Electronic waste entails any equipment that has beendiscarded. This includes broken electronicmaterials, which are either thrown into the garbage or are donated to charityresellers like goodwill. In most cases, the items go unsold in the stores.Manypeople are thriving on technology since it plays ahuge role in the day-to-daylivelihood. They hence thrive on using the latesttechnologies, where they own the latestand shiniestgadgets. When the items are out of date, then they tend to sell them or properly recycle them. However, many of thesegadgets are thrown away and becomeundocumented waste.

According to the Global E-wastermonitor, in 2016 alone, humanity generated over 44 million metric tons of e-waste,equivalent to 6.1kg s per person (Ritcher, 2017). Only 20% of this waste was recycled properly. The rest was undocumented and hence was likely dumped, traded, or recycled underpoor conditions.  This hence poses a majorchallenge to the environment since it leads to itsdegradationand hinders the conservation efforts in place.  This calls for bettermeasures by firmsand individuals to set and monitor targets and identifythe best policies that can help in reducing the type of wastes caused by the irresponsible dumping of waste materials.

From the graph, it is manifest that the developednations pose the greatestthreat of electronic waste. China and the United States, which are the world-leading economies,generated the highest amounts of e-waste bya widemargin.  This, however, does not mean that they have the highest per capita waste generationsince there are other smallernations with similar livingstandardsand lots of waste from the dumpedelectronics (Ritcher, 2017). According to researchundertaken by Global E-wastemonitor, Norway is one of the leading global e-waste sources, since anaverage Norwegian generated 28.6 kg of e-waste, followed by the United Kingdom with 24.9 kg (Snider, 2010). The developingnations had lower rates per person in terms of electronicdumping since the generationlevels of electronicdevices,and householdappliances are not as high.

Hence, there is a need for a sustainable solution on how to cope with the challenges posed by the electronic waste that comprises toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury,and beryllium. Thee-waste has materialsthat can be harmful not only to the environment but also to the peoplesincethey can causeharm to humans.  One of the mostsustainablesolutionsto the challenges of e-waste is designing better products.Manufacturers need to design electronics that are safer, and more durable, recyclable,and repairable (Snider, 2010). They also need to use less toxic materialsto reduce the harm of the devices to the environment and humans.  There is also a  need for companiesand individuals to encouragethe recycling of thesematerials. This ensures that no devicesare thrown away, yet they are in a condition that can be used or recycled by other people. In addition to recycling, there is a need to ensure that the manufacturedmaterials are easy to repairand reuse. This willensure that people do not easily get tired of electronicsand make good use of them. By developing such measures, then the problem of e-waste materials in the environment will find sustainablesolutionsand help createa better and safer environment in the future.

 

 

References

Ritcher, F. (2017). These Countries Generate the Most Electronic Waste.

Snider, L. (2010). Framing E-waste regulation. American Society of Criminolog. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/chart/2283/electronic-waste/