As cell phone use has skyrocketed, more energy and mineral resources are needed to produce the phones, and more waste is generated in their production and when they are discarded. What can be done to decrease the environmental impact of our increasing use of electronic devices such as cell phones?
Go to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website on electronic waste recycling (www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/index.htm) and review the EPA’s web pages on e-cycling.
Evaluate the website and work with the information to answer the following questions:
Is the EPA website a reliable information source?
Does it give supporting evidence for its claims?
Does it give sources for its evidence?
Select the “Frequent Questions” link. Review the statistics on the relative rates of recycling for computers, TVs, and mobile devices. (More information is available at the “Electronics Waste Management in the United States” link.)
The EPA claims that electronic waste in solid waste landfills is safe for the environment and human health. What evidence does it provide to support this claim? Is it sufficient? Where would you attempt to find more evidence to support or refute this claim?
Based on your investigation above, why does the EPA recommend that e-waste be recycled rather than disposed of in landfills? Cite some of the data it uses to support this recommendation. Is it sufficient? Where would you attempt to find more evidence to support or refute this recommendation?
What are the specific recommendations the EPA gives for donating a cell phone for reuse, refurbishment, or recycling? Given how easy it appears to be, why do you suppose the recycling rate for cell phones is so much lower than that for computers and TVs?
The EPA website links to an external website with a map of e-cycling legislation by state (www.ecycleclearinghouse.org/content.aspx?pageid=10). Choose a state with e-cycling legislation from the map (your own state, if it has such legislation) and review its current e-cycling legislation. Summarize the legislation. Do you support it? Why or why not? How would you modify it to align it more closely with your values and beliefs about e-cycling?
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