The Global Cost of Electronic Waste Management

Apple has already sold millions of new iPhone 7s, which have started shipping this month. For many people who bought one, the device replaces a perfectly good, recent model. True, an iPhone may start showing signs of wear after two years: the home button sticks, or the glass may break. Some of these defects can be repaired, although some choose to repair over upgrades. Others are caused by planned obsolescence. For example, Apple's latest operating system, iOS 10, which required just one iPhone 6s-device last year, is widely used.

And so people change things: smartphones, tablets, phablets, laptops, LEDs, LCDs, DVD players, portable music players. Whether due to breakdowns, slow-downs, or just the availability of a new model, people leave electronics at the slightest inconvenience. It is not just laziness or longing for the future, either; The economics of gadgets encourage settlement. In some cases, for example, buying a new printer is cheaper than buying a set of new ink cartridges.

There are two major adverse ecological effects of increasing electronics consumption. First, it increases mining and procurement for the materials needed for the production of gadgets. And second, discarded devices produce large amounts of electronic waste. That waste can be reduced through reuse, repair or resale. Whether this will ever happen is an open question.

Electronic waste management have always produced waste, but in recent years there has been a rapid increase in the amount and speed of discarded. There was a time when households used to have TVs for over a decade. But thanks to changes in technology and consumer demand, there is now hardly any device that remains in the hands of the original owner for more than a few years. According to the ENDS Europe Agency report, implicit indirectness increased the proportion of all units sold to replace faulty equipment from 3.5 percent in 2004 to 8.3 percent in 2012. The share of large home appliances that had to be replaced within the first five increased from 7 percent of total replacements in 2004 to 13 percent in 2013. According to a 2014 Gallup poll, 89 percent of young adults (18 to 29) own their own smartphones; At the same age, 41 percent owned the old VCR.