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1) What is "e-waste"?
2) If Asia (china) is the ONLY place where old computers are dumped and the fact that it's creating pollution, what other good solution could there be to rid Asia of all this waste?
3) Why does all the computer junk mostly end up in Asia?
4) In the future, could the people start ripping the computer junk of its precious minerals
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4 comments:
Good article, good questions! Nice work!
1. "E-waste" refers to computer junk, as Josiah so succinctly puts it in question #3. :-)
Computer technology advances at a fast rate, so computers become obsolete quite quickly; many American consumers replace their computers every five years, or even more often than that. Compare that to other home appliances like refrigerators and washing machines, which can last decades.
When computers are discarded, what's left is e-waste: the plastic casings, metal circuit boards, etc. Many consumers in America and other wealthy nations send their old computers in for recycling, but they aren't recycled in the same country; they're mostly shipped off to China, apparently.
2. Once the e-waste arrives in China, harvesters collect the gold and other precious metals from it. The problem is that they just burn the plastic, and use acid baths to remove the valuable materials, thus polluting the environment.
In order to prevent this, China would have to put in place regulations stating that more eco-friendly means must be used to harvest the precious metals. In addition, exporters like the United States could remove the plastic casings from all computers before sending them on to China, and recycle the plastic at home, thus ensuring that it isn't simply burned.
3. China's economy is in an age of industrial growth, which means they are anxious for any and all forms of industrial revenue, and the government is none too strict about environmental regulations. They are looking to turn a profit, so they probably use the cheapest methods available to harvest the metals from the computer waste, regardless of environmental impact. So since they are paying less for the harvesting process, they're willing to pay more for the materials themselves, and can hog the market on e-waste.
4. It sounds like they're already doing that! But if the question refers to the possibility of consumers ripping the precious materials out of their own e-waste, then no, I don't think it's feasible. Even if we all had the equipment necessary to perform the harvesting process, the amount of gold or whatever that we got from a computer or two wouldn't be enough to make it worth it. Only when you harvest the precious metals from a great number of computers does it become profitable.
1) E-waste happens to be old, used-up electronics (including, computers, televisions, etc) which have been dumped into Asia's lands (mostly China) and have been creating a harmful toxic waste, meaning pollution! It's seems to be that people tend to replace their computers A LOT!
2) I'd say that they were all put into re-cycling industries! I mean what's the matter!? Just dumping waste in the middle of nowhere almost seems like an idiot's idea. What's the matter with re-cycling the junk? It could maybe be USEFUL to make brand new computers. When they re-cycle they could just burn all the unneeded material in a furnace. It's that simple!
3) I'd say in my opinion that the "dumpers" who are doing this are just too selfish and want to keep their own lands clean. They just want to make it someone else's problem and just get out of the situation. If I were a boss, I'd demand that all the old used-up electronics should be recycled! I don't really know why all the waste ends up in Asia. I can't understand why it just isn't kept in one's own country where one country can deal with the problem themselves and not make it some other nations problem.
4) I would agree that it would be quite "not nice" to throw away materials that still includes precious minerals and pieces. If it HAS started becoming common among people these days, I'd say "Yes" people would be doing it since a lot of people want or need something that's precious to themselves. They could be making all the gold into money!
1) E-waste is the electronic garbage that people are throwing away, such as old computers, refrigerators, television sets, old-fashioned CD players, boom boxes, and a whole bunch of other junk that people don't want anymore. All of this garbage is sent to China to be burned, mutilated, destroyed, and soaked in acid, creating lots and lots of air pollution in the cities where this is taking place.
2) Send it to Antarctica. Or the North Pole. Or somewhere else that people don't live. I'm not sure that the penguins and polar bears would like it, but it's not like they can do anything about it. And if you fence off a specific area just for this kind of garbage disposal, then they can't get at it and eat it and die. Either that or find a good way to strip the old computers of all their shiny metals without creating pollution and to recycle all of the stuff that is sent to China now. In a dream world, there would probably be something called a Garster, or Garbage Monster, that would eat all of the garbage so that we wouldn't have to take care of it or worry about how to prevent air pollution from the acid and smoke from the burning plastic and glass. I would want a small version of this - an animal that's about the same size as a dog to eat all of my garbage so that I don't have to take out the garbage to the truck anymore and not smell it whenever I walk into the kitchen. Cookie eats a lot of stuff, but not old computers. Another thing that could be done is to stop making new computers so that people have to keep their old ones and not make pollution happen in China anymore.
3) Most likely because that's where a lot of it was first made, so they are responsible for it and they need to take care of the things that they created. And other countries kind of look down on China so they will not really care of the people there are having a hard time with their pollution that is coming from their own garbage. How cruel and self-centered. Personally, I don't know why China isn't making a big deal about it because I think that they should fight for the right to preserve the cleanliness of their air as much as any other country in the world. FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!
4) Yes. And they should, too! They need to clean out the computers and get all the stuff that could possibly, in any way, be used for anything else so that only the things that would be impossible to use again should be disposed of, but I don't know of anything that fits that category so they should dissect the computers and distribute the parts to the companies that make things like, for instance, Coca-cola cans. All the aluminum that is in the computer should be sent to the Coca-cola factory. All the gold should be given to dentists. All the copper should be given to the penny mint. They need to save everything that comes out of those old computers and reuse it over and over and over again. This way, there won't be anything to burn, therefore, there won't be any pollution from the smoke of the computers burning.
1) "E-waste" stands for Electronic Wastes and is electronics, like computers, radios, tvs, printers, etc. that is just thrown away instead of being recycled. E-wastes mostly include computers and the things connected to it, like keyboards, etc. These wastes are things that are usually just dumped somewhere to rot, burned, and rarely reused to make other products. Another name for e-waste is junk that people don't want from home or business.
2)Well, one weird idea of mine is to first of all, take them to a place where people don't live, like Antartica. It will take a lot of work, put instead of putting all of the junk in Asia, where most of the population in the world live, putting the wastes somewhere else to solve the problem.If I say this, you could argue that the penguins will die, but isn't it better than killing humans? I'm not saying kill the penguins instead, though.
After the location is taken care of, I think that the computer (or any other electronic product) should be taken apart by hand, not by chemicals that can damage the environment. Anything put together can be taken apart, right?
So, after you finish taking everything carefully apart, you take out the gold, coopper, lead, etc. You can then send these importan metals to America to be used again.
The materials that cannot be recycled should be burned up in a building that humans cannot enter and in which no chemicals can escape to pollute Antartica.
3) I think that most of the "trash" ends up in Asia, and especially China, becuase it is one of the world biggest produrcers and industrial houses. If you look at a lot of Western toys, it says "Made in China"! A lot of poeple live in China,which has a booming economy, and so many Westerners use all of these people to produce and make products cheaply. In the same way, I think that America and all of the countries are dumping all of the junk there because there really isn't a law in which only a certain amount of trash can remain in a country like the rest of the world. I think that a lot of the computer junk also ends up in Asia because it can be done cheaply, and saves money instead of just destroying trash in their own country.
A lot of Americans are also really strict and sensative about things like pollution, and the government listens to them. In China, however, the government is communist, and so I think that they care more about getting money than caring about the people. Because most of Asia is considered developing countries, I think that they are, in a way, looking down on these countries and are giving them all the junk.
4) I think that it will be possible in the future. I think that more people will have to start working on it, because there aren't really that many people who care about the pollution in any other country but their own. If people start to stand up and say that people should start ripping the computer junk in a none-polutting way, I think that it can be possible. If people start taking care of the world that we live in and care about others, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a big change in a few years. :)
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