E-Waste In American Culture

It is a designed routine for Americans: People go to work to make money, go home, sit on the soft, and watch T.V. The advertisement sells the idea of the products you own are out of date. Then people get up, buy the new stuffs, throw away the “outmoded” products, play with the up-to-date products for a while, and go to work again. Most people try not to be left behind, because the culture of Americans, consumption, offers its folks social satisfaction. However, most people have never thought of what the products they throw away can do to the environment. In his article, “Waste,” Wendell Berry argues Americans have become careless about the things they consume and how much they consume; Instead of recycling products that cannot be repaired, …show more content…
Rather than responsibly recycling these electronic products, most of Americans will simply leave these simultaneously toxic and valuable items somewhere. What becomes of all of this e-waste? In the United States, most e-waste is not collected for reuse or recycling: the vast majority is being disposed of in landfills. For example, of the estimated 2.37 million short tons of e-waste collected in 2009 and 2.44 million short tons projected to be collected in 2010, only approximately a quarter is collected for recycling, the remaining three quarters being sent for disposal. As a result of this growing disposal of e-waste, states have begun placing restrictions on landfill use for electronic devices such as CRTs because they contain high levels of lead that leach into and pollute the ground. A portion of the e-waste that is collected for recycling, a significant percentage is shipped to countries that do not have adequate infrastructure to safely recycle e-waste. " Though precise numbers are unavailable, according to a September 2010 Congressional Research Service Report, "it can be estimated that the majority of e-waste collected for recycling is processed abroad, at least to some extent.”