Why Your University Should Be Teaching You About E-Waste
Robert Starchvick has had three separate iPhones in the course of nine years. In comparison to other Americans, he’s on the lower end of the iPhone consumerism scale. When asked what happened to those old iPhones once he finally upgraded to a new phone, he plainly said, “well, I’m honestly not sure.” Starchvick currently has an iPhone 6 and proudly claims he will never upgrade his phone — not until he is forced to at least.
That is where the problem begins. Shockingly, 18 months is the average amount of time that an American keeps a cell phone. Planned obsolescence, or the theory that most of our technology is produced with the idea that it will become obsolete within the next few years of production, is something that many consumers in developed countries aren’t thinking about when they upgrade to the latest model of iPhone. Electronic Waste, or better known as e-waste, is the technology that is discarded due to the fact that they have reached their planned obsolescence.
But where does it go? Many companies claim that they can take your old electronics so that they can be properly disposed of, but that proper disposal consists of developed countries shipping the used and broken electronic items to countries such as, Ghana, China, India or Pakistan to be either repurposed and used as half-functioning electronic items for people in impoverished communities, or to be recycled improperly for the valuable metals and materials.
The question is, to which extent is the consumer responsible for the damage that e-waste is causing in these developing countries? Countries like Ghana, the home of the largest e-waste dumping and recycling plant in the world, is being negatively impacted due to the improper ways that e-waste is being disposed, but meanwhile the United States and the European Union are turning a blind eye to the issue all together. The answer to these issues isn’t entirely clear, and probably won’t be for a while, but one thing that people can do is educate themselves on how e-waste is negatively impacting the environment and livelihoods of people.
Starchvick, an Oregon State University senior majoring in Microbiology Pre-Med, has never thought about how he has impacted the environment in regard to e-waste. “I was never taught about e-waste in school. I had heard the term before, from articles I had read in my free time, but the term e-waste has never really been fully explained in any of my classes,” Starchvick explained. “I do recall learning about e-waste in a sustainability class once, but that was really the extent of it.”
Starchvick, now 21, wishes he would have learned more about e-waste and the effects it is having on the environment. Oregon State University, Starchvick’s soon-to-be alma mater, doesn’t currently offer a course based solely around the topic of e-waste. “I think that I would want to take a class on e-waste so that I could learn more about it,” Starchvick explains. “Maybe a course like that could start a movement of change on a campus level.”
Having classes that taught about e-waste at every university could ultimately make a significant difference not only in ways we consume technology, but also in the ways we dispose of technology once it is deemed obsolete.
The United States generated almost 11.4 million tons of e-waste in 2014. Nearly 16 million people are enrolled in some kind of higher education in the United States. So, why aren’t there classes to teach people about where their technology goes once they get rid of it?
Although there are many programs that talk about e-waste and the environmental impacts, James J. Brown Jr., or Jim for short, has created a whole course designed to show students how important it is to look at trash on not only a physical level, but a digital level as well.
Brown is an Associate Professor of English and the Director of the Digital Studies Center (DiSC) at Rutgers University-Camden. He became interested in the topic of “digital trash” while he was curating an art exhibit on the topic. “In that exhibition, we were interested in how digital technology impacts the environment, sometimes in very visible ways (telephones thrown into landfills) and sometimes in less visible ways (servers that use a lot of energy and thus add more carbon dioxide to the environment),” explains Brown. “I was also interested in thinking about “virtual” trash — content that is posted online that is taking up space, distracting people, or used to abuse and harass. So, I decided to teach a class that tied these two kinds of trash together and examine the problem from multiple angles.”
It’s obvious that the United States has a problem with e-waste and Brown agrees that the U.S. needs to find better ways of dealing with their e-waste. “There aren’t many good options when it comes to getting rid of e-waste, and the U.S. has tended to try and ship it elsewhere. But many countries are deciding not to take it anymore,” explains Brown. “So, the question becomes: How might we generate less e-waste with more sustainable practices?”
This question that Brown proposes is ultimately something that one person or e-waste course can’t answer. Limiting what we consume — especially in regard to e-waste — is something that is a lot easier said than done. One idea that Brown offers to consumers as a way to lessen the effects e-waste has on the environment, is think about whether we really need the latest and greatest technology that has been released.
“The more we upgrade our devices, the more trash we generate,” claims Brown. “But in addition to this, we should consider what we do with these old devices. Can they be donated and refurbished?”
That is where consumers really need to analyze themselves and look at the ways in which they personally contribute to the e-waste issue in not only the United States, but also the world. I urge you to look into where you can donate your used electronic goods. For Starchvick, he is able to submit a surplus pick-up request through his university. Oregon State’s website claims that all e-waste is either resold or recycled, depending on the condition of the item. Other than that, it doesn’t give much information on what recycled really means.
As for the future, it is hard to say what will happen with the current e-waste crisis. Hopefully, universities not only in the United States, but in other developed countries, will follow in the footsteps of Brown and his “Digital Trash” course.
At the end of Brown’s interview, he ended by saying that to really understand e-waste and the impact that it has on the environment, it is best to really understand what e-waste is. “One thing I think is important to realize is that e-waste is more than just the physical computers and smartphones that we don’t know how to discard,” adds Brown.
“The large servers run by Google and other companies are using lots of energy and causing lots of pollution, and this is a problem that we need to address in some kind of collective way.”
That also poses the question, who is really to blame for the e-waste? Is it consumers or is large corporations who create a larger impacts on the e-waste crisis. The answer to that question is relative, but one could argue that it is not a problem caused by a person or a corporation. Rather, it is problem caused by the continuation of time and the obsessive need to want the latest and greatest technology.
In 2015, 28 states currently have e-waste laws in place. On January 1, 2010, Oregon implemented an e-waste recycling law that requires manufacturers of computers CPUs, laptops, computer monitors, and television sets to provide free recycling services for used, broken and obsolete electronic items. This law also prohibited laptops, monitors and TV sets from being put into landfills in Oregon. Anyone who violates this law will face up to a $500 fine for each product that is illegal disposed of improperly.
Although the 28 states who have enacted some sort of e-waste law is a step in the right direction, there are still 22 states who have yet to pass any sort of legislation on behalf of their states. There are still sites where people can recycle their e-waste in those states, but there is still no legislation that ensures that the e-waste isn’t just being dumped into a landfill or thrown in the trash.
This just goes to show how important knowing about e-waste really is. As consumers, it is our job to know where things are going once we throw them away. We need to hold ourselves accountable for this issue because if we don’t, the issue will only become greater.
For the future, it is important to look into what your state does with their e-waste and also finding places where you can properly dispose of that e-waste. Education systems in the United States need to enforce this issue by implementing classes to teach students about not only the impacts of e-waste on the environment, but also the ways in which they can personally make a difference.
For more information on how you can recycle your e-waste in Oregon please visit https://www.oregon.gov/DEQ/ecycles/Pages/default.aspx.
