E-Waste

Publushed @ Yahoo World News by McGuirk contributed from Jakarta, Indonesia.

BALI, Indonesia – Sales of household electrical gadgets will boom across the developing world in the next decade, wreaking environmental havoc if there are no new strategies to deal with the discarded TVs, cell phones and computers, a U.N. report said Monday.

The environmental and health hazards posed by the globe’s mountingelectronic waste are particularly urgent in developing countries, which are already dumping grounds for rich nations’ high-tech trash, the U.N. Environment Program study said.

Electronic waste is piling up around the world at a rate estimated at 40 million U.S. tons (36 million metric tons) a year, the report said, noting that data remain insufficient.

China produces 2.6 million U.S. tons (2.3 million metric tons) of electronic waste a year, second only to the United States with 3.3 million U.S. tons (3 million metric tons), it said.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said the globe was ill-prepared to deal with the explosion ofelectronic gadgets over the past decade.

“The world is now confronted with a massive wave of electronic waste that is going to come back and hit us, particularly for least-developed countries, that may become a dumping ground,” Steiner told The Associated Press ahead of a UNEP executive meeting in Bali.

He said some Americans and Europeans have sent broken computers to African countries falsely declared as donations. The computers were dumped outside slums as toxic waste and became potential hazards to people, he said.

The report predicts that China’s waste rate from old computers will quadruple from 2007 levels by 2020. Meanwhile, in India, waste from old refrigerators — which contain hazardous chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbon gases — could triple by 2020.

It said the fastest growth in electronic waste in recent years has been in communications devices such as cell phones, pagers and smart phones.

Most of the recycling of electronic waste in developing countries such as China and India is done by inefficient and unregulated backyard operators. The environmentally harmful practice of heating electronic circuit boards over coal-fired grills to leach out gold is widespread in both countries.

The report called for regulations for collecting and managing electronic waste, and urged that technologies be transferred to the industrializing world to cope with such waste.

While electrical products such refrigerators, air conditioners, printers, DVD players and digital music playersaccount for only a small part of the world’s garbage, their components make them particularly hazardous.

Prof. Eric Williams, an Arizona State University expert on industrial ecology who did not participate in the UNEP study, said it was difficult to comment on the credibility of the electronic waste growth forecasts because the report gives little explanation of how they were calculated.

“It is the environmental intensity of e-waste rather than its total mass that is the main concern,” Williams told the AP via e-mail.

“If e-waste is recycled informally in the developing world, it causes far worse pollution than the much larger mass of regular waste in landfills,” he said.

e-Waste in India

e-Waste in West Africa

e-Waste in Ghana

Following the e-Waste trail / From the UK to Africa: donation or disposal of e-waste?

e-Waste is flooding in the world. What can you do about it?

Not all eletronics go to heaven

Student’s initiative

What are the solutions for this situation? Do you know more organisations that are involved in solving this problem? Share with us!

How the landmines affect people’s life and the economy of a country

Land mines are controversial because they remain dangerous after the conflict in which they were deployed, killing and injuring civilians and rendering land impassable and unusable for decades. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines has sought to prohibit their use, culminating in the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, known informally as the Ottawa Treaty. The UN estimates that with current technology, it will take nearly 1,100 years to clear all the mines in the world.

“Unlike other weapons of war, landmines and unexploded ordnance are unique in that their destructiveness is indiscriminate, and long outlasts the conflicts for which they were used. They endanger generation after generation of civilians, especially children. Years after the battle is fought and over, landmines remain hidden in  fields, forests, roads and footpaths — until someone treads unknowingly and triggers a deadly explosion, or a child finds and plays with an unexploded mortar.  The danger of landmines and unexploded ordnance is exacerbated for children, who are intrigued by their sometimes colourful and curious designs. Butterfly mines and cluster bombs hold a fatal attraction for many young children. (UNICEF)

“Anti-personnel mines are designed to kill or injure enemy combatants as opposed to destroying vehicles. They are often designed to injure rather than kill in order to increase the logistical support (evacuation, medical) burden on the opposing force. Some types of anti-personnel mines can also damage the tracks or wheels of armored vehicles.” (Wikipedia)

The impact of landmines in Angola

Landmines leave no visible damage to the environment, but that is not to say that their impact is any less severe than desertification and deforestation in other parts of the world.  Landmines, it could be argued, do not allow man to alter the soil by cutting down trees, extracting minerals, or dumping chemicals. However, by their very nature, landmines are a man made pollutant and adversely alter the environment for future generations. For example, in Angola thousands of miles of riverbanks, and tens of thousands of acres of farmland, pastures, and forest are now unusable. In addition, the landmines have lead to a large migration of people from the countryside to towns and cities. The increased numbers of people in certain parts of the country place a strain on the resources of the land. Areas where refugees have
been forced to move have been stripped of wood and wild game while water supplies have been depleted and contaminated leading to increases in reported cases of dysentery, malaria and cholera. In time the areas will be prone to desertification as the land is further stripped by the refugees in their attempts to survive. (Read more about it)

Under the Ottawa Treaty, signatory countries undertake not to manufacture, stockpile or use anti-personnel mines. As of 2009, it has been signed/accessioned by 156 countries. Thirty-eight states, including the People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation and the United States, are not party to the Convention.” (Wikipedia)

Picture: The signatory countries

List of countries affected by landmines

Read about the 10 most affected countries

Stop landmines.org

The Ottowa Treaty

The Ottowa Treaty or the Mine Ban Treaty, formally the Convention on theProhibition of the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their destruction, completely bans all anti-personnel mines (AP-mines). As of May 2009, there were 156 States Parties to the treaty. Two states have signed but not yet ratified while 37 states are not party to the Convention. In 2009, Rwanda became the first nation claimed to be landmine free.

Which countries have not signed the treaty?

Also check the International Campaign to Ban Landmines