Is our World becoming a Digital Dustbin? Stop it in 10 ways!
With major tech Billionaires going ga-ga about going to space, it sure looks like the Earth is slowly losing its charm to its native beings. While it is good to be futuristic, shouldn’t we concern ourselves with the problems that exist on Earth, first?
Like the packet of the chips you threw out yesterday or the old phone you discarded or the out-of-fashion clothes you dumped?!
It surely looks like in the coming years, our planet will be no more than a dustbin oozing with our trash strewn around everywhere. And it is us who will be to blame — because amongst all species, it is humans who can’t keep their rubbish together.
As the world progresses with Technology on its arm, waste generation has increased multi-fold and is showing no signs of slowing down. And topping the list of course, is our Electronic Waste, nicely nicknamed as E-waste.
To put the magnitude in perspective, lets give you a number (Source: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Environment/Pages/Spotlight/Global-Ewaste-Monitor-2020.aspx)
The volume of E-waste generated worldwide in 2019 was roughly 54 million metric tonnes and this number is estimated to go upto 74.7 million metric tonnes by 2030.
Now that you have that number in mind, lets first get our definitions in place
What is E-waste?
E-waste is defined as any electrical or electronic equipment that has been discarded. The equipment may be in working condition or dysfunctional and it includes anything with plugs, cords and electric components. Common forms of E-waste include televisions, mobile phones, home appliances, and so on.
And the Reason for the E-waste growing at astronomical pace?
With technological advances come speedy outdation — What is working absolutely fine in the morning, suddenly becomes old and outdated by evening, because the manufacturer has just launched a new version! And to keep up with the trend, we discard sometimes perfectly working-condition products because they are now one version older.
And why should one be surprised to know that Tech Brands exploit and propel this very trait — They add one new twist to the previous model and call the derived product ‘A New launch’, with superbly crafted marketing tugging at us to discard the current product for the new version.
After all that’s what they say in marketing circles — Show them a phone with three cameras and they’ll chuck their perfectly functional two-camera one in the bin before running to the store!
Do we hear the Tech Geeks shaking their heads already?
You may be asking this by now –
‘’What is so bad about being tech-fashionable. The pack says they are recycling these too, aren’t they??’’
Ok, lets address these one at a time -
- Most electronics contain some form of toxic material — mercury, lead, cadmium, beryllium which pose huge environmental risk. While these are safe to use and be around, above the ground the same isn’t the case when these are buried in landfills alongwith your old discarded gadget. These materials seep into the ground below the landfill poisoning groundwater thus flowing into water bodies from where we get our drinking and industrial water. This process of the materials detaching or extracting themselves from the discarded product and seeping into the ground is called ‘Leaching’.
- Of the huge mass of E-waste produced by us, only 17% gets recycled. The primary reason being — that a lot of that waste is not meant to be recycled. It is full of tiny, toxic material that is hard to find and expensive to break down. The current recycling solutions that we have are not solving the problem — they are just exporting it! Developed Nations having stringent waste reduction and E-waste processing laws just bundle up and ship their e-waste to third-world countries where laws and safety are both on the loose. Entire computers are shipped en-masse to countries like China, India and Africa where young children sort components out of the whole bundle to pull out the still-usable material.
Hence, even though recycling seems to be the available option, it isn’t the best…
The best alternative for e-waste management is a ‘’proactive path’’ to be led by leading industry players towards sustainable production and consumption. Business models centred around prioritizing lifetime extension and reuse of electronic products could help salvage the situation.
Circular business practices could help reduce the negative impact of e-waste despite the rapid speed of tech upgradations and will pave a path perhaps for a more viable Tech-friendly future.
And now for the positives…
It seems all is not lost in this ever-increasing battle of Growth vs Sustainability. There are minds that have now started functioning towards building a future that involves keeping the Earth liveable for a million more years.
Environmental or Sustainability startups have started showing the path to utilising our E-waste better : By not just getting rid of it, instead building something productive out of it.
Countries like Sweden are using waste to produce energy. Entire parks, roads, houses even are being built out of discarded material. India, the world’s powerhouse of innovation and new business, too has made initiatives towards this by taking up building of roads and houses in rural areas from waste.
But all change begins from within!
The challenge of waste disposal and recycling isn’t new — we are trying to get this done since the 1970s. But the last few years have seen the problems grow faster than the solutions — as we get savvier and more concscious about the technology we have in our lives. Increasing consumerism is creating what can be called a BOOM in E-waste. And we have to begin at our level- the change has to begin with us.
Here are 10 ways in which you could help in adding that meaningful drop to an ocean of conservation:
1. Reuse and refurbish old things
2. Educate yourself better about your gadgets (not just their features but also what goes in making them)
3. Limit your carbon footprint by reducing the number of gadgets you use
4. Re-evaluate your purchases before you pull that credit card out
5. Extend the life of your electronics by keeping them well-maintained
6. Donate used electronics to social causes
7. Buy better quality electronics rather than cheaper, single-use ones
8. Use leasing options wherever possible so you can return it whenever you are done using the product
9. Sell whatever you don’t want to use, on second-hand sites
10. Repair rather than replace your electronics when they malfunction
Any big change requires individual efforts to succeed. If you don’t want your country, city, house and bedroom to be piled up with e-trash then start early with these changing habits.
Lets hope you, us and those who you share these thoughts with can make a small beginning in making this happen. After all, you know what they say:
Dream Big. Start Small.
But most of all, Start
-Simon Sinek
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