Friday, October 7, 2011

 The disposal of electronic waste is pretty much affected by cost concerns resulting in as much as 80 percent of e-waste ending up overseas where it is recycled in an un-environmentally friendly way.

In countries including China, India and Nigeria, the precious metals are removed by hammers, gas burners and bare hands, which results in lead and mercury being leaked into the air. Safety costs in the U.S. make shipping off these electronics to other countries a more cost-effective measure, as it can cost up to 10 times more to recycle electronics in the U.S.

Foreign countries are starting to crack down though, as Hong Kong authorities already returned 85 containers of electronics in 2007, including 20 from the U.S. China also now produces one million tons of e-waste itself according to Greenpeace China, and this number is on the rise.

As every thing in this world is based on profitability, many companies prefer to ship these wastes to places where the man power is cheaper and where quality and environmental standers are lower. Then we'll wind up in a closed loop that will not help our environment. We need to force companies to recycle for the sake of earth and not for the sake of making piles of money.

You might want to read:

E-Waste Market Size Continues to Grow