What is e-waste? All those electronic products which are being discarded by the users become e-waste. In short terms the VCR or your old TV Set which you have thrown to your backyard or given to a junk dealer. You can find more information about e-waste in Wikipedia and Greenpeace.
I know that you have never thought about electronic waster or your abandoned VCR or old TV. With regard to VCR and your old black and white TV it is the need of the time to change it into a VCD player or a Color TV. This can be justified but what about frequent changing of your mobile phones, laptops and desktop computers to new ones. With the development of IT industry and emerging trends in the electronic products the time span between the frequency of updating or changing to new equipments / gadgets have become short and it is getting shorter day by day.
Have you ever thought that what happened to your old mobile phone when you upgraded to a new one? You have either abandoned it some where in your home or exchanged it in the electronic or mobile phone store for the new one. It is a fact that the mobile phone companies / electronic stores are striving hard to get rid of their electronic waste.
Just think about your discarding mobile or electronic product before buying the new one. Here are some points you can consider
Maximum utilization of your existing product – Use your existing mobile or electronic product to the maximum, if there is some problem in your mobile or laptop then try to fix it rather than buying a new one.
Till in the later years of 1990 people used to repair their electronic products rather than buying a new one. I have witnessed several times that my elder relatives used to repair their TV rather than buying a new one. Elder people especially the people in previous generation used to repair their equipment and use the electronic / electrical products like TV be used for more than 10 or 15 years. But in this generation things have changed. This generation first of all bought a Color TV then changed it to LCD TV later replaced it with LED TV and at the latest changed it to 3D TV. The new generation is little concerned about the previous models of TV’s which they have replaced with a new one.
Give your old mobile to a near or dear one – Before buying a new mobile or laptop ask your friends or relatives that if they want a mobile which you were using. I am sure that someone will be there who can use it for another couple of years so it will not become an electronic waste at least in near future. Anyway you are going to buy a new mobile so you can give the mobile for free or at a much lower price to someone. It is a fact that the mobile companies will offer a much less value that giving it at a lesser price to your near ones.
Will you use all the features in your new product? Recently i have talked with some of my friends who are IT professionals and using feature rich mobile phones which cost around 30,000 to 40,000 concerned with the usage of mobile phones. I have inquired them regarding which all features they commonly use in their mobile phones and are they using all the features available in the mobile phones. Their reply was quite astonishing, they were using their mobiles phones just for making and receiving calls and to check mails. I have asked them why you are using this mobile when you can do these things in your previous mobile or a mobile which can bought at a lesser cost. Most of my friends have no reply. Some of them have really thought about this fact when i asked this question and realized that they are not utilizing 80% of the resources in their mobile and the money is lost.
Interestingly some friends have disclosed that it is a matter of dignity or pride in owning a feature rich and latest mobile phone.
This type of situation happens when buying new laptops, people are buying laptops just because the existing laptop is lacking some features and you will have not use of those new features in the new laptop. Many children’s ask for new laptop from their parents just because the existing laptop doesn’t have some new age features or the current laptop have some technical problem which can be fixed. Parents used to buy new laptops for their children discarding the existing one. The old laptop tend to become part of electronic waste rather than being used by some other person.
Now India and Indians are least concerned about e-waste or electronic waste. But in near future, one of the biggest environmental concern which will have to be tacked by india will be this electronic waste. Lead, Cadmium, Beryllium are the common chemicals which are contained in these electronic waste will be hazardous to the environment.
It is high time that individuals and government should think about this upcoming menace because all the developed countries are currently facing this dilemma on how and where to dump or dispose this electronic waste.
As a ray of hope some major electronic companies / mobile manufacturers are taking measures to tackle electronic waste by promoting recycling and reusing and coming up with consensus in using same kind of or universal mobile chargers which can be used with all type of mobiles.
Think twice before discarding or abandoning your used electronic items or buying an additional product which you are currently using in your home like another TV or another Refrigerator.
What do you think about this e-waste menace share you views or ideas as comments.
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The traditional retailers and business owners is facing threat from online shopping websites. The increasing online shopping trend in the country especially among the youths has affected the busines of book stores, camera and mobile phone retailers. The e-commmerce business is on the path of prosperity and more and more people irrespective of age is visiting online websites to get their much wanted books and electronic gadgets like mobiles, digital cameras etc. The online retailers are offering more discount than the traditional retailers.