Electronic Waste
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Category: General
Forum Name: GREEN Forum
Forum Description: Anything related to the environment, that can educate people to be more friendly to the environment. Remember we only have one livable planet , so far.
URL: https://www.islamicity.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13027
Printed Date: 21 November 2024 at 1:00pm
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Topic: Electronic Waste
Posted By: love
Subject: Electronic Waste
Date Posted: 22 August 2008 at 10:00pm
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Asalaamu Alaykum dear brothers and sisters, Many of the places where electronic waste is dumped occurs in Muslim lands, believe it or not. Please consider re-using electronic equipment or fixing it before buying a new one. Everything from discarded video games to compact discs and older model television sets are finding their way around the globe in countries too poor not to accept payment for using their land as our dumping ground. What we use and "throw away" we are responsible for because Allah subhan wa ta'Allah has created us as care takers of the land. How are we full filling this role in our own lives? Electronic waste is now illegal to dump in California and like batteries, your VCR or DVD player has to be recycled. It has become a growing problem for developed countries like the U.S., as toxins from electronic waste can leach into our ground water supply. San Jose, California(home of Silicon Valley) has the worlds largest Superfund sites in the world. Superfund sites are considered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as areas of land that are too toxic for anyone to enter. Most of these leachates released are hazardous to the health of infants and pregnant mothers. The toxins severely impair the nervous system of the developing fetus. Those of us who are blessed to be living in America where our water is clean and laws like the Clean Water Act help to ensure it is safe for us to drink have to think of those who are not as fortunate. Imagine what is happening to children and mothers of poorer nations who don't have the infrastructure to set laws and regulate levels of toxicity in their ground water supply. Please consider the choices you make when you are shopping for electronics. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is a leader and an environmental "watch-dog" based out of San Jose, California and is taking a tour of India, one of the places where our electronics ends up at the end of their life cycle. SVTC will monitor the health effects of the workers in India and report on how the hazardous materials are being handled. To stay updated please view the link below on SVTC's progress. Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:55:31 -0500 From: [email protected] < ="Content-" content="text/; charset=unicode"> < name="Generator" content="Microsoft Safe">
http://www.etoxics.org/site/R?i=edGZLq292G0bHRweojV75Q..">
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Replies:
Posted By: Ron Webb
Date Posted: 23 August 2008 at 7:01am
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I recently put a box of discarded computer parts into my garbage bin to be taken to our local landfill. Believe me, I tried to find an alternative but there just wasn't one. There are four or five sites in Winnipeg that are supposed to be accepting hazardous and toxic waste, but when I checked their Web sites I found that they all have very specific rules for what they will and will not take. Some only take whole units (not components), some only obsolete equipment in working condition, etc. I couldn't find a single one that looked like it would accept my box.
Furthermore, they operate on very restricted hours and/or are many miles from my home, which means that I would have to burn several litres of gas to get there -- trading one form of pollution for another -- only to find that they probably wouldn't accept my box after all. Even if they did accept it, I suspect they would have only taken it to the dump themselves. Proper recovery of e-waste (extracting the hazardous chemicals for reuse) costs money, and I don't think any of them were set up for it.
It seems to me that too many governments are wasting their time nagging their citizens about being "green" while failing to actually provide proper recycling programs. In other words, talk is cheap. ------------- Addeenul �Aql � Religion is intellect. |
Posted By: love
Date Posted: 24 August 2008 at 12:40am
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Hello Ron, Thank you for your comment and I understand your frustration. I do agree that e-waste recycling has yet to be made more convenient for consumers, but the ultimate responsibility is ours. It is our responsibility to make sure our governments, public officials, and the businesses that our money goes to are held accountable for their actions or inaction. Many of the drop off locations don't extract the hazardous waste on site, which is why less developed countries are over flowing with our IBMs and iPods where children extract the re-usable parts (like copper) meanwhile being exposed to lead and mercury. There has to be a global wake up call to the amount of stuff we accumulate in our consumer driven societies. We may have to just make the sacrifice and not buy products that the company won't take back for repairs or recycle its parts at the end of that product's life-cycle. There has to be enough people requesting this service in order for it to happen and I believe it's possible. If we can send a man on the moon...we certainly can tackle this task. We have to bare that burden of writing a letter, making a phone call to our representatives, attending a city council or town hall meeting and in the process getting our communities involved in order to find solutions. What are we leaving the next generation with if we can't show them that there's hope for a resolution to problems? Some states in the U.S. don't even offer e-waste recovery programs yet. You are lucky to live in an area that has a website and locations for different regions that residents can drop off their e-waste. (I'll post it at the bottom of this message in case others visiting this thread from your area are interested. Maybe they live closer to one of the drop off sites.) What I do is keep my electronic junk until there's enough for me to make a trip so that I'm not wasting fuel to recycle just a couple of batteries. I've asked co-workers, classmates, friends/neighbors in the past if they can recycle some items that my drop off site won't take. I once asked my professor if battery recycling was offered in their town (which they did offer). I was glad to get rid of my old batteries finally, and I slept better that night. My point is that there has to be a collective effort. "And that human can have nothing but what he does (good or bad), and that his deeds will be seen." (An-Najm 53: 39-40) "Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves." (Ar-Ra'ad 13:11) City of Winnipeg: How to get rid of your household hazardous waste E-Waste Roundup 2008 Depot Contact Information (drop off schedule) http://www.greenmanitoba.ca/cim/dbf/e-waste_depots_2008_v2.pdf?im_id=305&si_id=1001 |
Posted By: love
Date Posted: 28 August 2008 at 3:37pm
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Posted By: Ron Webb
Date Posted: 29 August 2008 at 7:27pm
Thanks love, but I have already seen those links. As I said, most of the depots listed only accept a limited number of categories of e-waste. None of them specifically include components and many of them are for whole units only. In addition, many of them are open only during normal working hours -- and I'm sorry, but I am not taking time off work, driving halfway across the city only to find out that they either won't take the stuff or will simply toss it in the trash themselves. ------------- Addeenul �Aql � Religion is intellect. |
love wrote: