...And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” - John 6:12 Electronic waste, or e-waste, is high-tech trash that includes cast-off televisions, computer monitors, keyboards, mice, processors (CPUs), printers, scanners, fax machines, pocket computers (PDAs), walkie-talkies, baby monitors, certain kinds of watches, and cell phones—in other words, anything digital that’s no longer being used. Added together, this information-age detritus makes up the fastest growing category of waste in the U.S. and the more complex the circuitry, the more complicated the equipment’s disposal, since electronics contain toxic substances such as mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, and beryllium that pose a hazard to both humans and the environment. VIEW POINT There are a lot of view points for the case “E-waste”. They are as follows: * In 1997, in one of the few studies of food waste, the Department of Agriculture estimated that two years before, 96.4 billion pounds of the 356 billion pounds of edible food in the United States was never eaten. * In England, a recent study revealed that Britons toss away a third of the food they purchase, including more than four million whole apples, 1.2 million sausages and 2.8 million tomatoes. * A recent study in Sweden found out that families with small children threw out about a quarter of the food...
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...Running header: E-WASTE IN INDONESIA 1 E-Waste in Indonesia: Implementing Clear Standards and Integrating the Informal Sector Donald P. Santoso ERM 428 Spring 2015 Arizona State University 2 E-WASTE IN INDONESIA Abstract While economic development gives rise to markets of emerging technologies, it also creates an emerging global issue in the management of the electronic waste (e-waste) it generates. Unfortunately Moore’s Law, which articulates that technological advancements follow an exponential upward growth every year, does not apply to the innovation in recycling that technology. E-waste is a term for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). These products and components can range from home appliances to consumer electronics; they are defined as e-waste once they reach the end of life, and no longer retain value through its intended function. The European Union (EU) estimates that the amount of global WEE increases 3-5% annually, equivalent to three times the growth of other categories of solid waste (Schwarzer, 2005). Electronic products have become extremely affordable in today’s economy, making it increasingly cheaper to replace these goods rather than fix them. Interval updates in the electronic sector also encourages pre-mature obsolescence of many products (Agamuthu et al., 2012). These factors contribute to a high turnover rate of electronics in the market. As a consequence, there is little incentive for both the industry and...
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...ELECTRONIC WASTE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA–ISSUES AND STRATEGIES KURIAN JOSEPH Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University, Chennai, India Phone: 91-44-22301283; Fax: 91-44-22354717 SUMMARY: The current practices of e-waste management in India suffer from a number of drawbacks like the difficulty in inventorisation, unhealthy conditions of informal recycling, inadequate legislation, poor awareness and reluctance on part of the corporate to address the critical issues. The consequences are that (i) toxic materials enter the waste stream with no special precautions to avoid the known adverse effects on the environment and human health and (ii) resources are wasted when economically valuable materials are dumped or unhealthy conditions are developed during the informal recycling. The paper highlights the associated issues and strategies to address this emerging problem, in the light of initiatives in India. The paper presents a waste management system with shared responsibility for the collection and recycling of electronic wastes amongst the manufacturers / assemblers, importers, recyclers, regulatory bodies and the consumers. 1.INTRODUCTION The electronic industry is the world’s largest and fastest growing manufacturing industry (Radha, 2002; DIT, 2003). During the last decade, it has assumed the role of providing a forceful leverage to the socio - economic and technological growth of a developing society. The consequence of its consumer oriented growth combined with rapid...
