The Environmental Justice Agenda for E-Waste Management

Abstract

Environmental Context of the Electronics RevolutionT he exact number and quantity of chemicals present in a typical consumer electronic product such as a mobile phone or computer are difficult to pinpoint, but each device is estimated to contain myriad components that are manufactured with several chemical elements, compounds, composites, and alloys.Some elements are precious metals such as gold, whereas other elements and compounds are unambiguously toxic, among which lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, nickel, brominated flame retardants, phthalates, and perfluorooctanoic acids (PFOA) are notorious. 1 The detrimental environmental impacts associated with electronic products begin at the stage of mining natural mineral resources to produce many of the material constituents, for example, cobalt for which nearly half of the world's supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 2 Perhaps the most serious environmental impact is at the end of the useful life of electronic products, when they are discarded as hazardous electronic waste (e-waste) with domestic waste or managed under conditions that generate environmental pollutants. 3The World Health Organization (WHO) recently concluded that nearly 13 million women and 18 million children work in the informal labor sector to manage e-waste, hoping to recover small amounts of copper or gold from discarded products through dangerous procedures that lead to exposure to toxic chemicals and to adverse impacts on human health and environmental quality.In the preface to the WHO report, Director Tedros warned of the mounting "tsunami of e-waste" and called for urgent action.Globally, we recover and recycle less than 20% of used electronic products, thereby wasting valuable natural resources such as cobalt, nickel, lithium, and rare earth elements that could be used to manufacture new electronic devices. 4Various studies have documented the adverse impacts of exposure to e-waste particularly in resource-poor

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