E-Scrap: A Growing Problem For An Eco-Conscious World
During the 50s and 60s, the United States’ industrial engine created high amounts of petroleum based, highly toxic refuge. After struggling with this echo disaster for decades, the 70s and 80s saw a shift from petroleum to plastics as the most significant waste disposal problem. Landfills exploded with non-biodegradable plastic products. The 21st century is witnessing the dawn of the latest ecological waste based challenge. Computers, audiovisual equipment, and the latest technological gadgets are filling landfills around the world with toxic products labeled “E-scrap.” Manufactured from highly corrosive complements, gases, and plastics, E-scrap can include traces of mercury, cadmium, and chromium, each of which range from poisonous to carcinogenic. E-scrap is accumulating at three times the rate of other garbage and disposable. Around the globe, businesses are wrestling with the question what to do with technology and techno gadgets in a disposable world.
One solution to the looming E-scrap problem is recycling. Although labor-intensive, recycling E-scrap is a viable means of diminishing technological contributions to our landfills. Plastics can be ground down and recycled. The glass from outdated CRT monitors can also be separated from hazardous components, re-ground, and used in recycling efforts. The major obstacle to recycling E-scrap lies in the economic viability of the project. Labor costs, chemical hazards and safety regulations make the prospect of recycling plastics a highly cost intensive project. Currently few markets are economically viable to sustain E-scrap recycling efforts.
Another option to recycling is reusing older computer and electronic equipment. Although not the fastest, and missing the latest techno-bells and whistles, much of the computer and technological equipment disposed of by business and consumers can be reused. Under developed nations, developing communities, and inner-city urban environments are prime target customers for reusable scrap. Some of the developing markets for reusing E-scrap include the Caribbean and Latin American nations. Rather than disposing of computer and technological equipment when upgrading their offices, businesses can simplify the process for reusing E-scrap by connecting with electronics recyclers nationwide. When a business sells directly to a new reuse and recovery organization, the expensive process of separating usable from unusable products and recovering products reaches toward an economically viable balancing point.
In the end, a commitment to reducing e scrap on a global scale will be subject to the will and the willingness of businesses and consumers to create and more environmentally safe planet.