Mining precious metals is expensive and environmentally destructive. As an alternative, researchers are increasingly eyeing recycling old smartphones, computers and other electronics.
Most of us have accumulated a stash of old devices, chargers and cables that sit forgotten in our homes.
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Maine and Oregon have enacted laws that require makers of consumer product packaging to pay for recycling or disposing of it. Will other states follow?
Electronic waste should be properly dismantled and recycled
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Technical advances are reducing the volume of e-waste generated in the US as lighter, more compact products enter the market. But those goods can be harder to reuse and recycle.
On the outskirts of Accra there are huge electronic waste disposal sites, known locally as Sodoma and Gomorra.
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Despite knowing how harmful it can be, companies and businesses (primarily those in Europe and the US) target countries in the Gulf of Guinea as a dump for their toxic waste.
Apple’s newest release comes without a wall charger and earpods. While the shift could reduce the company’s carbon footprint, users shifting to wireless charging will use more energy.
Sites like Agbogbloshie provides a valuable service. They offer opportunities for job creation, profit and cleaning up environments littered with waste.
A discarded Juul on the floor of a San Francisco streetcar March 20, 2018.
Julia McQuoid
E-cigarettes are hotly debated because of the uncertainty of whether they are a gateway to cigarette smoking for teens, or an aid to smoking cessation. One thing is clear: They are not biodegradable.
A foldable, biodegradable battery based on paper and bacteria opens a new opportunity in electronics.
Seokheun Choi/Binghamton University
Seokheun Choi, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Paper-based devices with foldable, biodegradable batteries provide a new way to reduce electronic waste. But how would these new gadgets work?
Agbogbloshie, an area in the city of Accra Ghana, is usually portrayed as an e-waste dump. A more accurate picture would include the repair and refurbishment economy.
Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform
Lecturer at Lancaster University Management School, and Associate Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business Research Centre., Lancaster University