Soil Pollution

Another study of such landfill found wind patterns disperse toxic particles across the region near to it. Such areas are at-risk due to the toxins entering the “soil-crop-food pathway,” which is one of the most common ways that heavy metals enter the human body.

Information Security

In addition to being a risk to the environment, e-waste also poses a potential security threat to both individuals and businesses. If a hard drive is not properly erased before it’s thrown away, it can be opened, potentially putting sensitive information in the hands of the wrong people. Credit card numbers, financial data and bank account information can all be obtained by those trained to do so.

There is a surplus of e-waste due to the technological advancement (which renders electronics as obsolete in a short period of time) and the urge of the so-called ‘modern-day’ consumers to buy new products more often than required. All these have led to the million units of electronic scrap being discarded every year and sadly the number will only have an increasing trend in the coming years (UNEP has estimated a 500% rise in old computers). An estimated 50 million tons of E-waste are produced each year. The USA discards 30 million computers each year and 100 million phones are disposed of in Europe each year. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that only 15–20% of e-waste is recycled, the rest of these electronics go directly into landfills and incinerators