Environmental Impact of Electronic Waste
The processes of dismantling and disposing of electronic waste in the third world lead to a number of environmental impacts as illustrated in the graphic. Liquid and atmospheric releases end up in bodies of water, groundwater, soil and air and therefore in land and sea animals – both domesticated and wild, in crops eaten by both animals and human, and in drinking water.
One study of environmental effects in Guiya, China found the following:
- Airborne dioxins – one type found at 100 times levels previously measured
- Levels of carcinogens in duck ponds and rice paddies exceeded international standards for agricultural areas and cadmium, copper, nickel, and lead levels in rice paddies were above international standards
- Heavy metals found in road dust – lead over 300 times that of a control village’s road dust and copper over 100 times
The environmental impact of the processing of different electronic waste components
| E-Waste Component | Process Used | Potential Environmental Hazard |
|---|---|---|
| Cathode ray tubes (used in TVs, computer monitors, ATM, video cameras, and more) | Breaking and removal of yoke, then dumping | Lead, barium and other heavy metals leaching into the ground water and release of toxic phosphor |
| Printed circuit board (image behind table - a thin plate on which chips and other electronic components are placed) | De-soldering and removal of computer chips; open burning and acid baths to remove final metals after chips are removed. | Air emissions as well as discharge into rivers of glass dust, tin, lead, brominated dioxin, beryllium cadmium, and mercury |
| Chips and other gold plated components | Chemical stripping using nitric and hydrochloric acid and burning of chips | Hydrocarbons, heavy metals, brominated substances discharged directly into rives acidifying fish and flora. Tin and lead contamination of surface and groundwater. Air emissions of brominated dioxins, heavy metals and hydrocarbons |
| Plastics from printers, keyboards, monitors, etc. | Shredding and low temp melting to be reused | Emissions of brominated dioxins, heavy metals and hydrocarbons |
| Computer wires | Open burning and stripping to remove copper | Hydrocarbon ashes released into air, water and soil. |
Read more about this topic: E-waste Village
Famous quotes containing the words impact, electronic and/or waste:
“If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“Sometimes, because of its immediacy, television produces a kind of electronic parable. Berlin, for instance, on the day the Wall was opened. Rostropovich was playing his cello by the Wall that no longer cast a shadow, and a million East Berliners were thronging to the West to shop with an allowance given them by West German banks! At that moment the whole world saw how materialism had lost its awesome historic power and become a shopping list.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“But that beginning was wiped out in fear
The day I swung suspended with the grapes,
And was come after like Eurydice
And brought down safely from the upper regions;
And the life I live now’s an extra life
I can waste as I please on whom I please.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)