Consider your daily routine. How many different battery-powered or plug-in electrical objects do you use? You perhaps start your day with a wake-up alarm on either a clock or a smartphone. You switch on a bedside lamp, stumble into the bathroom to use an electric toothbrush, perhaps anxiously step on a set of bathroom scales that sync to an app on your phone. Breakfast comes from the fridge and uses a toaster or a grill, perhaps a stove if you’ve got the time. You push a pod into the coffee machine or boil the kettle. Before you’ve even consumed your first caffeine boost of the day, you’ve possibly encountered 10 different pieces of electrical equipment. Not all of those will be vital to your routine and those with higher standards of living will have more luxury items. As science and engineering develops, so does the technology that becomes commoditised. All those objects, the necessary and the unnecessary, have a life expectancy – at some point, you’ll look to seek a replacement, either because of a fault or because technology developments forces it to become obsolete and you’re driven to keep up with the Joneses. What happens to those items once you no longer have a need for them? If you don’t formally recycle the goods through official and regulated channels, it’s highly likely that it will become e-waste.
E-waste is an object that houses a battery or has a plug that has been discarded, such as white goods, gaming devices, wearables, smartphones, laptops, and household electricals. It’s estimated that humanity produces an average of 50 million tonnes of e-waste each year and WHO predicts that by 2030, this yearly average will have doubled.
This electronic waste is toxic or hazardous to the environment if left to decay and break down. It’s reported that less than a fifth of all e-waste is recycled responsibly, with the remainder being illegally shipped to countries without the correct infrastructure, processes or legislation to protect against unsafe e-waste handling. A lot of e-waste is processed incorrectly, by open-air burning, through acid baths, and via personal handling of contaminants. This releases harmful substances such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Sustained human contact with these can cause neurological damage and cancer, and CO2 is released into the atmosphere. The damaging repercussions from informal and incorrect handling of e-waste can echo long after such practices are ceased.
Take some time as you progress throughout your day- count how many sources of potential e-waste you use. Does the number shock you?
#whatsyournumber