E-waste or electronic waste has become an issue these days. This is about dealing with broken, unused, damaged, and outdated electronic devices or materials.
Technology is growing fast among people and we look for the new always. About a decade ago, the availability of Smartphones was not this much influential.
But nowadays, each and every person has a Smartphone of their own. So, this is about accepting the change. E-waste seems to be a problem but recycling them gets even better.
However, this article is going to talk about the truths about e-waste.
The number of discarded electronic devices is not a few but this is a huge quantity. In 2009, discarded computers, TVs, printers, fax machines, scanners, keyboards and other computer gadgets, cell phone, etc. have been sorted out about 2.37 million tons. This is definitely a bigger quantity. And the days have passed by. More of such wasted devices are getting increased in number.
You will be amazed to know that e-waste represents only 2% of America's trash, but this actually equals about 70% of overall toxic waste. Luckily, about 30 to 50 million metric tons of e-waste have been disposed of worldwide every year. Therefore, people are getting rid of frequent toxic effects.
Another truth about electronic devices is several electronic items such as Smartphones contain a high amount of precious metals including gold and silver. And the e-waste of only Smartphones contains more than $60 millions of gold and silver each year.
E-waste is actually not completely a waste at all rather; the parts and metals used in those devices can be reused or recycled for new recovery. But the actual amount f recycling e-waste is only about 12.5%. If you look at those Apple refurbished items, you will know that for every 1 million Smartphones that are gone for recycling, a good number of metals can be recovered.
Recycling e-waste is very much beneficial for our environment. It helps to reduce our energy bills at the same time. For about 1 million laptops’ recycling, you can save a huge amount of electricity bill. It takes more than 530 lbs of fossil fuel, 50 lbs of chemicals, and more than a ton of water to manufacture only a computer and a monitor.
So, it is seen that e-waste has been an influential part of our environment and everyday life.