E waste why is it a problem

International Cooperation. Contact Us. EPA works bilaterally with governments and environmental officials around the world on e-waste management. On this page:. An undetermined amount of used electronics is shipped from the United States and other developed countries to developing countries that lack the capacity to reject imports or to handle these materials appropriately.

Without proper standards and enforcement, improper practices may result in public health and environmental concerns, even in countries where processing facilities exist. We have serious concerns about unsafe handling of used electronics and e-waste, in developing countries, that results in harm to human health and the environment.

For example, there are problems with open-air burning and acid baths being used to recover valuable materials from electronic components, which expose workers to harmful substances. There are also problems with toxic materials leaching into the environment. These practices can expose workers to high levels of contaminants such as lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic, which can lead to irreversible health effects, including cancers, miscarriages, neurological damage and diminished IQs.

EPA estimates that, in , US consumers and businesses discarded televisions, computers, cell phones and hard copy peripherals including printers, scanners, faxes totaling 2.

Electronics are not designed for recycling. Materials used and physical designs make recycling challenging. More on not designed for recycling. Elect ronics contain many toxic materials. Monitors and televisions made with tubes not flat panels have between 4 and 8 pounds of lead in them.

More on toxics in electronics. When electronic devices are dumped in these developing countries the impact is detrimental to the environment of the country and the health of the people. Health implications of electronic waste: Computers and most electronics contain toxic materials such as lead, zinc, nickel, barium and chromium, specifically with lead, if released is not the environment can cause damage to human blood, kidneys, as well as central and peripheral nervous systems.

Residents of Guiyu, China exhibit substantial digestive, neurological, respiratory and bone problems. The impact of electronic waste is detrimental to the health of the people in these developing countries. Electronic waste and data security: Managers should be concerned with where their electronic equipment is going after disposal because they are worried about sensitive data loss, identity theft, consumer scams, data breaches and loss of integrity.

These are just a few of the problems that can be cause by not properly disposing of your electronic waste due to people stealing information from the hard drives in e-waste. If you put every blue whale alive today on one side of a scale and one year of US e-waste 6. Some e-waste is shipped overseas, where it is burned for scrap by kids in junkyards.

We visited a scrapyard in Accra, Ghana and met some really good kids in a bad situation. Global consumption of electronics is increasing. Every year we create more e-waste than before. China discards million electronic devices a year. We need more e-waste repair and refurbishment, worldwide. We need to take a page from the book of expert repairers in developing countries.