E-WASTE

8T H GRADE

WIESBADEN MIDDLE SCHOOL

What is e-waste?All electrical and electronic items and their parts

Heating / Cooling

Screens

Lamps

Large equipment (appliances on the floor)

Small Equipment (appliances on the counter)

Small IT

Where did you dig up that phone?Materials in cell phones include:

Gold

Silver

Copper

Platinum

Palladium

Iron

Aluminum

Where did you dig up that phone?But that’s not all:

Rare Earth Elements: Lanthanum (digital camera lenses), Cerium, Samarium

Heavy Metals: Mercury, Lead, Cadmium

Chemicals: CFC’s or flame retardants

How long will it last?21-24 months

The Throwaway Society

How big is the Problem of E-waste?• There are more handsets on earth than there are people

(7.7 billion vs. 7.4 billion)

• 44.7 million tons in 2016 (that’s 4,500 Eiffel Towers) but only 20% recycled appropriately2

• Expected global e waste to soon be 51 million tons a year1

• Europe recycles 35% of e-waste; the Americas only 17%2

• Value of raw materials present in e-waste (2016): €55,000,000,000

How much is recyclable?Metals

Plastic

Glass

Source: The Global E-waste Monitor 20172

Where does e-Waste go now?•Municipal Waste Collection (the trash):• Landfill (leaching of toxins to soil and water)

• Incineration (toxic air emissions)

• Total resource loss

•Private e-waste collection• Recycling (metal only, plastic only, e-specialized)

• Exported

•No Waste Management• Resold / reused

• Open burning (like incineration, but worse)

• Dumpsites (like landfills, but worse)

E-Waste NowFormal Recycling Centers (usually through retailers, municipal collection points, and/or pick-up services)• State of the art treatment facility recovers the valuable materials in a

way that is environmentally sound (no contaminants to air, soil, water – or people)

• Two standards to look for are Responsible Recycling R2” or “e-Stewards”

Informal or Backyard recycling

• Open burning or acid leaching for metals

• Unprotected melting of plastics

• Dumping of hazardous residuals

E-Waste Changes

•Universal Power Adapters and Chargers

•Product Design

•More with less (but less incentive to recycle)

Questions to ConsiderDo you know where to go to fix a random electronic item?

Repairing electronics cost time and money; buying a new item is cheap and fast. What’s the right answer?

What makes an electronic device obsolete?

Should every tech company have to have a lifetime recycling program in place? Would you pay extra for that? What if the extra cost meant you couldn’t get the new phone?

Do you think people would care more about e-waste recycling if they lived next to a landfill? An informal recycling facility? Why is that?

What is your power as a consumer? Does a consumer have a responsibility about what they buy?

Questions?

SourcesAll photos and graphics are from The Global E-waste Monitor – 2017 (below), unless otherwise specified.

Baldé, C.P., Forti V., Gray, V., Kuehr, R., Stegmann,P. The Global E-waste Monitor – 2017, United Nations University (UNU), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) & International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), Bonn/Geneva/Vienna. https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:6341/Global-E-waste_Monitor_2017__electronic_single_pages_.pdf

Knapton, Sarah. “Discarded phones, computers and electronics behind world’s fastest growing waste problem”. The Telegraph. 13 December 2017. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/12/13/discarded-phones-computers-electronics-behind-worlds-fastest/