Electronic Waste

The January 2008 issue of National Geographic has a great article, High Tech Trash, about electronic waste. This e-waste is generated from old computers, computer monitors, cells phones, televisions, electronic game consoles and other electronic devices we no longer use and throw away.

It is amazing where much of our old electronics end up. Places like West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast), China and other Asian Countries. This waste has many negative environmental and human impact it has. The sure amount is also staggering. The EPA estimates between 1.5 and 1.9 millions tons of e-waste is generated yearly in the US.

There are two things I think we should take away from this article:

• Understanding of what happens to our old electronics and the negative environmental impact it has.
• There are things we can do to lessen the impact of our old electronics.

On the last point, National Geographic gives us some E-cycling Etiquette which provides web links to help us recycle our old electronics properly.