Week 14: electronic waste

……Jennifer Gabrys has pointed towards the complexitites of this new metamorphic economy, and its material, persisting nature: ‘recycling does not remove remainder or wastage; instead, it displaces and transforms waste….

 I felt really uncomfortable while I was reading ‘Electronic waste’.  I worried about our environment but also involved in the situation that I was also making the electronic waste. Then, do I not I buy the electronics? That isn’t possible. However, I could save the environment if I buy things that I really need them and use them for long time regardless of fashion.

In addition, U.S.A. needs a state level system like South Korea to save the environment. The South Korean government enforced the ‘volume-rate garbage system’ and recycling from 1995, before I came to America. I felt guilty when I threw away recyclables, such as papers, glass bottles and aluminum cans after I was living here, because I already grew a habit of assorting recycling in the trash. I was pleased that my subdivision district recommended neighbors to join the recycling system several years later. 

I was shocked that I had to trash broken electronics in America. Why don’t Americans fix and reuse broken things? The reason is that labor charge is very expensive in America, and usually products are made from China where the labor cost is cheap.  People in Korea can get after service from each electronics companies when electronics are broken.  That service could help people not only saving money but also saving environment. I wish the government provide many systems to save our environment.