The damaging effect of electronics on the environment

Description

Mobile phones and accessories contain concentrations of toxic heavy metals or other metals including cadmium, lead, nickel, mercury, manganese, lithium, zinc, arsenic, antimony, beryllium, and copper.

The number of unused or retired phones will keep growing year after year, posing an ever increasing problem for the environment. Most mobile phones have components that require specialist treatment to minimize their impact on the environment. The content of mobile phones varies from model to model, and as the technology advances so we will see changes in the composition.

Enablers

• Government

Spurred by activists and threats of government action, high-tech companies have begun to deal with the pollution and waste that arise from manufacturing and disposal. In Europe, the idea of making producers responsible for their products at both the cradle and the grave is becoming more accepted. If producers are to take computers and cell phones back cost-effectively, the products' design will have to change to make them easier to recycle. Proponents argue that this will actually save companies money because it favors simple designs with fewer parts.

Since 1995, the European Union has been discussing a draft directive on take-backs for electronics. It prohibits the use of certain toxins--mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and brominated flame retardants--in electrical goods by 2004. It requires producers to pay for collection systems and distributors to take back an electronic device when supplying a new one. Between 70 and 90% of all aterial recovered by weight must be reused or recycled.

• Environmental organizations

There are many international organisations that deal with the environment. These organisations have many initiatives to bring the attention of the public to corporations that harm the environment. One the most well know organisations is Greenpeace. One of their initiatives is the “Green Electronics Guide”. The Green Electronics Guide ranks leading mobile and PC manufacturers on their global policies regarding both their use of toxic chemicals, and the degree to which they take responsibility for dealing with the electronic waste (e-waste) generated by their products. They publish and update this guide every quarter in order to try to get corporations to think and adjust their ways of doing. In doing so Greenpeace hopes to reduce toxic chemicals in products and pollution from old products.

• Recycling

The increasing scarcity of resources , See Inhibitors:Recycling.

Inhibitors

• Consumers

Consumer demand for “socially responsible” products is not yet evident. Today’s market-based economy does afford consumers with a wide range of choices. Faced with the option of purchasing a “socially responsible” or “sustainable” product at a premium, most consumers will still choose the cheaper alternative. Sustainable products are not yet sufficiently viewed as “superior goods”

• Development countries

China’s rapid economic growth has had some very costly unintended consequences. China’s problem is much larger than the other BRIC countries, but they are facing similar issues. China leads the global pack in sulfur-dioxide emissions, has a massive acid rain problem, and contains more than a dozen of the most polluted cities on earth. One World Bank study estimated that environmental damage costs China some $170 billion a year in lost productivity and associated health care. Unfortunately, such costs don't seem relevant when China is clocking near double-digit growth year in and year out.

Paradigms

• Adaptation

Population and economic growth into the next century will greatly increase the demand for natural resource commodities. Even though population growth has slowed, a population of six billion growing at 1% adds the same number of people as three billion people growing at 2%. The historical success of adaptation to increased demand for these commodities is by no means a guarantee of future success.

• Recycling

Resource conservation, reuse and recycling are important parts toward sustainability. Recycling requires far less energy, uses fewer natural resources, and keeps waste from piling up in landfills.

Web Resources

• http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/toxics/greenpeace-launches-new-electronics-guide
  
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2660_128/ai_62590576/pg_2
• http://www.pollutionprobe.org/Reports/csr_january06.pdf
• http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/feb2005/nf2005011_6686_db065.htm
• http://seekingalpha.com/article/27749-building-with-brics-create-your-own-pseudo-etf

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