Adinda Putri Hariani1406569232

E-Waste Should Be Treated Properly

Today, electronic gadget have very important role. Electronic gadget have purpose to make our live easier. And right now, electronic gadget have attend in every single activity of human, from waking up from sleep until back to sleep. Moreover, electronic gadget keep developing for every single day. New kind of gadget always come up and new feature ready to replace the old one. When the old gadget is replaced and become unused, what is it become? It become waste. The waste from electronic gadget is called electronic waste or e-waste. So, what is e-waste? E-waste is “…term used to describe old, end of life electronic appliances, such as- computer VCRs, DVD players, mobile phones, fax machines laptop, mp3 players, etc. which have been disposed by their original user” (Ritu&Shalini,2013;1). Since technology develop incredibly fast, the amount of e-waste also increase very fast. Tanya Lewis in article ” World's E-Waste to Grow 33% by 2017, Says Global Report” said that “the world produced nearly 54 million tons (49 million metric tons) of used electrical and electronic products in 2012”. That was a fantastic amount, and as we can see in our real live the number is keep growing. E-waste is absolutely become a serious problem. Though e-waste have to be removed, still it can not be treated carelessly. E-waste should be treated in a proper way because it can harm human health and environment, also can bring some benefit.

E-waste can harm human health because it made from hazardous materials. Electronic gadget mostly build from plastics and metals. Those materials can harm human health because it is toxic. Metals which used to make electronic gadget are heavy metal like lead, chromium, mercury, cadmium, etc. and each of them have its own health risk. The health effects of lead are well known; lead exposure causes brain damage in children and has already been banned from many consumer products. And if Cadmium accumulates in the human body and poisons the kidneys. And for mercury, Mercury is toxic in very low doses, and causes brain and kidney damage. It can be passed on through breast milk; just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury can contaminate 20 acres of a lake, making the fish unfit to eat. Those metals also can cause cancer and dysfunction of human organs. Because it is harmful for human, e-waste should be distant from human. Especially children, because children is more fragile than adults. Though e-waste should be distant from us, we can throw it away carelessly.

We can not throw away e-waste carelessly because e-waste can harm environment. Electronic gadget’s materials not only harmful for human health but also environment. One of most materials that used in electronic gadget are plastics. Plastics are difficult to decomposed in ground and can take even hundred years to unite with ground. Muhammad Syamsiro in “Bahaya Sampah Elektronik dan Pengolahannya” from olahsampah.com said that plastic, especially PVC which contain chlorine is dangerous, because like everybody know that chlorine is dangerous for health, and it takes many years to unite with ground. The method to treat e-waste is still not safe for environment. The methods are landfilling and incinerator. Landfill is the method where e-waste is burried under ground. This methode is dangerous for environment because when we burrying e-waste, the toxin which e-waster contained will be contaminated the soil, then the soil will be unfertil. After that, the soil also can contaminated ground water and river. Though this fact, still landfillling is the most common method to treat e-waste. The other method is incinerator. Burning the e-waste may disappeared the e-waste, but not the heavy metals. The heavy metals dissolved with the smoke and

spread in the air. So, the air polluted with heavy metal and get in while people inhale. Therefore, landfilling and incinerator is not the best way to treat e-waste.

So, electronic gadget become e-waste when it is already unused, though is still in a good condition. If that so, we don’t have to throw it away. We can sell it and earn some money. But, if our gadget really broken, we can’t help but get rid of it. In Indonesia, there are not any system about treating e-waste yet. But in developed country, the recycle of e-waste become government and manufacturer responsilibilities. Electronic gadget user’s just have to send his or her unused electronic gadget to the store, recycle site, or manufacturer. Then the recycler of manufacturer will do the recycle. From the recycle the metal can be retrieved again and used to make new electronic gadget. The metals that used for electronic gadget are not just heavy metals but also precious metal like gold and copper. So, by recycling e-waste not only reduce the risk of health and environment but also avoid wasting precious metals. Recycling also reduce the amount of e-waste.

Therefore, e-waste become problem to society because e-waste endanger health and environment. The most of e-waste materials are plastics and metals. The metals which contained in e-waste are heavy metals like mercury, chromium, cadmium, selenium, etc. which harmful to human health. They are toxic and can cause cancer and dysfunction of human organs. Then e-waste also contain materials that can pollute land, water, and air. E-waste can pollute soil and water while e-waste is treated by landfilling method. In lanfilling method, e-waste is burried underground then contaminated the soil and water. While in incinerator method, the heavy metal from e-waste will dissolve with smoke which spread through air. The the heavy metal will get into human body while people inhale. And the best way to treat e-waste by resell it and recycle. In developed country, recycle is done by government or manufacturer. By recycling, the materials from e-waste, especially metals and precious metals can be reused to make new electronic gadgets. If Indonesia want to free from e-waste problem, government shoul follow example from developed country because e-waste treatment can be done by any people. If common people doing e-waste recycle it can endanger his or herself, because the recycle only can be done by the experts using machines and chemicals. And also people should buy and use electronic equipment wisely.

References:Lewis, Tanya.(2013, December 15).World's E-Waste to Grow 33% by 2017, Says Global

Report.Retrieved December 4, 2014 from http://www.livescience.com/41967-world-e-waste-to-grow-33-percent-2017.html

Ritu, S., & Shalini, A. (2013, August). Environmental Waste: Environmental Health Problems in India. Indian Streams Reserach Journal, 4.

Syamsiro, Mochamad.(2013, April 11).Bahaya Sampah Elektronik dan Pengolahannya.Retrieved December 4, 2014 from http://olahsampah.com/index.php/manajemen-sampah/55-bahaya-sampah-elektronik-dan-pengolahannya-harian-pikiran-rakyat-11-april-2013