Trip Wray

Professor Sims, Professor Temeles

Environmental Studies 70: Senior Seminar

October 20, 2010

E-Waste Research Paper

Main Question/Topic of Research Paper:

How has E-Waste developed into a serious environmental issue, and what are producers, consumers, and governments doing to not only mitigate the existing problem but to also prevent future E-Waste from intensifying?

Types of Resources:

I plan on using the following kinds of sources:

·  Newspaper articles that demonstrate the local problems within developed and developing nations

·  Newspaper articles that discuss government policies in relation to E-Waste

·  Scientific journal articles that examine E-Waste and its environmental, economic, political, and health impacts

o  Economic data and figures

o  Political Discussion on E-Waste

o  Health and Pollution studies

·  Basel Action Network Website and documents

o  Its Content

o  Photographs

Outline: A description of how I plan to organize my paper. My outline includes the sections that I intend to use. Within each section, I list the types of questions and discussion points that I will raise and answer.

1.  Introduction

  1. Introduce the general problem of E-Waste and where it is causing the most harm
  2. What is E-Waste?
  3. How is it becoming an emerging and alarming issue?
  4. How have Developed Nations taken part in E-Waste?
  5. How have Developing Nations taken part in E-Waste?
  6. What is each side doing to mitigate E-Waste?
  7. What are some green solutions to the E-Waste problem?

2.  Body

  1. First Section: The Reason why E-Waste has become an emerging and alarming concern
  2. Examine the Economic Upside of E-Waste Exchange for both Developed and Developing Nations
  3. What are the Upsides for Developed Nations
  4. Examine how it is economically cheaper for countries like the United States to export E-Waste rather than to recycle it itself
  5. The Overall Utility Gain
  6. Americans and others happy to remove old technology from their basements and garages.
  7. What are the Upsides for Developing Nations
  8. Examine how E-Waste provides economic opportunity for local villagers who are willing to recycle old technology in return for a paycheck.
  9. Second Section: Illustrate the vast and emerging problem of E-Waste
  10. Quantify and approximate the amount of E-Waste that continues to be imported into Developing Nations
  11. Use Scientific Journal Articles that focus on the particular villages like Guiyu, China
  12. Use Articles that highlight how individuals all around the world are replacing new technology with old technology at an increasing rate.
  13. Third Section: Describe what E-Waste is and how it is harmful
  14. Discuss the methods, which at most times are careless, that local villagers use to recycle E-Waste
  15. What parts of old electronics are they recycling?
  16. How are they recycling each one?
  17. What are the byproducts of carelessly recycling such parts?
  18. Examine the health repercussions of recycling E-Waste
  19. What parts of the human body are being exposed and damaged from E-Waste?
  20. What studies have been done to prove that E-Waste has negative health consequences?
  21. What do scientists think could ultimately happen if E-Waste continues? Do they predict any further damage to humans exposed to E-Waste?
  22. Examine the environmental backlashes of E-Waste
  23. What kind of effects are the piles of old electronics having on the local environment?
  24. Air?
  25. Water?
  26. Aesthetic?
  27. Forth Section: Analyze how governments are becoming more aware of the E-Waste problem
  28. Discuss how Americans originally believed that they were doing the right thing by recycling their old electronic parts
  29. How were Americans ignorant of the situation?
  30. Discuss how local villagers from developing nations were either unaware or numb to the negative health and environmental byproducts of E-Waste
  31. Use Newspaper articles or some other primary documents (photographs or journal entries) that suggest that local villagers either did not care or did not know of the byproducts of E-Waste
  32. Examine BAN, the Basel Action Network, and its leading role in cleaning up E-Waste
  33. Use its website, find press releases, and use its main document that underscored the environmental problem behind E-Waste
  34. Examine how Developed Nations governments are taking strides to halt the exporting of E-Waste
  35. What has the EU done to minimize their E-Waste footprint?
  36. What has the United States done?
  37. Why has the United States been hesitant to take federal action against the exporting of old, electronic goods?
  38. What are states like Maine doing to take matters into their own hands?
  39. Analyze the Extended Producer Responsibility Method (EPR)
  40. What is the EPR method?
  41. How is it beneficial?
  42. Is Maine’s EPR method being used as a model for other states?
  43. Examine the methods used by Developing Nations to prevent further harmful imports of E-Waste
  44. What rules are China, Malaysia, and India putting into place?
  45. Are these rules effective?
  46. Do these rules match the needs and desires of the developed nations who still look to export E-Waste?
  47. Will they have any long-term benefits or costs that will affect the economy and/or environment of the local villages?
  48. Fifth Section: Discuss the difficulty of absolving E-Waste.
  49. Discuss how technology is continuing to improve, nevertheless causing people to update, replace, and get rid of old electronic parts.
  50. Reemphasize the severity of the issue
  51. Suggest that prior E-Waste recycling needs to be cleaned up.
  52. Action needs to be taken to fix the air quality, clean the water supplies, and support local villagers struck with health issues from E-Waste.
  53. Examine and mention the problem with politics and government
  54. Governments, especially national governments, typically take a lot of time to make decisions.
  55. As more time passes before major legislation is put in place, E-Waste is only going to intensify
  56. Sixth Section: Green alternatives that could help reduce E-Waste
  57. Governments should offer incentives to producers and consumers to produce and consume more green friendly electronic goods.
  58. Subsidize greener materials and production methods
  59. Educate consumers
  60. Reward technology companies that follow greener standards
  61. Continue to Educate both local villagers in effected areas in developing nations as well as citizens of developed nations
  62. The more people know about the problem, the more conscience they will be when making decisions on what products to buy and how to discard such products.

