Trash from High-Tech a Global Threat

How many desk-tops or lap-tops have you had the latest five years? When you bought a new one, what did you do with the old one? How many cell phones, TV-sets, MP3-players etc. have you disposed of in these years?

What do you think happen to the trash? As the life cycle of electronic equipment shrinks, outdated products like VCRs get replaced by DVD players and our landfills quickly overflow with hi-tech trash. In fact, "obsolete" electronics have become the fastest growing waste stream in the industrialized world.

"We need to reign in this new area of environmental risk which, of course, didn't exist ten years ago," explains Duncan Bury of Environment Canada's National Office of Pollution Prevention.

From The Newsletter of the North-American Commision for Environmental Cooperation:

The Europeans, who produce about six million tons of e-waste annually, are considerably ahead of North America in this matter, having passed two pieces of EU legislation to deal with the mounting problem. Coming into effect over the next two years is the front-end RoHS directive (Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances), which compels the electronics industry to use substitute hazardous materials for more environmentally preferable alternatives, and the back-end WEEE (Waste, Electrical and Electronic Equipment), which tackles the recycling and disposal side.

What about it Mr. Bush? Do you learn something?