What is E-Waste Pollution?

What is E-Waste Pollution?

We live in a technological flooded era, where devices such as cell phone, computers, television and many more have become part of our lives. But when these devices stop serving their purpose, they become e-waste and are thrown away by us using improper disposal methods that could affect many lives on Earth soon.

Yes, because these devices are made of toxic substances that include Polyvinyl Chloride, Mercury, Lead, Chromium, Beryllium, Cadmium, Gallium, Arsenide etc. And when exposed to nature, these chemicals enter the air, water and soil, which further ends up into our bodies, eventually harming us.

How do these devices affect the environment? For example, suppose you exchange the new TV set with the old one from the shop. Now you might think that once the shop sends the old TV to the factory, they will recycle the old product. But unfortunately, that doesn’t happen every time! Sometimes instead of recycling, these factories burn the parts to gain metals like gold, copper etc, from these devices. And during this process, these parts emit harmful elements such as hydrocarbons, brominated dioxins, and other heavy particles into the air, which is ultimately inhaled by humans and other animals.

Not only the air but these particles also have the property to penetrate into the soil harming the nutritional value that is absorbed as food by the plants that are ultimately eaten up the animals and even end up on our plates.

After harming the air and soil, these harmful particles go ahead and get mixed with the water that is present underground and degrades its quality that is consumed by animals and even ends up at our home through tap water.

And if this destruction of natural resources by E-Waste continues at this alarming rate soon things will turn critical for our environment and can harm the entire environment. Hence, we must do something immediately to stop it by following a few small steps that could help us to get rid of this rapidly growing pollution.

The first we can do is avoid throwing away broken and outdated devices. Instead, you can transfer them to your friends and relatives or to whomsoever, who can make the most out of it. And if you don’t have to pass them on, you can take them to the manufacturing companies who can recycle them.

Also, another critical step you can take is making people aware of it! You can arrange an E-Waste drive in your schools and colleges to educate them about the proper disposal of electronic waste.

Did you know, we humans generate around 40 million tons of electronic waste every year worldwide, which is equivalent to disposal of 800 laptops every second? Also reports estimate that, although almost all of the E-Waste is recyclable, only 12.5% of E-Waste is currently recycled.