The most interesting thing we did this week was watch a documentary called Terrablight. I had never heard of E-waste before I watched this. I don't know where I thought computers went after we threw them away. I guess I just assumed they ended up in land fills or something. The fact that E-waste is America's fastest growing waste amazed me. We go through technology so quickly and I feel like old computers could be put to a better use than just ending up in places like African lagoons. It was so sad to see those young kids rumaging for scrap metal just to get money and they don't even realize how dangerous it is. We spend all this money on new tvs and computers to have huge gaming conventions just for it to end up in a heap in a developing country.
Another thing that got to me was when the guy was talking about the chemical leak caused by the IBM plant in Endicott NY. The company didn't even care that their carelessness led to people getting cancer and other serious illnesses.
I liked how the documentary incorporated hard facts such as: it takes 530 lbs of fossil fuel to make one computer and that the US generates more E-waste than any other country (this was especially interesting, if anything I thought it would have been China or Japan).
I also thought it was interesting that most of the old technology that ends up in places like Africa came from government agencies.
I wish that there were more recycling plants for computers and E-waste like the one shown in Terrablight.
One of the questions raised in class was can you recycle pens?
I looked it up and you could go through the consuming process of taking pens apart and recycling their parts, but certain parts will still end up in a landfill. However there is a program called Terracycle that will donate 2 cents to the charity of your choice for each marker, pen, pencil, or highlighter you recycle.
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