environment
A recipe for disaster: tackling toxic e-waste SASCHA PARE
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f you enjoy baking, you will probably agree that it is easier to weigh all the ingredients out before you start. Line them up in the right quantities and you get a better overview of the process. Of course, what comes out of the oven looks nothing like its individual components – hence the horrified look when people find out how much butter is in that brownie. Electronics, like brownies, are the product of many different ingredients. But have you ever paused to consider exactly what those ingredients might be? And if some of them wreak havoc on ecosystems and the health of local communities? 'Materialism' is an ongoing research project by Studio Drift in Amsterdam, which deconstructs manmade objects into the raw materials needed to manufacture them. The result of each investigation is a cubist sculpture composed of rectangular blocks of materials. A pencil, for instance, was broken
"It takes about 100 kilograms of raw materials to build just one smartphone, excluding the many litres of water and chemicals used in the process"
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down into a simple geometric trio of wood, graphite and paint. Among the familiar objects that Studio Drift artists have “de-produced” are several electronic devices. Smartphones, for example, are made of a myriad of materials forged together by clever design. In fact, it takes about 100 kilograms of raw materials to build just one smartphone, excluding the many litres of water and chemicals used in the process. The artists described the quantity of materials used in electronic items, particularly the amount of plastic and copper in electrical cables, as “startling”. E-waste refers to all the electric and electronic devices we discard. It is the fastest-growing waste stream worldwide. Every year in the UK, each of us throws out a jaw-dropping 25 kilograms – equivalent to 36 iPads – of electronics deemed redundant or out-of-date. This includes large household appliances like fridges and washing machines, as well as smaller equipment like TV screens, toothbrushes, broken cables and toasters. Our insatiable appetite for electronics is starkly illustrated by the fact that, in 2020 alone, Apple released five new phone designs while Samsung released 15. It does not simply boil down to the cravings of crazed consumers. No: electronics are designed to fail. Planned obsolescence is a business strategy to artificially reduce the lifetime and style trends of devices. When they become obsolete, it is often cheaper to replace electronics than to repair them, fueling an endless cycle of consumption and junk. I say junk – that’s not what e-waste is. The metals and other ingredients baked into electronics are valuable enough to provide
