"Where Your Cellphone Goes to Die" by Leyla Acaroglu

“Where Your Cellphone Goes to Die”

By Leyla Acaroglu

            “Where Your Cellphone Goes to Die” is about e-waste, how it affects people, and what can be done to have it be reduced.  In the article, Acaroglu reminds us that the United States is sending enormous amounts of electronic waste to places such as China, Ghana, and India.  There you can find young children and pregnant women, working in dangerous conditions.  What these men, women and children do, is try to extract copper, wires, gold and silver threads by smashing batteries with mallets, burning huge mountains of electronics and "cooking" circuit boards.  This can leave toxic pieces lying on their hands, and has them inhaling the smoke of the burned items.  Side effects of these things are neurological damage (brain damage) and challenge child development.  I think that if the United STates tried, it wouldn't be hard to change the e-trash disposal practices.

            With a minimum effort from the government, manufacturers and consumers, e-trash disposal would be much safer for others and would reduce the trash itself.  The government could simply just sign a treaty, and put an act to vote.  "The united states... could ratify the Basel Convention, an international treaty that makes it illegal to export or traffic in toxic e-waste... The Responsible Electronics Recycling Act... would make it illegal to export toxic wast from the U.S to developing countries that have limited or no safeguards... despite support from both Democrats and Republicans it was never put to vote." These act and conventions could decrease the danger people in Ghana, India and China are working in.  For the manufacturers, they could find better alternatives to the waste.  For example, the E.U (European Union) requires that all who sell the electronics need to accept all items of theirs for recycling.  "The goal is to properly recycle 85 percent of the E.U's e-waste by 2019."  In Japan all who manufacture electronic have to have their own recycling facilities.  Finally, the consumer.  To help, the consumer can pressure the government and manufacturers by demanding better solution for the trash, and they can take it upon them to recycle their electronic devices.  "Consumer pressure on manufacturers to design electronics that can be more easily recycled could be enormously helpful... we [consumers] could recycle the ones we no longer use through certified recycling services."  That can help be recycling properly, and having better devices to begin with.

            As you can see, there needs to be change in the way we handle electronic waste.  The fact that people can suffer, just because consumers are throwing an old phone away, is not something that can be ignored.  With a little effort from everyday consumers, the ones in charge of manufacturing these devices, and the United States government, change could come progressively.