Sustainability in Technology

Technology has made it possible for huge advancements in making our world more sustainable and environmentally friendly. But what about the other way around? Electronic waste or e-waste are discarded electronics or electrical devices that are seen to be near the end of their “use”. The US generated almost 7 billion tons of e-waste in 2019. During that year, only 17% of that e-waste was recycled. The world already has an issue with too much waste and not enough land and electronics and technology apply to that greatly.

Recycling circuit boards can actually be more profitable than mining for valuable metals such as gold or copper. The value of that e-waste that we threw away in 2019 was worth almost 7.5 billion dollars. Just throwing out technology isn’t good for the environment either. Lots of electronics use different types of plastics that often aren’t biodegradable as well as toxic chemicals that hurt the ecosystem. But recycling all of our electronics instead of throwing them away saves more than just money; it saves time too. The waste that the US produces doesn’t even stay in the US. The majority of the US’s e-waste has to be shipped to China to be dumped in landfills and in 2019, between 3.5 and 10 millions tons of e-waste was shipped between countries across the world. This not only creates a dumping problem, but also adds to the use of fossil fuels by transporting that waste around further impacting the environment.

In my basement, there’s a fax machine that my dad uses once a year and refuses to throw away because it’s “sentimental”. For now, it can take up space, but what happens when we want to throw it away? Simply taking it to the dump and throwing it out would be the wrong answer. Actually, in many states, simply throwing out technology is illegal. The Massachusetts government advises contacting retailers and manufacturers who often will take back the electronics to recycling. You can also find people to repair old electronics so that they can function properly again. In Massachusetts you can use the Recycle Search to see what charities and organisations accept old electronics.

If you’re investing in a certain type of electronic, try and do research beforehand to find a model that can maximise long term use. That will not only help the environment but will save money in your pocket as well. Want even more bang for your buck? Sell it! Craigslist and Ebay are great places to sell off something that you no longer want but someone else might. There are tons of ways to sustain the use of your technology, whether by reducing your use of it, reusing it, giving it away or recycling it. The resources are all around us, we just need to step up to use it, activate awareness of it and do our part in “sparking joy” for this earth.