How Does Recycling Electronics Help the Environment

You are wondering why there is such a Surge of interest in electronic waste recycling. Then this thing could be summed up in two words: environmental protection. In order to explain it in a much simpler language we would say that recycling helps in protecting our environment so we need to understand How Does Recycling Electronics Help the Environment?

Today most of the countries and states are trying hard and putting efforts in order to keep waste out of their community landfills by requiring them to be recycled instead of disposing them directly to the landfills. In recent times New York has been one such state which in 2015 made it illegal to leave computers and other electronics for curbside trash pickup.

Numerous kinds of efforts are being made to ensure that the public is made aware and is educated about the benefits of electronics recycling. So now we need to understand the strong need to recycle electronics today? The first thing that we all must do is avoid disposing of electronics like computers, cell phones, tablets, computer monitors, and a host of others.

Benefits of Recycling Electronics

The main problem is that people are constantly changing their electronic devices every year as they require better and faster models to align with the needs of advancing technology. What people end up doing with their old electronic is either they are left to take up space in your junk drawer or in worst situations they end up in landfills that also results in the release of toxic chemicals into the air damaging the atmosphere which can also be considered as one of the biggest environmental after-effects of e-waste generation. These toxic chemicals actually seep into the groundwater and therefore affect both land and sea animals. 

Air pollution is not the only culprit to air pollution but electronic waste is yet another big reason behind it. As humans, we need to understand that not all kinds of waste belong in the regular trash as they may include harmful materials in them like lead, mercury, cadmium, and other potentially harmful chemicals which if released in the environment in any manner can cause a lot of damage.

There have been studies regarding this that have suggested that there is a significant relationship between the e-waste in landfills and the threats to human health like the increase in respiratory issues among people. The report – Environmental Research Letters has been generated by the samples that were taken of the air from a large e-waste dismantling area in China and in the research, they found that they were releasing chemicals that had a negative impact on human lung cells.

If you are still wondering How Does Recycling Electronics Help the Environment? Then you must understand that the equation is simple as the generation of it causes harm to the environment so the reduction of it will prove to be extremely beneficial for it. Another study that was released in National E-Waste Conference and Exhibition that was held in Nairobi showed the findings of 300 schoolchildren near Dandora in which it told that half the children had tested positive for respiratory problems, and another 30 per cent had blood abnormalities which were caused by heavy-metal poisoning from electronics.

One of the biggest challenges today is the disposal of the sheer volume of e-waste. With the advancement of technology and the continuous up-gradation of devices that is being done, the older devices are losing their worth faster than ever which has led to more and more end-of-life electronic goods being discarded, and thus heaps and heaps of electronic waste is disposed of in the landfills every day whose close estimation is between 20 and 50 million tons worldwide. Roughly more than 5 million tons of electronic equipment are recycled in the USA every year.

Among this huge quantity of e-waste, only 15-20 per cent of all e-waste is recycled. According to the studies carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), every day a rough estimate of 416,000 cell phones and 142,000 computers is tossed off either by recycling or disposing of them in landfills and incinerators.

The situation is critical and can be resolved only if each one of us participates to do so. Do we hope that your question – How Does Recycling Electronics Help the Environment? Was satisfactorily answered.

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