E-Waste Recycling Centers Playing Hard To Get
Okay, e-waste is bad; why don’t we just set up more collection centers to increase recycling, and boom the problem’s gone. Yeahh we both know it’s probably not that easy.
Recycling e-waste is a process that requires a lot of effort: workers must know which materials can be recycled and which can’t, and also they must deal with a lot of toxic chemicals. Separating it from the trash is another process that takes a lot of time because valuable materials aren’t easy to spot when surrounded by trash.
With the new era of technology, many old devices are being thrown away. The problem is that modern e-waste recycling infrastructure is not able to handle all the devices because they were not set up to handle them, and theactual amount of e-waste recycling centers is very low. This is a result of the lack of workers who don’t have enough knowledge of e-waste to be involved with them.
This lack of recycling infrastructure leads to a snowball effect of large companies not being able to have places to throw out their old devices, which then just gets tossed in the trash: ending up in trash piles releasing toxic chemicals into the environment.
Not all facilities know about the dangers of e-waste. Some facilities don’t have safety equipment or any fire extinguishers and alarms; so it would be best to stray away from those types of facilities.
With all of these issues, what exactly can you do to help e-waste?
A start would be just to go to a trusted e-waste collection center nearby and put away all of the old devices you don’t own anymore. I doubt that a person would have enough old devices that rival a company’s amount so it shouldn’t be a problem if you just recycle your waste. In doing so you will be able to keep yourself safe and also the environment.
The biggest help to counter E-waste would be to get more knowledge on the topic and help teach the public about these problems. Only once more people know about e-waste can e-waste reach the point that it could be mass recycled.
