Where Does Your Electronic Waste Go?

All electronic waste is made up of deadly chemicals such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, mercury and brominated flame retardants. Disposing of gadgets and devices improperly increases the chances of these dangerous chemicals contaminating the soil, polluting the air and leaching into water bodies.

When e-waste is deposited in a landfill, it tends to leach when water passes through it picking up trace elements. After which the contaminated landfill water reaches natural groundwater with increased toxic levels, this can be harmful if it enters any drinking water bodies.

Despite having an eco-friendly approach, recycling usually leads to overseas shipping and dumping the gadgets which are buried in pits. Worse still is the fact that some recycling companies ship e-waste to third world countries and disguise it as philanthropy.

A lot of children in such countries earn their livelihoods by scavenging gold, silver, iron, and copper from the tech waste which is harmful to their health. Countries that are used as dumping grounds usually have high rates of cybercrime as the salvaged hard drives can give criminals direct access to your personal files and information.