E-waste: What we throw away doesn't go away

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-07/gu-eww070715.php

Public Release: 8-Jul-2015
Griffith University

In the life of almost every household appliance, there comes that moment of out with the old and in with the new.

However, while electrical and electronic equipment have never been more efficient, economical or in demand, consumers' desire to own the best and the latest is contributing to an environmental issue of increasing seriousness and concern.
[If you are not a young person, you know that this stuff stops working much, much sooner than it used to.]

"E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams in developing, emerging and developed regions and it covers all electrical and electronic equipment and parts discarded by consumers," says Dr Sunil Herat, Associate Editor of the journal Waste Management & Research and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.

"According to figures published in the Global E-waste Monitor 2014 and compiled by the United Nations University, last year an estimated 41.8 million metric tonnes of e-waste was discarded throughout the world.

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tags: human footprint, human impact,