The Electronic Wasteland

The Electronic Wasteland

Every year, thousands of expensive, perfectly functionable products ( including TVs, computers and cellphones)  are thrown out for the next best thing. Everyone now-a-days has to have the best of the best in their possession. What a lot of people don't realize is that these products they throw out are creating a literal electronic wasteland.  This 60 minutes special was meant to inform viewers about the problem this is causing and show them where all of this waste is ending up. We throw out approximately 130 thousand computers a day in the United States alone.  Devices such as computers contain many rare earth metals including gold and silver. They also contain dozens of chemicals that have been know to be very toxic when exposed to them. 60 Minutes decided to trace waste from here in the US to their final destination. This recycling event claims that all of their collected waste is recycled properly in the US and not dumped somewhere else. After tracing this waste that was shipped, they discovered that it was ending up in Asia to be broken down for those precious metals. I found this very shocking and frustrating that they are either completely lying about their promise or they are not committed to the cause enough to ensure that their waste is ending up where they think it is. When shown the wasteland in Asia you could see that the environment was a complete disaster. They were even trying to cover up what was happening there even though it is harming the people and the environment. This problem is only going to get worse if we don't educate ourselves more on this issue and don't get involved.

Potential Solutions:
 1. Create electronics that can be modified and added to over time. This would allow someone to hold on to a cellphone or computer for much longer.

2. Inform the general public more about the issue. They could include information on or with an electronic product that has been purchased so buyers can see what is happening.

3. Force large companies that are rapidly making these products to dispose of the waste themselves properly. If they keep producing things that we don't need to make millions of dollars off of them then they should have to pay the extra money to properly recycle their own materials.