Question

Why is e-waste harmful? Express your opinion about this?

Answer 1

Hint:The modern use of electronics increases every day; we come across many different and innovative gadgets and stop using the old one. This leads to the increase in the e-waste and it is very harmful to the environment or we can say it is hazardous to the living organism.

Complete answer:
To answer this question, we have to know e-waste. E-waste stands for electronic wastes of electronic products and is not working. The electronic products like VCRs, televisions, stereos, fax machines, computers, copiers, and other electronic items.
So, the problem about the e-waste is their disposal as the e-wastes are dangerous because of toxic chemicals that leach from the metals naturally. The electronic products contain toxic materials like beryllium, mercury, lead, and cadmium which cause very serious effects on the environment to the water, soil, air, and wildlife. The e-waste when buried at any landfill dissolves as microscopic traces inside the sludge and permeates to the landfills. Then through the leaching process these toxic materials pools below the landfills to the ground. This leaching of toxic materials also affects the nearby water bodies as the toxic substance gets mixed with the water under the landfill and this water continues to the groundwater and mix with the freshwater in the nearby area. This water is used by the humans through wells not only humans even the wildlife near the water source get affected and sometimes it is dangerous to life.
Therefore, minimizing e-waste is very important. To meet this objective the mantra of reduce, reuse, and recycle should be applied; reduce the use by smart procurement and good maintenance, reuse the equipment by selling and donating to someone in need, and recycle the products that cannot be repaired by avoiding their deposition in regular garbage.

Note:Not only the toxic materials even some of the devices are made up of plastics and we all know that plastics are very harmful to the environment as they are non-biodegradable or may take millions of years to get degraded.