Incineration of Electronic Waste and its Dangers

Most of the electronic waste in the United States, TVs, computers, cell phones, iPods etc… that we discard is not recycled. Most of it goes to landfills or are incinerated. According to the EPA Only 16% of e-waste was recycled in 2007. About 60 to 80 % of the 16% is shipped to poorer countries for recycling. In these countries a lot of it ends up being incinerated also.


Incinerating e-wast is one of the worst things we can do to the environment. Burning e-waste releases toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury, and lead into the environment. These heavy metals are known to cause serious central nervous system damage, birth defects, kidney damage and respiratory problems. If the electronics being incinerated contain PVC Plastic, highly toxic dioxin and furans are also released into the air. If the e-waste contains Brominated flame retardants it produces brominated dioxins and furans when burned, which has been shown to produce cancer in animals.


In the United States burning e-waste is the largest source of cancer producing dioxins and is also the largest source of heavy metal contamination. The heavy metals that are released into the atmosphere can accumulate and enter the food chain. For example mercury can accumulate in fish and when we eat fish we are exposed to mercury and its dangers.


Most of the burning takes place in a contained space in US. But in most of the countries where e-waste is shipped for recycling such as India, Ghana, Indonesia, and even China the technology is just not there. Electronic waste is burned in the open air. All those highly toxic materials are released into the atmosphere.


Incineration of electronic waste should be the last resort and should be at a minimum if not completely banned. When we release these hazardous chemicals into the environment we are taking a big risk. Some of these toxic chemicals are known to be persistent and accumulative so we don’t know what the long term effects are going to be. Certainly what is happening in places such as Guiyu, China which I call the e- waste capital of the world is evidence enough. This town in China with an alarming rate of miscarriages in women and with the highest level of lead in children's blood brings home the bleak reality.


Improper electronic waste recycling, especially incineration of e waste poses a grave danger to public health as well as to the ecology. Hopefully the EPA will step in soon and give strict guidelines and pass strong laws on electronic disposal that will limit activities that will damage the environment and all of life on the planet any further. For Further reading of this issue and what to do about it go to Recycling Electronics.