The Khian Sea Waste Disposal Incident

Around the world with the Khian Sea Garbage Barge

This week, we’ll take a look at a historic e-waste incident known as the Khian Sea waste disposal incident. Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Khian Sea ship carried 15,000 tons of municipal ash from the city’s incinerator and embarked on its journey to the Bahamas in August 1986. Over a course of 27 months, the ship traversed the world hoping to find places to dump its load of toxic ash.

A map and timeline of the route taken by the Khian Sea vessel to dispose of the 15,000 tons of Philadelphia waste ash on board (Groff, 2016).

From this event, it was clear that more had to be done regarding e-waste disposal laws, especially internationally. It sparked the creation of the Basel Convention, an international treaty which restricts the flow of hazardous waste between countries.

More importantly, this incident was one of the first to highlight e-waste as a global controversy, as well as the pressing issue of e-waste exportation from developed to developing countries. Next time, we’ll take a look at what this signifies for the global flow of e-waste exports, the global distribution of e-waste and subsequent imbalances in the politics of e-waste.

References

Groff, D. (2016). Tracking the Khian Sea. Philadelphia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 January 2022, from https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/screen-shot-2016-04-18-at-1-03-51-pm/.

A History of E-Waste

E-waste: A rapidly growing problem

The problem of e-waste is a relatively recent pollution issue that truly ballooned in the 20th and 21st century. This is due to its inherent nature—after all, television screens and laptops weren’t a thing in the 1800s!

With the rise of the digital age and technology developments, e-waste levels rose exponentially and continue to grow till the present day.

Global amount of e-waste generated each year (Forti et al., 2020).

It’s clear that the onset of the digital age has exacerbated the problem of e-waste in our society, and that it will only continue to worsen in the coming years.

According to Forti et al. (2020), the global quantity of e-waste is increasing at a worrying rate of nearly 2 Mt per year. This suggests that current recycling activities are failing to keep up with the global growth of e-waste, and that what we’re doing now to tackle e-waste is definitely not enough.

References

Forti V., Baldé C.P., Kuehr R., & Bel G. (2020). The Global E-waste Monitor 2020: Quantities, flows and the circular economy potential. United Nations University (UNU)/United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) – co-hosted SCYCLE Programme, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) & International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), Bonn/Geneva/Rotterdam.

Defining E-Waste

What on earth is e-waste?

To start us off, it’s important to first define what e-waste actually is. Quite simply, e-waste is waste generated from electronic products—things like batteries, gaming consoles, power supplies, and so on. It’s everyday products as mundane as the old iPhone 6 you swapped out for the newest iPhone 13. Electronic waste encapsulates all items of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and its parts that have been disposed of as waste, as long as there is no intent of re-use (Step Initiative, 2014).

To make things simpler, we can divide e-waste into six broad categories as defined by Baldé et al. (2014).

The six e-waste categories (Author, 2022).

I’m sure most of us would find familiar items listed in this diagram. Most of these items are everyday household products that we use (and discard!) frequently. That ancient toaster that doesn’t quite work anymore, or that calculator you only used in primary school and grew out of—all of these can be considered e-waste, once disposed of.

It’s important to classify e-waste into these different categories since each category has a different lifetime profile. To put it more simply, this just means that each category has different economic values, waste quantities, and subsequent environmental and health implications if disposed of inappropriately. As such, the recycling processes and technology associated with each category differ widely. Not all e-waste can be treated in the same way, and it definitely isn’t as easy as pressing Shift+Delete.

In future blog posts, we’ll talk more about how to treat the items in each category as well as the implications of improper e-waste disposal. Stay tuned for more!

References

Baldé, C.P., Wang, F., Kuehr, R., & Huisman, J. (2015). The global e-waste monitor – 2014. United Nations University, IAS – SCYCLE, Bonn, Germany.

Step Initiative. (n.d.). What is e-waste? Retrieved 20 January 2022, from https://www.step-initiative.org/e-waste-challenge.html.

Welcome

E-waste disposal: Not as easy as Shift+Delete

Ever found yourself having to delete multiple files at one go to free up space on your PC?

Shift+Delete. A single keystroke combination is all it takes to delete files from your computer’s memory instantaneously. Convenient, isn’t it? Just pressing two buttons can make your files vanish from existence in the blink of an eye.

If only tackling e-waste, or electronic waste, could be as easy as that. Unfortunately, the growing problem of e-waste pollution continues to plague the world we live in today.

A mountain of discarded computer components (Belkeddar, 2020).

On this blog, I’ll be breaking down the following aspects of e-waste pollution, separated into three main sections:

  1. Origins and causes
  2. Effects and implications
  3. Local and global solutions

The e-waste problem is something that everyone plays a part in—yes, including you right there! You might be reading this post from your computer screen, or perhaps, from your smartphone browser. In the current digital age, we’re all probably guilty of owning a stash of electronic products and contributing to the e-waste problem, however unintentional.

Over the next few weeks, join me on my journey towards understanding the ins and outs of e-waste and becoming more mindful of our e-waste disposal habits. While getting rid of e-waste may never be quite as easy as Shift+Delete, there’s definitely always room for improvement.

References

Belkeddar, M. (2020). What happens to your old laptop? The growing problem of e-waste. Financial Times. Retrieved 16 January 2022, from https://www.ft.com/content/26e1aa74-2261-11ea-92da-f0c92e957a96.