E-waste

For the sake of poor countries such as Nigeria, China, and India E-waste is a problem in need of crucial reformation. Waste from cell phones, computers, and other electronics have been dumped off prom larger countries such as the U.S ,Europe, and Japan in to poor rural parts of poorer countries. In attempts to cut costs for recycling agency's in the U.S they smuggle their excess of materials too expensive to recycle into poorer countries. These poor countries villages are filled with large amounts on electronic waste. Waste that contains large amounts of lead and mercury which seeps in to the ground, in to the water, and ultimately in to the bodies of the people living in that community. The workers who work with the waste often burn hazardous materials with no protective gear, and use make shift tools which are often dangerous to work with. It is vital that we listen to the agreements made my the Basel Convention and stop dumping our hazardous waste on to poor countries.
Obviously, the tracking of smuggling to foreign countries is a hard thing to do. Especially when people can be paid to look the other way. That is why in my opinion it is important to deal with the problem in our own countries. We should have a tax in all the states that is set aside for the proper recycling of electronic products. We need to refurbish and reuse all electronic parts that can be reused. Furthermore, the electronics companies need to start building computers that allow easier reuse of the internal parts. As for the parts that can only be thrown away, we need to start making them out of materials that can be recycled. For the sake of our planet, we need to start thinking of suppling environmentally safe products that can easily be recycled, and longer lasting products so they don't need to be replaced so often opposed to only thinking of profit.
I used to not really think about the cell phone, or computer that i threw away or recycled. Figuring that it was just going to be properly managed by the government. You can rely on no one but yourself, it truly is up to us to fix this problem. I will try to think twice about whether I really need that new phone. Most importantly though, I will make sure that i send my used electronics to a place that will properly reuse or recycle my used products.