Small individual choices can add up to big results for environment
Print Edition
The average mobile phone has a lifespan of two years, TVs 10 years and PCs seven years, according to information from some environment organizations. Every year, obsolete consumer electronics add up to around 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste, a term referring to discarded electronic products.
The components that make up electronic products are toxic and can have devastating impacts on humans and the natural world. It is therefore important that we as consumers are all aware of the choices we make.
What do you do with your old mobile phone, computer or TV when it is time to upgrade? Many of us will dispose of such products and never give them a second thought.
Fortunately, recent environmental campaigns have highlighted the problems associated with e-waste. This in turn has led some larger producers of electronic goods to make pledges to change their manufacturing processes and to use less toxic components. Some manufacturers have also announced ambitious take-back schemes that allow consumers to return their old electronics for recycling.
If we, as consumers, are aware of such issues and start supporting “green” products, manufacturers will respond and make changes to meet our new demands.
In our school, the Environmental Group is made up of students who are committed to drawing attention to such issues. Our mission is to raise awareness of pressing threats to the local and global environment and show how everyone can contribute to change. We regularly hold events informing students, parents and teachers about important environmental issues and the actions that individuals can take.
As a Shanghai Roots & Shoots Club and a supporter of the Million Tree Project, one of our most successful environmental campaigns to date has been a plastic bottle recycling campaign. This had led to a decrease in plastic waste (within our community) equal to around eight to ten bin bags per week on average.
This demonstrates that we can all be part of the solution not the problem, and we should all do our part, however big or small that is.
(Guillermo Carrasco is a Year 12 student at the British International School Shanghai, Pudong.)
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