21st century media promise cleaner and green communications. However, this is actually not the case as there are many hidden costs of new communications technologies. E-Waste is one of them and it is currently a global menace. E-Waste happens when many electronic electrical devices such as computers, televisions and many other machinery products reach their end of product life cycle and are in a state of poor condition whereby they become useless and non-operational to its operators and owners (Janagam & Jeyamani 2011).
What many people do not realize and aware is the improper disposal of such electronic products, it could lead to a chain of serious environmental issues that can cause the environment and as well as human beings to be exposed to hazardous gases and toxic materials. These harmful chemicals can be released as easy and simple as when the electronic products are being exposed under hard weather conditions. Also, another wrong method of recycling operation is the burning of plastic/wires of these electronic products to extract certain amount of gold is extremely harmful to human health and the environment as well (Maxwell & Miller 2012).
All the happenings on the amount of electronic waste worldwide is mainly due to the rapid changes in technologies, changes in medias and falling of electronic product prices which all these mentioned above have resulted in the fast growing excess of electronic wastage around the world.
Around 20 to 50 million tons of electronic waste is being produced yearly and most of it is coming from mobile phones, televisions and computers. E-Waste primary production geographically locates in the Global North where countries include Australia, Japan, United States and Western Europe. However, all these electronic waste are being dumped in the Global South where countries include Africa, Eastern Europe, South East Asia and China (Widmer et.al 2005). This level of E-Waste is indeed shocking.
In Malaysia, its waste generation has been increasing radically where solid the solid wastes is estimated to have increased and reached from 9 million to 11 million tonnes in the span of 10 years. It is expected by the year of 2015, it might reach up to about 13 million tonnes and a further 16 million tonnes by 2020. The estimated increase of solid wastes is expected to burden Malaysia’s resources and environment in managing these wastes in a sustainable approach. According to a licensed electronic waste rubbish collector, there are two main categories of e-waste in Malaysia. One is produced by industries and another is produced by households. There have been e-waste dumping cases but not on an alarming scale yet and the most common type of e-waste received by the licensed company is used computers (Agamuthu & Victor 2011).
In my opinion, in order to stop or minimize on the damages cause by e-waste to the human body and as well as the environment, companies and individuals should learn the proper way while disposing their unused electronic products. Also, sustainable and recyclable materials should be used in electronic products. What is more, consumer and company awareness campaigns should be held to educate them on the seriousness of e-waste and the harmful effects it causes. Individual efforts and focus to raise awareness on the issue is definitely not enough and everyone in the societies and communities should come hand in hand to minimize on the hazardous effects and improper disposal of electronic products.
References
Agamuthu, P & Victor, D 2011, ‘Policy trends of extended producer responsibility in Malaysia’, Waste Management and Research, vol.29, no.9, pp945-953.
Janagam, D & Jeyamani, M 2011, ‘E-Waste a major threat to environment and health’,Indian Journal of Science and Technology, vol.4, no.3, pp313-317.
Maxwell, R & Miller, T 2012, ‘Introduction’ in Green the Media Oxford University Press, pp1-20.
Widmer, R, Krapf, HO, Khetriwal, DS, Schnellmann, M & Boni, H 2005, ‘Global perspectives on e-waste’, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol.25, no.5, pp436-458.
Emerging Issues in Media & Communications - Ali 