All those old TV screens,Secret Confessions: Wifey’s BFF Episode 48 smartphones and computer monitors have to go somewhere.
In east and south east Asia, discarded electronics are piling up at an alarming rate. A new report has found that millions of tonnes of e-waste was created over five years in the region with the potential to cause severe health problems.
SEE ALSO: The emotional toll of covering climate change in the Trump eraLooking at 12 countries -- Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Province of China, Thailand and Vietnam -- the United Nations University study found the amount of e-waste being thrown out in the region between 2010 and 2015 increased by an average of 63 percent.
China, for example, more than doubled its e-waste to 6.7 million tonnes in five years, but Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan were the highest per-capita producers of e-waste.
The West shouldn't feel too smug either. The average per capita e-waste contribution was 3.7 kilograms (8.2 pounds) in Asia compared to 15.6 kilograms (34.4 pounds) per inhabitant in Europe and the Americas.
A huge amount of e-waste from the U.S. and other nations also ends up in developing countries. A 2016 report in The Intercept found that around one-third of U.S. devices ended up in countries like Taiwan, Pakistan and Kenya where they are often dismantled in informal workshops.
"Even well-meaning shipments of used but functioning products, though not illegal, are often the source of large volumes of e-waste, as there is no market for these out-dated products even in developing countries," the UNU report concludes.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable According to the report, Asia is both the world's largest manufacturer and consumer of electronics. It attributed the increasing e-waste volume to the rise in consumers, but also the sheer amount of new gadgets coming onto the market, combined with quick cycles of obsolescence.
Accompanying this rise in waste is the trend of illegal dumping or open burning of old electronics -- practices that can have severe environmental and health impacts as toxic chemicals and heavy metals like lead and mercury are leaked.
Informal recycling can also be a problem. The report states that many such recyclers are using chemicals in a process known as "acid bathing" to reclaim gold, silver, palladium and copper from old circuit boards and wires.
"Indirect exposure to these hazardous substances is also a cause of many health issues," report co-author Deepali Sinha Khetriwal, associate programme officer at UNU, said in a statement. "Particularly for families of informal recyclers who often live and work in the same location, as well as for communities living in and around the area of informal recycling sites."
"Increasing the burden on existing waste collection and treatment systems results in flows towards environmentally unsound recycling and disposal," added co-author and head of UNU's Sustainable Cycles Programme, Ruediger Kuehr.
Shop the iPad Air and iPad 11th generation for their lowest
The Trumpian Christians
Empire of Meat
An Odd Coupling
Best headphones deal: Save up to 51% on Beats at Amazon
Different by Design
Empire of Meat
Retreat of the Scholars
Analyzing Graphics Card Pricing: October 2018
Deep space video shows James Webb telescope peering into the distant cosmos
Redux: Tom Wolfe, Barbara Grossman, and Gwyneth Lewis by The Paris ReviewThe Premiere of ‘Four Women Artists’Et Tu, Brute?David Hockney’s Improbable InspirationsCarnival and Chaos: An Interview with Herbert Gold by Robert KaiserAnnouncing Our Spring Issue by The Paris ReviewJ. D. McClatchy, DarlingissimoSchlemihls and Water SpritesPoetry Rx: Lie to Yourself, What You Will Lose Is YourselfMy Own Boundaries Seem to Be Fading: An Interview with Lauren GroffThe Book JeanPoetry Rx: You All Have LiedSelected Sentences from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi by Anthony MadridKeeping Tabs on the ’LoidsBoy Genus: An Interview with Michael KuppermanThe Unfortunate Fate of Childhood DollsCooking with Émile Zola by Valerie StiversForging IntimacyRedux: The Taxman ComethSchlemihls and Water Sprites To Be or Not to Be? And Other News by Sadie Stein Dylan Thomas’s “I Have Longed to Move Away” by Alexandra Pechman A Letter from Van Gogh by Sadie Stein On This Day by Sadie Stein Anybody Can be Cool … But Awesome Takes Practice by Sadie Stein Escapades Out on the D Train by Adelaide Docx Norman Mailer, Sporting Goatee by Sadie Stein Happy Dagur Islenskrar Tungu! by Sadie Stein The Witch and the Poet: Part 1 by Pamela Petro Poe House Vandalized by Sadie Stein Refusing Heaven by Drew Bratcher The Witch and the Poet: Part 2 by Pamela Petro Walker Percy's Hurricane by Spencer Woodman Smoke Lingers by Alia Akkam The Art of Friendship by Jessica Vivian Chiu OMG Churchill, and Other News by Sadie Stein Early Promise by Sadie Stein Sunday! Plimpton! Screens at DOC NYC: Mention TPR for $5 Tickets! by Sadie Stein Jack Gilbert, 1925–2012 by Sadie Stein What We’re Loving: Secretariat, Vonnegut, Law by Sadie Stein
2.1594s , 10132.1953125 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【Secret Confessions: Wifey’s BFF Episode 48】,Evergreen Information Network
