News Media Increases Awareness of E-waste Crisis

Three significant news articles in two recent publications have captured the essence of the serious e-waste crisis around the world.

National Geographic published in its January issue an excellent expose on e-waste, highlighting the concern that trusting old electronics gear to a so-called computer recycling company or a municipal collection point does not guarantee that it will be properly and safely disposed. While some recyclers process electronics waste with intent toward minimizing health risks and environmental impact, many others sell e-scrap to brokers who ship it to the developing world, where environmental policy enforcement is weak and amateur dismantlers risk their lives handling toxic materials to extract valuable metals.

Equally enlightening issues are covered in a two-part series of articles appearing in TechNewsWorld in recent weeks that follows the trail of an end-of-lifecycle laptop computer after disposition. In the first installment, headlined: A Recycled Laptop's Journey, Part 1: Exporting Toxic Waste, the point is made that almost all laptops and PCs in the U.S. are simply thrown in the trash, leaving governments, aid agencies and taxpaying consumers to pick up the costs. Establishing viable electronics recycling programs worldwide is slow going, experts say, and a disconnect lies on the back-end of the product life-cycle loop, beginning with disposal.

In the second segment of the series, A Recycled Laptop's Journey, Part 2: Doing the Job Right, the plight of the laptop continues, facing prospects of being recycled, reused or exported overseas for dismantling and dumping.

These articles and many like them that are regularly featured in Redemtech’s bimonthly environmental news edition indicate that 2008 might be the year of e-waste discovery and increased awareness. While considerable media coverage has been focused on the upcoming digital television shift in 2009 in which millions of analog signal TVs are expected to find their way to U.S. landfills, recent news attention has expanded to cover all forms of e-waste, including computers and monitors, cell phones, medical devices and other technology.

As we continue our coverage of environmental issues in 2008, we’ll be focusing on the growing problem of e-waste. Hopefully, awareness of the issue will grow more briskly than the crisis itself.