Recycling E-waste

The use of computers has brought about a revolution in our communication processes in the past few decades. We find the use of computers in all walks of life, be it business, education or entertainment. But this increased and wide spread use of the IT products has brought its menace – the generation of e-waste or more precisely the IT waste.

E-Waste may be defined as electronic or electrical equipments/products that have become outdated and hence discarded. Because of the rapid change in Information technology, the generation of IT waste is also huge. As this waste are non-biodegradable, it poses a real threat to the environment and has become serious concern world-wide.

To combat this problem the motto is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The first attempt should be to decrease the generation of waste. Computer hardware and other physical equipments, if thrown in the garbage mostly end up in landfills. In some cases a part of those are recycled by unskilled recyclers by some unscientific process which itself causes health hazards. Remaining part of the waste is thrown in streams causing water pollution. To decrease this waste generation effort should be to donate the old computers and all the peripherals to underprivileged people. This not only increases the life cycle of the product and prevents environmental pollution, but also allows the poor to use the IT product, which probably they could have never bought. But before donating , it should be made sure that they are usable - the monitor, wiring, and software licenses - otherwise it will only find its way to the garbage.

When reuse by means of donation is not a viable option, they should be recycled. Many manufacturers takes used household electronics for recycling and do not charge anything for providing this service. Recycling will help recovering a huge quantity of materials that are required to manufacture a new computer. Thus the pollution caused during production of these materials will also reduce. Also it is a great means of saving energy. If proper recycling can be made, IT waste can be a secondary source of raw material. It will be economically beneficial, conserve natural resources, and reduce environmental pollution. The other benefit is social benefits as it will generate ore employment opportunity.

To sum up the benefits of recycling of IT products, we can say precious metals like gold and silver can be recovered from Printed Circuit Board strips and silver coated components, the earth’s natural resources are preserved by minimizing their use, the land filling of IT waste will be minimized, the entry of the waste in the natural streams will be prevented which will stop the release the toxic materials into the streams. Thus the environmental pollution will be minimized, and the process will generate more employment opportunities.

By: Louisa Coan

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Louisa Coan is writing on behalf of Millrace IT, who buy any IT and telecoms equipment that still has economic value. They also offer Computer Recycling and . IT recycling