An estimate of how how much e-waste there is this year alone.
What happens when you throw away your old technology?
Many, if not most, people are aware of how to dispose of unused or old electronics. However, they do not fulfill the ethical approach because it is not as convenient or easy to properly dispose of e-waste. This leads to more harm than they may realize. When throwing away trash, especially e-waste, humans tend to think of the landfills as out of sight, out of mind. But the truth is, when you just throw away technology rather than trying to recycle or dispose of it more ethically, this is what happens.
Once thrown away the electronic waste eventually lands up in the landfill. When in the landfills, the e-waste is commonly sent to either just sit there, be buried, or be incinerated/burned, thereby releasing harmful toxins into the air. This is a huge problem for many reasons. Electronics of any variety are filled with toxic materials that if or when landing into landfills have the potential to harm our environment, human health, and even our food. Some of these toxic materials can include mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, chromium, flame retardants, etc. It is even estimated that e-waste is over 70% of overall toxic waste and that only around 13% of e-waste is recycled. When considering how much e-waste is contributed yearly, these percentages only get scarier.
Concerningly enough, the US and other countries tend to also send a bulk of their e-waste to Asia or Africa landfills. This does not solve the problem of harming the plant but allows for these countries to extract materials and discard the remainder of the electronics.
According to “The World Counts” as of 2023, it is estimated that over 47 million tons of electronic waste have been thrown out, globally.
What should you do instead? Find out on this page!