Have you ever thought about where your electronic waste goes once it has been thrown away or even recycled? Well, I’m Miranda Andersen and I’m going to educate you on the shocking truth behind where your electronic waste, better known as e-waste really goes once it has left you hands
We have been living a lie by believing we’ve done the right thing when we give our old electronics up for recycling. Actually most of our e-waste is shipped off to places like China, India and Africa where it is broken down. As one reporter has commented “if dumping e-waste was an Olympic sport, Canada would win silver and the United States would win gold”.
E-waste is made up of things like computers, TVs and cell phones, which can contain materials like copper, aluminum, lead and gold. The acids used to brake down these materials will find there way to rivers where they have been known to dissolve a penny in a day. 50 to 80% of this e-waste is not recycled at all.
Even though it is illegal to ship this over seas, people still do it by calling it second hand goods because safe handling is complicated, expensive and enforcement is very weak. We are creating mountains of e-waste.
Now picture this, children playing in contaminated mud, women washing clothes in a toxic soup and people of all ages breathing in dangerous chemicals all day and every day. Isn’t all this shocking?
The people who handle our e-waste are not protected from dangers and include women and children. But they will do anything for the money. We need to give our e-waste only to people who handle it without harming others.
Proper E-cycling leads to no pollution, no landfill waste and valuable materials can be recovered – but is it really all worth it? Well, I am sure you know the answer to that.
Old electronics are hazardous and should not be handed over to just anyone calling them selves a recycler. There is only one place in Vancouver that gets rid of e-waste in an environmentally friendly way and does it locally when they can. It’s called Free Geek.
E-waste was not even an issue ten years ago and now we are faced with the real choice of becoming part of the e-waste problem or part of the solution
So while you are thinking of buying that new gadget, also think of where the old one will go. Ask your electronic recycler awkward questions. As one free geek member told me “it is awkward questions that will change the world.”
Wow Miranda, thank-you so much for posting this! I have to tell you, every time I recycle my electronics I wonder what happens to them, but I always thought if I was recycling it, it couldn’t be too bad. I had no idea what goes on, and I think it’s great that you are opening up people’s eyes to something that you obviously feel so passionately about.
How did you find out about Free Geek? What would you consider an example of an awkward question that I could ask?
Ms. Anastasia Capt
Hi Miranda,
Thank you so much for being so informative about where our ‘recycled’ electronics go. I actually have a bag of old electronic things that need to be recycled but I have been unsure of how to recycle them and if I do recycle them how they would be disposed of. I am going to look into Free Geek and how to get rid of my E-waste both ethically and environmentally.
Ms. Skuce
Miranda, I can tell that you’ve put a lot of thought and research into this post. I think you’ve chosen to expose a very important topic to us, being that we live in a technology-driven world.
I’ve actually never even heard of Free Geek before and it was pretty shocking to read that there is only one place in Vancouver that gets rid of e-waste in an environmentally friendly manner. I suppose my next question would be…so what can we do to get more environmentally friendly e-waste removers available locally/to more people?
I think you have exposed an important and well kept secret. You challenge the readers to think and question where the e-waste ends up, and to ask awkward questions. Your post has also got me wondering why more is not done to prevent this, and to educate the public. What do you think?
Hi Miranda,
This is a very enlightening topic and you’ve done a great job informing your readers of both the dangers of and solutions to e-waste. I think it’s tragic that our throw-aways are leading to rivers in other countries becoming “toxic soup,” as you put it.
It’s especially frustrating that there are answers to this problem here at home, with the Free Geek service. I’m wondering: how accessible was information on Free Geek? I have also never heard of them but I think it’s an absolutely worthy cause that should be better advertised. I wonder if that is an initiative that should be taken up…
Miranda,
This was a very well written article. I found it especially effective that you asked questions to your audience, I felt as though you were speaking to me personally. I had never heard of Free Geek either but I have old cell phones and other gadgets that I can now donate. I also have a friend who works in IT for a big restaurant chainin Vancouver. I will pass this information along and maybe we can see some change at the local level. Thanks for the info!
Dear Anastasia – I found out about Free Geek from my hero, Ruth Foster, who runs a local fish hatchery in Port Moody. We visited Free Geek together (they do tours). An example of an awkward question you could ask would be something like “what do you do with the electronics you receive”. If they say something like “we brake down the e-waste and then reuse it”,
and someone other than a Free Geek member says this then they may be telling a lie so that is what I mean by an “awkward question”.
Miranda
Ms. skuce
If you would like you could bring your e-waste to Free Geek or you can just bring it to my electronics drive and all you will have to do is bring them to my school on April 24th. If you would like more details just go to freegeekvancouver.org.
Thank you
Miranda Andersen
Dear S.Smallwood
Even though it is already illegal to have recyclers that don’t recycle properly, the government needs to work on enforcing that law. As one person you can start by bringing your old electronics to my electronics drive at my school on April 24th.
Miranda Andersen
Dear Ms B.Caron
I think that I have exposed an important secret and I hope more people will find out about this because when they recycle their electronics they think are doing a good deed but obviously this is not always true. I have seen commercials on TV for recycling depots that I know are not recycling their e-waste properly but other people may not know this.
Miranda
Dear A.Mazzei
Thank you for your comment. I’m glad to know you are passing on this message to others and I also hope to see some changes at the local level and it is good to know that you are giving some things to Free Geek.
Miranda
Dear J.Falletta
Free Geek is not in business for the money and that is probably why you have not heard of it before because they don’t spend their money on things like commercials and advertisements and many more people should know about it too. I’m having an electronics drive and hoping to spread the word.
Miranda