Adinda Putri Hariani

1406569232
E-Waste Should Be Treated Properly
Today, electronic gadget have very important role. Electronic gadget have
purpose to make our live easier. And right now, electronic gadget have attend in
every single activity of human, from waking up from sleep until back to sleep.
Moreover, electronic gadget keep developing for every single day. New kind of
gadget always come up and new feature ready to replace the old one. When the
old gadget is replaced and become unused, what is it become? It become waste.
The waste from electronic gadget is called electronic waste or e-waste. So, what
is e-waste? E-waste is term used to describe old, end of life electronic
appliances, such as- computer VCRs, DVD players, mobile phones, fax machines
laptop, mp3 players, etc. which have been disposed by their original user
(Ritu&Shalini,2013;1). Since technology develop incredibly fast, the amount of ewaste also increase very fast. Tanya Lewis in article World's E-Waste to Grow
33% by 2017, Says Global Report said that the world produced nearly 54
million tons (49 million metric tons) of used electrical and electronic products in
2012. That was a fantastic amount, and as we can see in our real live the
number is keep growing. E-waste is absolutely become a serious problem.
Though e-waste have to be removed, still it can not be treated carelessly. Ewaste should be treated in a proper way because it can harm human health and
environment, also can bring some benefit.
E-waste can harm human health because it made from hazardous
materials. Electronic gadget mostly build from plastics and metals. Those
materials can harm human health because it is toxic. Metals which used to make
electronic gadget are heavy metal like lead, chromium, mercury, cadmium, etc.
and each of them have its own health risk. The health effects of lead are well
known; lead exposure causes brain damage in children and has already been
banned from many consumer products. And if Cadmium accumulates in the
human body and poisons the kidneys. And for mercury, Mercury is toxic in very
low doses, and causes brain and kidney damage. It can be passed on through
breast milk; just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury can contaminate 20 acres of a
lake, making the fish unfit to eat. Those metals also can cause cancer and
dysfunction of human organs. Because it is harmful for human, e-waste should
be distant from human. Especially children, because children is more fragile than
adults. Though e-waste should be distant from us, we can throw it away
carelessly.
We can not throw away e-waste carelessly because e-waste can harm
environment. Electronic gadgets materials not only harmful for human health
but also environment. One of most materials that used in electronic gadget are
plastics. Plastics are difficult to decomposed in ground and can take even
hundred years to unite with ground. Muhammad Syamsiro in Bahaya Sampah
Elektronik dan Pengolahannya from olahsampah.com said that plastic,
especially PVC which contain chlorine is dangerous, because like everybody
know that chlorine is dangerous for health, and it takes many years to unite with

ground. The method to treat e-waste is still not safe for environment. The
methods are landfilling and incinerator. Landfill is the method where e-waste is
burried under ground. This methode is dangerous for environment because when
we burrying e-waste, the toxin which e-waster contained will be contaminated
the soil, then the soil will be unfertil. After that, the soil also can contaminated
ground water and river. Though this fact, still landfillling is the most common
method to treat e-waste. The other method is incinerator. Burning the e-waste
may disappeared the e-waste, but not the heavy metals. The heavy metals
dissolved with the smoke and spread in the air. So, the air polluted with heavy
metal and get in while people inhale. Therefore, landfilling and incinerator is not
the best way to treat e-waste.
So, electronic gadget become e-waste when it is already unused, though is
still in a good condition. If that so, we dont have to throw it away. We can sell it
and earn some money. But, if our gadget really broken, we cant help but get rid
of it. In Indonesia, there are not any system about treating e-waste yet. But in
developed country, the recycle of e-waste become government and
manufacturer responsilibilities. Electronic gadget users just have to send his or
her unused electronic gadget to the store, recycle site, or manufacturer. Then the
recycler of manufacturer will do the recycle. From the recycle the metal can be
retrieved again and used to make new electronic gadget. The metals that used
for electronic gadget are not just heavy metals but also precious metal like gold
and copper. So, by recycling e-waste not only reduce the risk of health and
environment but also avoid wasting precious metals. Recycling also reduce the
amount of e-waste.
Therefore, e-waste become problem to society because e-waste endanger
health and environment. The most of e-waste materials are plastics and metals.
The metals which contained in e-waste are heavy metals like mercury,
chromium, cadmium, selenium, etc. which harmful to human health. They are
toxic and can cause cancer and dysfunction of human organs. Then e-waste also
contain materials that can pollute land, water, and air. E-waste can pollute soil
and water while e-waste is treated by landfilling method. In lanfilling method, ewaste is burried underground then contaminated the soil and water. While in
incinerator method, the heavy metal from e-waste will dissolve with smoke which
spread through air. The the heavy metal will get into human body while people
inhale. And the best way to treat e-waste by resell it and recycle. In developed
country, recycle is done by government or manufacturer. By recycling, the
materials from e-waste, especially metals and precious metals can be reused to
make new electronic gadgets. If Indonesia want to free from e-waste problem,
government shoul follow example from developed country because e-waste
treatment can be done by any people. If common people doing e-waste recycle it
can endanger his or herself, because the recycle only can be done by the experts
using machines and chemicals. And also people should buy and use electronic
equipment wisely.
References:
Lewis, Tanya.(2013, December 15).World's E-Waste to Grow 33% by 2017, Says
Global
Report.Retrieved
December
4,
2014
from

http://www.livescience.com/41967-world-e-waste-to-grow-33-percent2017.html
Ritu, S., & Shalini, A. (2013, August). Environmental Waste: Environmental Health
Problems in India. Indian Streams Reserach Journal, 4.
Syamsiro, Mochamad.(2013, April 11).Bahaya Sampah Elektronik dan
Pengolahannya.Retrieved December 4, 2014 from
http://olahsampah.com/index.php/manajemen-sampah/55-bahayasampah-elektronik-dan-pengolahannya-harian-pikiran-rakyat-11-april-2013