3.  Conclusion

  1. Restate how E-Waste has become a major social, political, environmental, and economic problem.
  2. What is E-Waste?
  3. How has it adversely affected the local villagers and their environment?
  4. Reassess what governments are doing to fix the E-Waste problem
  5. How seriously are they taking E-Waste?
  6. What laws have different governments made?
  7. What are the next steps that they are taking?
  8. Offer insight on potential ways to prevent further damage
  9. Immediate government action (Incentives, Subsidies)
  10. Educate consumers, producers, and local villagers
  11. Suggest that E-Waste is in fact an alarming issue that will have major consequences if not dealt with swiftly and seriously

Updated List of Works Cited:

“About the Basel Action Network-BAN.” Basel Action Network, 2010.

http://www.ban.org/main/about_BAN.html

Africa; EU Parliamentarian Leads Campaign Against E-Waste to Continent.” Africa News, 30 January 2009.

“Developing Nations Risk E-Waste Crisis.” TECHWEB, 22 February 2010.

Dwivedy, Maheshwar, RK Mittal. “Estimation of future outflows of e-waste in India.” Waste Management, March 2010.

“E-Waste Threat Grows By the Day.” The Nation (Nairobi), 8 March 2010.

Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia. Basel Action Network, 2002.

www.ban.org/E-Waste/technotrashfinalcomp.pdf

Guo, Yongyong, Xia Huo, Yan Li, Kusheng Wu, Junxiao Liu, Jingrong Huang, Guina Zheng, Qiongna Xiao, Hui Yang, Yuanping Wang, Aimin Chen, Xijin Xu. “Monitoring of lead, cadmium, chromium and nickel in placenta from an e-waste recycling town in China.” Science of the Total Environment, 15 July 2010.

Leung, Anna OW, Janey KY Chan, Guan Hua Xing, Ying Xu, Sheng Chun Wu, Chris KC Wong, Clement KM Leung, Ming H Wong. “Body burdens of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in childbearing-aged women at an intensive electronic-waste recycling site in China.” Environmental Science and Pollution Research International, August 2010.

Paska, Daniel. “Facilitating substance phase-out through material information systems and improving environmental impacts in the recycling stage of a product.” Natural Resources Forum, UN, August 2010.

Saphores, JDM, H Nixon, OA Ogunseitan, AA Shapiro. “How much e-waste is there in US basements and attics? Results from a national survey.” Journal of Environmental Management, August 2009.

Spencer, Richard. “Polluted Town Where Old Presents Go to Die.” Guiyu. 27 December 2007.

Shinkuma, Takayoshi, Shunsuke Managi. “On the effectiveness of a license scheme for E-waste recycling: The challenge of China and India.” Environmental Impact Assessment Review, July 2010.

Wagner, Travis P. “Shared responsibility for managing electronic waste: A case study of Maine, USA.” Department of Environmental Science, University of Southern Maine, 19 July 2009.

Wang, Hongmei, Yuang Zhang, Qian Liu, Feifel Wang, Jing Nei, and Yan Qian. “Examining the relationship between brominated flame retardants (BFR) exposure and changes of thyroid hormone levels around e-waste dismantling sites.” Department of Environment and Health, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, 3 July 2010.

Yu, Jinglei, Eric Williams, Melting Ju, and Chaofeng Shao. “Managing e-waste in China: Policies, pilot projects and alternative approaches.” Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at Nankai University, 26 March 2010.

Yu, Zhigiang, Shaoyou Lu, Shutao Gao, Jingzhi Wang, Huiru Li, Xiangying Zeng, Guoying Sheng, Jiamo Fu. “Levels and isomer profiles of Dechlorane Plus in the surface soils from e-waste recycling areas and industrial areas in South China.” State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environment and Resources, September 2010.

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