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...E-Waste, The Dark Side of Moore’s Law We should celebrate the great bounty Moore’s Law and the tech industry bestow on our lives. Costs fall, workers become more productive, innovations flourish, and we gorge at a buffet of digital entertainment that includes music, movies, and games. But there is a dark side to this faster and cheaper advancement. A PC has an expected lifetime of three to five years. A cell phone? Two years or less. Rapid obsolescence means the creation of ever-growing mountains of discarded tech junk, known as electronic waste or e-waste Discarded, often obsolete technology; also known as electronic waste.. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2007 the United States alone generated over 2.5 million tons of e-waste, [1] and the results aren’t pretty. Consumer electronics and computing equipment can be a toxic cocktail that includes cadmium, mercury, lead, and other hazardous materials. Once called the “effluent of the affluent,” e-waste will only increase with the rise of living standards worldwide. The quick answer would be to recycle this stuff. Not only does e-waste contain mainstream recyclable materials we’re all familiar with, like plastics and aluminum, it also contains small bits of increasingly valuable metals such as silver, platinum, and copper. In fact, there’s more gold in one pound of discarded tech equipment than in one pound of mined ore. But as the sordid record of e-waste management shows, there’s often a disconnect...
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...My topic: WHAT ACTS ARE CRIMINALIZED? ELEMENTS? MOTIVATIONS WHY CRIMINALS COMMIT THIS CRIME AND HOW THEY DO IT? (Re: E-waste Management in the Philippines) Like other developing countries, our country (Philippines) is facing a mounting electronic waste problem. Our existing waste management policies lack a specific or solid framework for dealing with E-waste. Our country has no official definition of what constitutes E-waste. The overall framework for managing waste, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 or otherwise known as Republic Act No. 9003, covers all forms of solid waste. Since E-waste contain hazardous and toxic substances, the nearest definition would fall under “hazardous waste” as defined in the Toxic Substances...
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...FENUGREEK RESEARCH COMPANY LTD. FACILITY MANAGEMENT REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This ten-page facility assessment report presents the findings from a three-week period of investigation in Fenugreek Research Company Ltd and relates recommendations both operationally and strategically which the Fenugreek management is advised to take to resolve the issues that surfaced during the period of investigation. Seven most pressing concerns coming from the Fenugreek staff were each dealt with in detail and suggestions for them were subsequently discussed for its feasibility. The findings of the investigation brought this Facility Manager to the conclusion that there is general dissatisfaction with the current working conditions of Fenugreek Research Company, which must be addressed individually in face of a period of uncertainty and change as the company owners look to float the firm and make it a public concern. The recommendations presented were judged for their practicability and immediacy of solution to the pressing concerns of the Fenugreek employees. INTRODUCTION Although facility management has long been practised by military, government and schools, it is a fairly new business and management discipline. As the role of the physical work environment on performance and productivity started to become more and more evident in studies, so has the field become more and more involved in a business context. In a compilation of over 40 studies of productivity improvement, changes in performance...
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...Reduction of food waste in the Dutch catering sector | Author: Han Soethoudt [ Auteur: Han Soethoudt ] | Report no. 1335 | Title | Reduction of food waste in the catering sector | Author | Han Soethoudt | Number | Food and Biobased Research number 1335 | ISBN-number | ISBN no. 978-94-6173-336-8 | Date of publication | Date of publication August 2012 | Confidential | No | OPD-code | 6239021000 | Approved by | Toine Timmermans | | Wageningen UR Food & Biobased Research | P.O. Box 17 | NL-6700 AA Wageningen | Tel: +31 (0)317 480 084 | E-mail: info.fbr@wur.nl | Internet: www.wur.nl | | © Wageningen UR Food & Biobased Research, institute within the corporation Stichting Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek (Foundation Service Agricultural Investigation) | Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden verveelvoudigd, opgeslagen in een geautomatiseerd gegevensbestand of openbaar gemaakt in enige vorm of op enige wijze, hetzij elektronisch, hetzij mechanisch, door fotokopieën, opnamen of enige andere manier, zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgever. De uitgever aanvaardt geen aansprakelijkheid voor eventuele fouten of onvolkomenheden.All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. The...
