E waste produced in 2014 included 3 3 million short tons 3 million metric tons of computers cell phones and other information technology equipment 10
devices such as computers The total amount has been growing each year Asia produces most of that waste followed by the Americas and Europe But on a per person basis both Europe and the Americas lead in producing e waste Their citizens produce four to five times as much e waste per person as people living in Asia E waste production will continue to increase Extracting its materials for reuse and providing jobs for workers will become more and more important The countries that are best suited to recycle e waste are those that need the raw materials most Those countries are developing countries such as China and India which are manufacturing the world's electronic products and building their own cities Those products buildings highways and electric systems need the steel copper and aluminum in e waste However the technology of recycling e waste and building greener products must be developed to make recycling safer The responsibility for this rests on both developed and developing nations Many existing laws are meant to force countries that produce e waste to find ways to safely recycle it In the coming years nations will have to cooperate to solve this growing problem
Chapter TWO WHAT IS E WASTE E waste is defined in different ways The strictest definition of e waste includes only devices with electronic circuits Electronic circuits have parts in them that control the flow of electricity such as transistors or integrated circuits which are commonly called chips The electronic parts contain dangerous materials but also valuable ones such as gold and silver Another category that can be included under e waste is electric devices Electric devices such as refrigerators or stoves use energy to make things like heat or motion They Chips are used in devices such as computers cell phones game consoles televisions and modems
