E-waste, A long lasting Trouble

E- Wastes commonly known as electronic wastes are nothing but discarded electrical equipments .With the advancement in the recent technological innovations electronic goods are not anymore luxury items. Nowadays electronic gadgets has been most commonly used everywhere from schools to houses. Currently only countries with advanced recycling technologies are recycling these electronic wastes nowadays. Other countries are just land filling or burning these wastes at Incineration plants which is an unhealthy process for our society.

Unsafe levels of E-wastes in our Day to day products

Back in 2008 the total number of computers present in our world exceeds the billion counts. As per predictions by world bodies it is said that this figures will increase by more than 100% resulting in 2 billion computers by 2015. The worst thing with the increase in numbers of these computers is the presence of materials like plastic, lead, mercury inside them. The research specifies that one billion computers contain 5.6 billion kgs of plastic, 1.4 billion kgs of lead and 0.5 million kgs of mercury.

Disadvantages with the land filling

The e-wastes discarded beneath the earth as landfills releases heavy non degradable metal components like lead, cadmium and mercury into atmosphere. Another poisonous metal released from these electrical products, mercury can accumulate with the food cycle in a bad way. This in turn can cause severe human and environmental health impacts. Also possibilities are more for the ground water pollution from the contaminants produced from these electronic wastes generated. Even some acids are released from these wastes in landfills leading to air and land pollution in heavy populated areas.

Disadvantages with the Incineration Plants

E-waste components in incineration plants results in the release of high toxic materials such as lead and mercury. Other toxicants like dioxins and furans are released from the plastic material present in these electrical items. More over The flames emitted during the burning process emits high toxic components brominated dioxins and furans. All the above listed components are extremely dangerous to human beings in many ways.

It’s not too late to combine waste management in our life and train people on how to reduce the e-waste and e-pollutants. As a responsible citizen we can show our support by buying eco friendly electronic items released in the market