According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recycling one million devices has the environmental impact of removing 1,981 average US houses off the grid for a year in terms of energy saved, and 152 cars off the road for a year in terms of greenhouse gases saved. ecoATM has had a tremendous positive impact on the environment since its inception in 2008.
Tag:
ewaste
Electronics are everywhere around us, and life in the 21st century is unimaginable without them. Computers, mobile phones, televisions, etc. are ubiquitous and have transformed the way the world works. However, like any technology, there are problems that need to be addressed, and electronic waste is one of the major one for the environment.
Electronic waste or e-waste grows at an exponential rate because the industry churns out new products at an ever faster rate. This renders old products useless.
Global efforts to ban the trade of electronics waste to developing nations in the hopes of ending so-called “backyard recycling” will only exacerbate a growing environmental problem, according to a new study.
Developed nations often export e-waste, such as old computers, to China, India, Thailand, and less developed nations where crude recycling processes can emit pollutants that contaminate the air, water, and soil.
For instance, copper wire is often pulled from the old computers and the insulation burned off, emitting dioxins and other chemicals.
The U.S. Congress is now considering an e-waste trade ban. But similar efforts have backfired, according to Eric Williams of Arizona State University.