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...1.0 Introduction What is electronic waste? Electronic waste or e-waste is a term for electronic products that have become unwanted, non-working or obsolete, and have essentially reached the end of their useful life. Certain portions of the electronic waste stream are defined and the systems to recover and recycle them will be administratively regulated beyond the universal waste rules that apply to material handling with the passage of the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003. This phenomena is occurred in the high rate of the technology advances. Whole categories of old electronic items contribute to e-waste such as VCRs being replaced by DVD players, and DVD players being replaced by Blu-ray players. The common electronic products such as televisions, VCRs, stereos, computers, copiers, and fax machines. These electronic products are thrown away when they are used after few years or no longer wanted by the consumers. Nowadays, our world was polluted by the e-waste. The ecosystems and drinking water were harmed and facing pollution of the electronic wastes. 1.6 billion cell phones were manufactured in 2012, these electronics are packed with toxic chemicals: arsenic, lead, and poly-brominated flame retardants. The average month an American keeps a cell phone as short as 18 months. 60% of the e-waste are toxic metals which usually ends up with landfill and these toxic will leach into the soil and water. Although electronic products can be recycled, but 30% of the...
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...a widely discussed subject. It is also turning to become a challenge for the construction industry due to the increasing scarcity of natural resources and the ever increasing demolition and construction waste (Wai et al 2012). The essence of sustainable construction development can be given out as the possibility of meeting current needs taking into account the needs of future generations (Valeria et al 2009). Recently, the amount of waste incurred due to demolition and construction has been increasing because of demographic factors, more specifically: increase in population and urbanization. Therefore, the majority of the developed or emerging economies are facing the problem of handling and disposing such wastes. Considering this aspect, the utilization of these wastes and byproducts is gaining momentum and is highly regarded as an emerging necessity. This idea not only focuses on utilizing the wastes, but also has indirect benefits such as saving energy and protecting the environment. According to Mehta (2002 data) the global concrete industry consumes “close to 10 billion tons of aggregates, and produces over 1 billion tons of construction and demolition waste annually”. Aggregates constitute approximately 70% of concrete volume, thus the ability to utilize their waste and reuse them in the production of recycled concrete would have a huge positive impact on the environment. However, one of the reasons that this utilization is not widely common is the misconception that...
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...high marks. Here are their contributions: Accor/Novotel Canada Hotel management, Toronto * A detailed tracking system minimizes electricity, water, gas and sewer use. * A comprehensive recycling program has cut back the use of newspaper, glass, aluminum, plastics, cardboard and kitchen grease. BC Biometrical Laboratories Ltd. Medical laboratory, Surrey, B.C. * Works with recycling providers to find solutions for high-volume items--like small caps from needles, which once weren't considered recyclable. * Telecommuting is encouraged; more than 15 per cent of administrative staff work from home. Brookfield LePage Johnson Controls Real estate management, Markham, Ont. * Brookfield's head office diverts 100 per cent of its waste from landfills. * Established 11 social responsibility committees and hosted a sustainability event to educate real estate industry professionals on reducing carbon footprints. Celestica Electronics manufacturing, Toronto * Hybrid and other eco-friendly vehicles get preferred parking spots (employees and visitors). * Rather than sending wooden pallets to be recycled, Celestica pioneered a program to reuse them; last year, 5,000 pallets were reused in Toronto alone. Cisco Corp. Communications, Toronto * Since 2010, CISCO has reduced business travel by 40 per cent. * Participates in several global pollution-reduction initiatives,...
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...Hazardous wastes can be categorized based on their hazardous characteristics such as ignitable, reactive, toxic, corrosive, explosive, poisonous, and radioactive (Mudgal et al., 2007). Basically, there are three types of methods to treat hazardous wastes biological, chemical and physical. Chemical treatment methods use different properties of a chemical to alter its hazardous compounds. Chemical reactions alter the chemicals, destroying the hazardous elements or producing new compounds that are easier to treat or dispose of (WRC, 2001). Chemical treatment can be further divided into several techniques. a) Neutralization Neutralization is a process of neutralizing waste acid with an alkali. Hazardous wastes are classified as corrosive if their...
