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 * Introduction**

Imagine you are a young child sitting around broken electronics, looking off in to the distance seeing piles and piles of discarded technologies. Every day you watch your mom, dad, brother, and sister pick through the trash in order to potentially find value in it. You get up every morning and think about what machines would be dismantled by your bare hands for money that will keep your family from starving. While you and your family are picking apart the broken electronics you will be unknowingly inhaling toxins of all different sorts, most of which could harm you in the future.

This might not be your every day routine or something you worry about while sitting at home or at school, but this happens to people around the world on a daily basis. E-waste consists of computers, iPods, TV's, printers, hand held games, and other everyday electronic appliances that have been thrown away. There are approximately 400 million electronic items thrown away per year. 26.9 million Televisions, 205.5 million computers, and 140.3 million cell phones were disposed of in ONE year in 2007 (The Office of Solid Waste, 2008). This number increases every year.

Consumers need to know more about what happens after they have finished with the products they buy. Only 13% of E-waste is recycled (11 facts about e-waste source). The rest of it is put in a landfill, incinerated, or exported to developing countries. Disposing of E-waste using these methods is harmful to humans and the environment. There are thousands of different substances in E-waste most, if inhaled can cause cancer. Examples of these toxins are lead, mercury, and cadmium.

Some electronic disposal practices are unhealthy and morally wrong for humans and the environment. There are many solutions to this problem ranging from simple to complex solutions. Increasing the amount of E-waste that is recycled along with making better products could be considered simple solutions while a cultural shift in how we view electronic consumption could be considered one of the more complex solutions to the problems E-waste creates.


 * Discussion**


 * 1. What is E-Waste?**

E-waste is unusable every day appliances such as computers, cell phones, printers, VCR’s, DVD’s, laptops, stereos, handheld devices, and many more. These devices become unusable because either they break down and/or new technology is created. Electronics are at some point going to break and it’s much less expensive to replace them then to find someone to fix it so then the old device is thrown away and turns in to e-waste. According to Moore’s Law, higher performance technology is developed every 18-24 months, which could be another factor to the problem. There is an increasing amount of E-waste every year and the rate does not seem to be slowing down at all. In 1998 20 million computers became obsolete in the United States and an estimate of 6000 computers become obsolete in California alone every day. Between 1997 and 2007 an estimated 500 million computers became obsolete. You can probably get a sense of how much is being produced in the world by looking as to how much is being produced in the United States. E-waste comes from everywhere. It comes from large corporations and individuals and everything in between. Individuals could be contributing to E-waste by buying the latest tech and better looking even if unnecessary just to give an example. Original equipment manufactures contribute to e-waste by throwing away products that don’t meet consumer expectations. Large corporations and the government contribute to e-waste by ensuring all desk employees have a up to date desktop computer which means when the current equipment becomes obsolete they throw it away and buy brand new, high tech computers.


 * 2. Where does E-Waste go?**

====E-waste has very toxic chemicals in it such as lead, mercury, toxic plastics, cadmium, and thousands more. Lead affects your hearing, vision, reproductive organs, high blood pressure,nerve disorders, memory, concentration, muscle coordination, muscles, and joints in negative ways. Exposure to mercury at high levels can negatively impact your brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, and immune system. The plastics in electronics can be potentially deadly if handled for a long period of time. Chromium is also a very deadly chemical, you can be exposed to chromium by breathing, eating, drinking or through your skin. Chromium causes negative affects like rashes, ulcers, respiratory problems, weakened immune systems, kidney damage, liver damage, alteration of genetic material, lung cancer, and even death.====
 * What is in E-waste?**