Electronic Waste, An Emerging Challenge For All


Ms. Saher Pervez, Green Blogger, Environmental science, GCWUS
Electronic waste, a global issue which increase rapidly due to advancement in technology. This is threat for environment and life due to its toxic components.
E-waste, a global issue which needs attention because it is now in too much diverse condition which is harmful for humans as well as for our environment. E-waste contains many hazardous compounds like lead, mercury, cadmium and flame retardants. They all are carcinogenic and cause many other effects like premature births, mutations, abnormal thyroid function, decreased lung function, and neurobehavioral disturbances, etc. Moreover, it also contaminates air, soil and groundwater which indirectly cause health issues. As the technology advances, the amount of E-waste generated upsurges rapidly like fire. According to the United Nations (UN) and ICT report, the global quantity of e-waste generated in 2016 was around 44.7 million metric tons, or 6.1 kg per inhabitant. The amount of e-waste is expected to grow to 52.2 million metric tons in 2021, with an annual growth rate of 3 to 4%. There is a need of time to reduce or eliminate the e-waste to achieve sustainable development goals.
In Pakistan, a major portion of the waste stream is e- waste and the large portion of this waste went into landfill rather than recycling it. We need to eliminate or reduce e-waste. As technology is the need of time, so we cannot eliminate e-waste from our waste streams. So, we must reduce it. We reduce it by recycling the metallic or other components of electronic devices, or by repairing our old mobiles, computers or other electronic machines. But in Pakistan most of the people sale their outdated devices for getting the new and updated ones. Not only Pakistani people involve in increasing the amount of e-waste in Pakistan, but, many of the developed countries send the hazardous e-waste of their countries into the developing countries like Pakistan either as a charity for the people to use new technology or sale it at low cost. People consider this help from the other countries, but in actual they send their devices to the other countries to get rid of their hazardous waste. The basic reason of this condition to be more diverse in Pakistan is the lack of awareness. People have no idea about its hazardous health and environmental impacts. People don’t understand the security threats from the e-waste.
To solve this issue, we need to aware the public about the health, environment as well as security problems related to the e-waste so that they participate in reducing this issue. And the government should also take part in doing so, they must make such policies in which they ban to exchange electronic waste with the other countries. And they also need to make such policies and laws which assure that no one can buy a new electronic device until unless it is unable to repair and the producer of the product should take its responsibility so that they produce such devices which should be easy to disassemble and recycle. By doing so, the economy of the country circulates in a sustainable manner and get rid of the many environmental and social issues. What you think about it, what we have to do in this regard?
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