be necessary if the availability of e-waste recycling
increased. The problem of e-waste being exported to poorer countries needs to be resolved in a
different way. This problem is not caused by the individual like the first one but by the
companies that do the exporting or who pay for it. This is also something that the world as a
whole need to address. We are exploiting these poor nations and their people and that is just
wrong.
If we look at the e-waste problems as a whole, it seems that this could be solved through
government intervention. Not only do individual governments need to move on this topic, but
even the United Nations should have some say in improving the disposal of e-waste. Though if
complaining about the government would resolve the problem it would have happened already.
One of the first things that needs to be decided is the true definition of what e-waste and
electronics are; from the tiniest McDonald’s toy to our home computers and 56” TVs. They
need to decide what the laws should be to prevent exporting e-waste. They need solutions for the
already existing piles of improperly disposed of e-waste. On my survey about half of the results
stated that electronics can be defined as anything with a little wire in them and the other half
concluded that a little wire can be excluded. So the definition is leaning towards most anything
is electronic that contains wire and the e-waste needs to be properly recycled/disposed of.
Preventing the exporting of e-waste to poorer countries is another matter that should be seriously
looked over by government and the United Nations, so as to prevent careless damage to the
planet as a whole. The companies who export it are only looking at the short term benefits and
profits. They are not considering the long term effect on the environment and the people living
in the places where they dump. The countries that accept the exported waste are looking to

6. survive and are willing to make money however they can. They too are not looking at the long
term effects.
The final problem is the hardest to resolve and that is the cleanup of what has already
been dumped in foreign countries. Delhi alone has “10-20,000 tons of e-waste” (greenpeace.org)
this is only one city and there are many more like it. Greenpeace.org also states that “In
developing countries however, there are no such controls. Recycling is done by hand in scrap
yards, often by children.” this will adversely affect the health of those performing the recycling
and the children could end up sick, especially if exposed to some of the toxic materials in e-
waste such as mercury.
If the problems I have outlines remain unfixed, in just a few years we may end up with a
lot more of an e-waste environmental problem. The current toxins released could easily end up
causing more damage to our environment than a single oil spill. There is also no doubt the
problem will only increase in the next few years as the quantity of e-waste increases. This stems
from two things; the increased use of electronics in our daily lives and the desire to always have
the latest technology. Technology changes rapidly and as soon as we purchase a new phone or
laptop it seems as if the technology of the device is already obsolete. Most modern people wish
to have the newest technology to keep up with the times, and most products aren’t built with
durability in mind, otherwise electronics would be built with more metal parts. Electronics tend
to break easier that they should. The companies who develop them definitely lean towards
making a profit. They are not concerned with durability or the current e-waste problems. In the
survey it states large appliances which should last the longest are what break the most, next are
small devices and wires connect our devices to power and such.

7. As a counter question on the survey it not only asked what breaks the most in the house,
but then went on and asked proposed methods to improve current electronics. The electronics of
today have a few fatal flaws. These include longevity and the difficulty to fix them. So the
survey proposed three answers to what could be done to improve electronics. This was to
improve the electronics and reduce the amount of e-waste that could be produced. Two of the
answers accomplish this while the third makes it easier to recycle. Two questions asked about
lessening the amount of e-waste; should we make it easier to replace parts, or should we increase
the durability of the electronics as a whole. The third question, asked as to whether it was better
to make it easier to replace an electronic as a whole. The funny thing is the older people who
took the survey answered that replacing the parts would be better, while the younger surveyors
answered that they should increase the durability of the electronics as a whole. Looking
objectively this shows the worldlier views as people get older. The older surveyors can see how
companies wouldn’t make as much profit if they made things to last longer. If the first two types
of upgrades were put into action, it would easily lift the burden on the amount of e-waste being
produced. Right now the life of electronics is very small so these improvements would go a long
way by ether increasing the life or decreasing what needs to be replaced.
The fact that the world is not looking at the e-waste problem as an environmental hazard
or that they are as harmful as fossil fuels, is the same mistake that we made with fossil fuels.
Humans in general seem to underestimate a problem till it blows up in their face. The main
environmental factor in e-waste is the toxic materials that will leach into the environment over
time. This can lead to degradation of the surrounding environment and the overall health of its
inhabitants. The problem that directly involves the people in poorer countries may be eliminated
if e-waste can be recycled by hand. Things like cathode ray tubes which even California

8. outlaws(calrecycle.ca.gov) would be removed. First off the governments should seriously look
at and define e-waste which is currently undefined. Then the world needs to improve the e-waste
recycling system that is currently in place, and there is not much of one. This includes
increasing the availability of e-waste recycling, coming up with a method to separate e-waste
from regular trash and prevent it, and then clean up the mess from the current system to prevent
more environmental and personal health problems. If we as a world do not fix this e-waste
problem, we will be in the same fix as we are encountering with our fossil fuel use.
AR AB CW SB JZ DD SH LM DR CC
What do you do with broken
small electronics like
cellphones and TV remotes?
a c c c a b c b a c
How do you dispose of large
appliances like ovens or
washing machines?
a c c c e c e c e a
What electronic breaks the
most in your home?
c b a a d b b a d d
How would you like
electronics to improve?
c a a a a b a b b c
Define e-waste/electronics? a b b b b a a a b a

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