This year International E-waste Day falls on the 14th of October annually, with the intention of raising awareness of consumers in improving the rates of re-use, refurbishment, and recycling of electrical and electronic products.

International E-waste Day was implemented in 2018 by the WEEE (Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment) forum, an international association of e-waste collection schemes, and its members. It is aimed to highlight to consumers the importance of repairing or correctly disposing of their used appliances with the aim to increase re-use, recovery, and recycling rate.

E-waste is a popular, informal name for electronic products nearing the end of their useful lifetime. Many of these products can be reused, refurbished, or recycled. Though we use them regularly for the ease of our day-to-day lives, it is a fact that most of us are unaware of their real effect on the environment when we dispose of them improperly.

By today, the improper disposal of electronic products is becoming a rapidly growing global problem. And it leads to the possibility of damaging the environment.

Effect of E-waste on the environment and us

• Computers and most electronics contain toxic materials such as lead, zinc, nickel, flame, retardants, barium and chromium. Improper disposal exposes humans and other animals to these toxic elements.
• When e-waste is warmed up, toxic chemicals are released into the air damaging the atmosphere.
• When thrown away in landfills the toxic materials of Electronic devices seep into groundwater, affecting both land and sea, badly affecting the living beings in those environments and in turn entering into human bodies upon consumption.

If we were aware of how valuable the used electronics are, I doubt that any of us would hesitate to throw these valuables away. Though its time to be used for its specialized purpose has been served, electronics carry many natural minerals such as silver and gold! If we direct this E-waste (though it’s not completely waste now is it?), the ability to obtain and recycle the material from them helps limit the need for mining them from the Earth. This conserves natural resources worldwide. The United Nations found that precious material deposits in electronic waste are between 40 to 50 times richer than found in ore mined from the earth.

E-waste has been gathering up in tonnes due to the lack of knowledge of consumers during disposal and also during they are being used as electronic devices.

So, simply if we consider these few instructions we could overcome a huge disaster which is on its way that will destroy the Earth for the future generations.

• Re-evaluate – Try to find one device with multiple functions.
• Extend the life time of your electronics by using them in a correct manner. – Keeping the device clean, avoid overcharging the battery
• Buy environmentally friendly electronics.
• Donate used electronics for social programs or someone who needs it. (Specially during this pandemic there may be many kids who are direly in need of phones, tabs and other devices that you’re waiting to throw away.)
• Reuse large electronics.
• Handover e-waste to recycling centers

As Responsible Humans, we could reduce the use of electronic devices for the greater good. But since it is not clearly a solution in today’s busy world, we could do our part by using electronic devices responsibly and dispose of them in a proper manner.

“The e-waste you recycle today will reap the benefits tomorrow.”

So, SAY NO to improper disposal of Electronic waste.

Written by Rtr. Mihiri Samaraweera