Every year a significant proportion of electronic waste (E-waste) is exported from high-income countries like Canada to lower-income countries. There, e-waste is dismantled, recycled and refurbished in environments where infrastructure, training and environmental and health safeguards may be non-existent. (Source: WHO)
The eye-opening video documentary: Welcome to Sodom - shows how children and adolescents in Agbogbloshie, a waste site in Ghana, dismantle recycled electronics in toxic smoke. Here, a child eating just one local chicken egg will absorb 220 times of the daily limit for intake of chlorinated dioxins.
But there is hope. And it can start with us. This infographic tells the story of E-Waste, from the invention of the telephone, to the story of the first electronics recycling program in Alberta, and to what it will take for a circular future.
Consider these for faithful living
- Use the gadget you already have for as long as possible.
- Purchase used or refurbished electronics before purchasing new. More importantly, ask yourself: Do you really need that extra gadget? Do you really need to upgrade?
- Sell or swap unwanted electronics before recycling.
- Know where to recycle electronics in your community or to donate used electronics to social programs.
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