E-Waste Threatens Our LifeEssay Preview: E-Waste Threatens Our LifeReport this essayE-Waste Threatens Our LifeHave you ever seen a ten-year-old kid receive an Ipad as a birthday gift? Have you ever thought maybe someday we would be able to study without going to the actual classroom? Have you ever felt that an increasing number of people prefer electronic newspapers rather than ordinary newspapers? In modern society, the computers and any other electronics are playing important roles in our daily life. As a part of our life, the speed of updating new electronic equipment has become increasingly fast. According to Giles Slade, “Cell-phone e-waste is growing exponentially because people who already have cell phones are replacing them with newer models, people who do not have cell phones already are getting their first ones, and at least in some parts of the world, people who have only one cell phone are getting a second or third”(1). The problem we are facing now is we live in an advanced technological society resulting in tones of electronic waste.
The electronic production marketing is being disseminated widely and broadly. In the world of electronics products, most products will be eliminated as soon as they are put on the markets. That is because people will never be satisfied with the one they already have. People like reading a novel from Kindle, rather than the paperback book. Ipad 2 is always better than Ipad 1. Taking class notes on the laptop has become students favorite method to use during the lecture, instead of using a pen and write the notes down on a piece of paper. Because of peoples insatiability, companies keep updating productions (Slade 1). Since too many electronics products are being discarded, this results in a large number of electronic waste. We cannot ignore the disadvantage of the growing e-waste because e-waste causes negative effects on environments and human health.If we want to prevent that bad situation, we have to recycle the old electronics devices.
Not only during the process of making electronics products, but also during the process of disposing of some obsolescence, environmental damage is the biggest innocent victim of it. According to the video “the story of stuff” by Annie Leonard, we acknowledge that “In the United States, we have less than 4% of our original forests left.” Since not all the used electronics will be disposed, the rest will be sent overseas to some developing countries and they will burn the e-waste. According to author Morgan ORourke, “When electronics are dumped in landfills, these substances can leach into the soil and groundwater (regardless of whether the landfill is sealed or not)” (1). Even though some of the recycling companies reduce the harm to minimum, still it is not guarantee to be disposed of safely. Another author Robert Bryce states that “computer makers and environmentalists are concerned about proper disposal of computers because they can contain a toxic cocktail of materials, including mercury, cadmium and arsenic”(1). One can only imagine, some day in the future, what our planet will be in the future with all the electronics waste landfill. Since the environment is being polluted, the air pollution will direct go into our body.
People are participants in the activity of both producing and disposing, so people reap the invisible chemicals, which harm human health. The people who are working in the factories of making all those products, must experience toxics every day for being a part of the producing process? Trashing the place is called extraction. Because we cut the tress fast, and we are running out of limited resources. When we move to the production, it is “toxins in and toxins out”, so the chemicals threaten workers health (Lenonard 4). For those people living in the poor countries, they have to work in these factories in order to raise their families. Being around the toxics, they have no choice. Because of the limited places, either producing factories or recycling industries, some of the dirty factories are moving to overseas, such as Ghana. Some electronics trash will be burned over there, so the people in Ghana will suffer a terrible environmental situation (Carroll 1).
Electronics bring many advantages, but cause disadvantages to the environment that we live in; in addition, the environment pollution threatens our human health. Living in the high informational technology time, it is either positive or negative. Because of the advanced technology, we can run a business through the Internet. People need cell phones to keep in touch with other friends. Computers become necessary equipment in our daily life. On the other hand, all the electronics products are invisible killers which are harmful to us. In order to have a better stander of living environment, we cannot not only just producing all those electronics, also we must figure out a way to disposal of those electronics.
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