Title: What is E-waste? Definition and Why It’s Important
Headings: What is E-waste? Definition and Why It’s Important
What is E-waste? Definition and Why It’s Important
Table of Contents
E-waste Defined
E-waste is any electrical or electronic equipment that’s been discarded. This includes working and broken items that are thrown in the garbage or donated to a charity reseller like Goodwill. Often, if the item goes unsold in the store, it will be thrown away. E-waste is particularly dangerous due to toxic chemicals that naturally leach from the metals inside when buried.
List of Common E-waste Items:
Home Appliances
Communications and Information Technology Devices
Home Entertainment Devices
Electronic Utilities
Office and Medical Equipment
Leftover ‘New’ Technology
E-waste Hides Toxic Materials
Leeching Poisons Nearby Water
Mining For New Metals Causes This Too
How You Can Help
E-waste Problems
How Did We Get to This Point?
Is “e-waste” clearly defined?
The Dangers of E-waste
E-waste Disposal
Beyond The Environment – Data Security
How E-waste Results in Data Theft
So why is this important for a business?
Great Lakes Electronics Corporation – E-waste Recyclers

Content: In 1976, Congress first addressed the issue of hazardous waste disposal with the passage of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. This act sets standards for protecting human health and the natural environment from the potential hazards of waste disposal. One of the goals of the law was to ensure the management of waste in an environmentally sound manner. The next major step was the Basel Convention in March 1989, an international treaty designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations and prevent the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less-developed countries. One thing that’s grown significantly since then has been the e-waste recycling industry. This industry has the most proven way of keeping e-waste out of landfills or from being burned in incinerators. The recycling industry has been devoted to taking reusable parts from discarded electronic devices and recycling them for the benefit of local businesses and manufacturers. As the amount of e-waste keeps rising, so has this industry, which today creates hundreds of thousands of jobs across the world by recycling the electronics we no longer want. So much of what’s in e-waste still has value. Circuit boards contain valuable metals like silver, tin, gold, palladium, and copper.