Krishnan's Blog

"With electronic items high on Christmas shopping lists, a new report is calling on the government to ensure that manufacturers collect and recycle unwanted computers and mobile phones to protect environmental and human health. "This is the motherboard of all problems. Federal and state governments must act to stop the dumping of millions of electronic items in landfill each year," says Jeff Angel, director of the Total Environment Centre (TEC), an independent Australian green organisation. In a report released earlier this month titled ‘Tipping Point: Australia's E-Waste Crisis', the TEC says that by the end of 2008, in excess of 168 million items of electronic waste -- known as e-waste -- will either be in landfills or on their way to be buried in the ground. The problem with this method of disposal, says the TEC's resource conservation campaigner, Jane Castle, is the hazardous legacy that e-waste can create. "There are toxic materials that are leached...

E-waste is a popular, informal name for electronic products nearing the end of their "useful life." Computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, and fax machines are common electronic products. Many of these products can be reused, refurbished, or recycled. Unfortunately, electronic discards is one of the fastest growing segments of our nation's waste stream. With the passage of the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 , certain portions of the electronic waste stream are defined and the systems to recover and recycle them will be administratively regulated beyond the universal waste rules that now apply to material handling. Please review the CIWMB's efforts to implement the Act for more information. In addition, some researchers estimate that nearly 75 percent of old electronics are in storage, in part because of the uncertai...