Tackling e-waste increases requires industry coordination
Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 09:24:19
In a recent article for the Guardian, recycling industry expert, Duncan Jeffries, argues that there is a growing need for the tech industry to coordinate with recycling firms, to deal with the ever growing amount of electronic waste that is being created across the world each year.
He points out that tens of millions of tons of old mobile phones, computers, TVs and other gadgets used by consumers and businesses are being shipped from the West to developing nations, where they are often dumped, creating environmental hazards that could create problems for decades to come.
Another issue with this state of affairs is that much of the waste is shipped out illegally, with conditions in place that do not live up to international guidelines on recycling. And since this is the case, it is hard to get a true measure of the state of affairs in the e-waste industry because so much slips under the radar.
The answer is to make sure that the manufacturers of mobile phones and all these other products are in communication with recycling companies, so that efforts can be made to ensure that unwanted items are easy to reclaim, reuse and dispose of in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Jeffries also points out that it is slightly ludicrous that most of the smartphones we use in the west are built in China, then sent over here only to be returned to their country of origin at the end of their life cycle, which clearly creates a huge carbon footprint for transport.
Mobile owners in the UK can make a difference by recycling their old phones and selling them online so that they are handled properly and do not subsequently end up dumped in some far off land to do damage.
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