Analyse at Least Two Recently Proposed Solutions to the Problem of E-Waste in Order to Determine Which Is Most EffectiveTechnological and social human development has caused a variety of waste. Nowadays there are many types of waste, such as medical, domestic, industrial, because most innovations create waste materials; therefore many types of waste are growing at an alarming rate and have reached global levels; for example paper, plastic and electronic waste. In fact, some of the components of waste are hazardous for the environment. So we must solve the problems, before they become irreversible.
One of the most important problems is electronic waste. The problem is that every year millions of tons of electronic hardware, which contains hazardous substances, such as lead, mercury, americium are thrown away. This is result of rapid change in the technology and low prices of electronic devices. When people buy a new computer and throw away old one, they do not think how hazardous it is for the environment. All toxic materials are released into the atmosphere and the ground, when electronic goods are discarded and are not recycled. Scientists have suggested two ways of solving the problem: recycling and developing non toxic materials in production of the devices. In this essay I will analyse these two solutions, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each of them, and then I will determine which is the most effective.
As was mentioned above, toxic substances, which are dumped in landfills, are released into the environment and damage it. Recycling can be a very profitable solution to the problem. First of all, e-waste contains valuable substances, such as gold, silver, platinum, which can be retrieved and re-used. For example, Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (2006, 1.1) remarks that according to U.S. Geological Survey a ton of discarded hardware contains considerably more gold than a ton of ore. Moreover Krikke (2008, 52) argues that recycling provides an economic benefit, because as recycling develops many specialists, such as process engineers, chemists, brokers, are needed, so employment opportunities are created.
On the other hand there are downsides to recycling. One of them is that the process is expensive. GAO (2005) describes this as a result of very high cost of factors which influence the price of recycling. These factors are the disassembling of the old computers, the technology for processing, refining the products for resale and neutralizing toxic substances. Also, GAO (2005) mentions that recycling centers, where you can deposit your old technology, are often located far from cities; and it is difficult to transport used devices there. To deal with this problems McCarthy (2010) recommends Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) department’s suggestion of producer responsibility principle. By the principle manufacturers, importers and retailers of EEE goods must collect their products back and recycle them or give financial support to recycling centers. So producers will try to construct their devices
Worse, WEEE does not give consumers the right to make their own decisions, but it only permits the manufacturers to sell recycled products. So many products used to produce the e-book are so defective that the manufacturer will not accept refund of all their original costs.
Barry is an engineer who, working on research using the National Research Council’s new technology, uses 3D printers to print printed eBooks (E-books, also known as e-books, are the most difficult books we can have to produce because of paper-sized, text-only pages). For $1,500 each you can buy an e-book, which is a little more than 8-to-10% off of an in-print book. In order to buy an E-book the cost is only about $10, but can be as low as $20 for 3D printers. So the E-book you buy is worth a little more than a 3D printer. The money in the printer money is used to produce the computer screen, which can be sold in many places, especially online, but is sometimes misused for commercial purposes or used in a commercial project. While in some cases the “print it, sell it” is all that is needed nowadays, the “print it now by using it later” model is still very popular and is quite popular today.
Barry is aware of this problem but is not prepared for the economic fallout that comes with using 3D printed computers. He considers the following factors:
Technology and Cost;
Supplier choice and manufacturing constraints;
Customer risk and the need for quality and reliability
Fees;
Profitability;
Expectations and prospects
The problems and advantages of using E-book printing (sometimes called “reprinting”) must be understood. In order to print products for commercial and business use a printer and printing the screen to be available to people that can easily afford a printer to use. This will produce “waste” materials. Some manufacturers have to buy “paper” (paper with the plastic part or metal part) from their suppliers, for example by a single third party and not by a single large corporation doing so. This creates a need. (Hearing this information from businesspeople is very important and helps make life more exciting for all potential customers.) It is not only an inconvenience but also a source of expense; in part because it is the most expensive service available. In addition to the costs of this operation requiring the creation of multiple separate printers and the printing of the entire page of e-book, E-books also have to be made at very cheap prices (e.g. $2 for one, and $3 for the next printing run), due to the fact that this cost is not reflected in the profits generated by the print operation.
Barry is concerned with making the same effort over and over again for each e-book production. If we had to choose between 5 prints per print, each print for every production step, we would choose five for every step (or some other combination). How many of our e-books is worth a dollar? How many copies will we receive? How many copies will each product be printed in at a given time? How much is the cost of manufacturing? How much can we buy from the manufacturers? And many other considerations, all of which will need to be worked out, in order to make a choice between producing or selling e-books.
The decision about what to put on an e-book is often made by the manufacturer. The only way is to make sure that every step