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...Support for Environmental Protection: The Role of Moral Norms Paul C. Stern National Research Council Thomas Dietz George Mason University I. Stanley Black Illinois Environmental Protection Agency A theoretical model is presented that traces support for environmental protection to a social-psychological process involving the activation of moral norms against harming innocent people. In a preliminary test of the model's social-psychological hypotheses, judgments about the moral obligations of industry with respect to hazardous chemicals were found to depend both on awareness of harmful consequences to people and on ascription of responsibility for those consequences to industry; government, however, was held to be morally obligated to act even if it was not responsible for the harm. Suggestions are offered for using the model to study the determinants of changing public opinion on the environment, the tactics of advocacy groups in environmental policy conflicts, and the process that mobilizes pressure for political causes in the absence of tangible group interests. The last two decades have brought about substantial changes in the environmental policies of most Western industrial nations. These changes are due in large part to the effective mobilization of public support by the enviThe authors thank Jane Phillips for assistance with data analysis and the Academic Computing Service and Graduate School of George Mason University for research support. Requests for reprints should...
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...PHILIPPINE SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT The Philippines generates about 10,000 million tons of solid waste per year and only 12 percent of the waste is recycled and re-used. The single most dominant issue for solid waste management (SWM) is the inadequacy of disposal facilities. Presently, open dumping is still the most common waste disposal method as controlled dumpsites and sanitary landfills (SLFs) are very limited. The opportunities presented by this serious environmental problem to suppliers of solid waste management products and equipment are enormous. The potential, however, is tempered by inadequate funds and technical capability, lack of political will and other problems. Despite the limitations, the market for SWM is still expected to grow five percent in the next three years. The major end-users of SWM products and equipment are the local government units and their private contractors as well as private proponents of SWM projects. The equipment cost and the source of project funding are major purchase considerations of end-users. Overview Solid waste is an environmental problem that has reached critical proportions in the Philippines. Due to a growing population, rapidly increasing consumption and increasing urbanization, waste generated in the Philippines is estimated at 19,700 tons per day. Projections show that waste generation will increase 47 percent by 2010, or 28,875 tons per day. SWM is the responsibility of local government units...
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...This industry currently employs a large number of electrical engineers and technicians. Additionally, companies responsible for distribution and sale of these products have come up. Currently, in the world, the electronic industry is one of largest income earning industry in the world (Barnes 8). However, the emergence of electronic industry led to the emergence of electronic waste. The US and the EU produce over 3million tones of electronic waste in a year. Majority of this waste are dumped in the Developing countries with China the leading recipient. These wastes contain several rare elements. It is worrying that majority of the countries in the world lack systems and technologies for dealing with these wastes (Barnes 9). Increased environmental awareness globally has led to the push for what is known as sustainable electronics. Sustainable electronics aim at energy conservation and elimination of use of toxic substances in their production. These are mainly ensured by treaties and directives such as the Basel convention, aimed at controlling the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes, Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive and...
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...Racism 2 In this current disenchanted world, there is no meaningful order of things or events outside the human domain. When the forests and the farms are no longer considered sacred and the spirits we tempted with food and sacrifice have no mysterious risks associated with the systematic rape of mother Earth. Then a disenchanted nature is no longer alive. The living Earth commands no respect, reverence or love. It is nothing but a giant machine, to be mastered to serve human purposes. The animists(1) took care of this planet on up to the last few hundred years. As man accidentally discovers the beginnings of commerce that opens the doors to an industrial nation, then an industrial world will soon discover industrial waste. Whether the notion that a mountain or a tree is to be regarded as a person is taken literally or not, the attempt to engage with the surrounding world as if it consists of other people might possibly provide the basis for a respectful attitude towards living things. If your disenchantment is over the environmental problems and destruction, then the environmental racism byproduct can be regarded as an attempt to reveal to you that we are part of the world collective and that we are in a sense, the world itself. Environmental racism(2) is one of the biggest problems the world faces today. Issues created by corporate polluters produce trouble in the form of economic, as well as, physical. For some individuals and cultures, it affects them every...
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