What Is E-waste?

Electronic waste is also known as e-waste. E-waste includes a variety of electric and electronic equipment that no longer have any value to their users. E-waste is the wastes that do not satisfy their original purpose. E-waste products have depleted their utility value through redundancy, replacement, or any breakage and it includes both white goods and brown goods. Examples of White goods are refrigerators, washing machines, and microwaves, and examples of Brown goods are televisions, radios, computers, and cell phones.
With the advent of information and technology, there has been a good consumption in the usage of new electronic equipment. The rise has to lead to the growth in volumes of obsolete products as well. E-waste is thus, the fastest growing waste streams on Earth. E-waste consists of complex mixtures of highly toxic substances that can be dangerous to health and the environment. Many products consist of recoverable precious materials that make it a different kind of a waste when compared with traditional municipal waste.
It has been known that the percentage of e-waste is more than 5 percent of all the municipal solid waste globally. This is too increasing with the rise in sales and consumption of electronic products in developing countries. There are informal and hazardous sites for the extraction and sales of metallic objects and it is very common. The majority of global e-waste is recycled in developing countries. There are strict rules and regulations from environmental departments of developed countries and that increases the cost of waste disposal. They thus find exportation to small traders in developing nations which is more profitable than recycling in their developed nations.

By: Kiara Sharma
Class 10
Mahaveer Public School