Essay writing 2nd Draft

The population size of China was 1.344 billion in 2012; 1.155 billion mobile-phones were sold in China in that year (“Global mobile statistics 2013”). By doing a simple calculation, about 85.9% of the entire population owned the mobile-phones. This number convincingly proves that the proliferation of the technology is unprecedentedly fast in today’s world. It is also undeniable that such technology has provided great convenience to the human being, but meanwhile, millions of tons of electronic wastes are generated, which contribute to the environmental pollution and human health issues significantly. Therefore, the Chinese government needs to take some actions to ameliorate such condition.

Wastson (2013), stated that according to United Nations’ data, about 70% of electronic wastes globally generated ended up in China. Guiyu, one of the town in Guangdong province. It has been a major hub for the disposal of e-waste. This problem seems to be getting more and more severe which requires the local governments to have some regulations on it. In the same article, it is stated that “the Chinese government had some success regulating e-waste disposal with a ‘Home Appliance Old for New Rebate Program,’ which was tested from 2009 to 2011” (para. 42).  However, this is not good enough. The government should encourage local electronic product companies to recycle the old electronic devices and raise people’s awareness of the negative impacts from e-waste.

Recycling is actually a huge project, which requires a lot of efforts to be put in. The local government of Guiyu should advocate recycling amount all the electronic companies. The companies could set up a few recycle points for the local citizens to throw away their unwanted or spoiled old electronic equipment such as computers, cell phones, washing machines. Then, the companies can reuse some of the components for testing, invention purposes. However, by doing so, more works need to be done by the companies. They have to put extra efforts and time to dismantle all the devices they have recycled. The companies might not have the interests to launch such recycling program base on the profitability. So, the role of the government here is crucial. The government can probably provide some pecuniary incentives to the companies, which cover the extra efforts and time for dismantling the recycled devices.

According to Lu (2008), Greenpeace volunteer Lai Yun conducted a survey in Guiyu Town. Eighty percent of the town's 150,000 inhabitants are engaged in the business of dismantling electrical junk. The 52-square-kilometer town not only disposes of domestic electronic garbage, but also imports waste from abroad. From the statistics, it can be concluded that the amount the e-waste is incredibly huge, which heavily affects the environmental and people living condition. Another method to reduce the electronic junks over there is that setting up a few more electronic disposal points in other parts of China. The e-waste condition in Guiyu will then be improved. However, the root cause is not really solved, the total amount of e-waste remains the same.

It is important to let people know the negative impacts of e-waste. Otherwise, people are lack of intention to do recycling. Therefore, the local government in Guiyu should conduct some events or campaigns, which help people get to know more about e-waste. One of the example is the Greenpeace campaign in Europe. Peoples who has attended campaign might know the benefits from recycling e-waste. So, people are encouraged the do recycling by the campaigns like that. The government in Guiyu could also hold similar campaigns for their citizen. The function of the campaign acts like an auxiliary to recycling. With more people know the benefits of the recycling and harm of e-waste, recycling will be much more efficient.

In conclusion, the government has already done something to control e-waste, but it is far less than good. The current condition in Guiyu is still awful. Of course the problem of e-waste cannot be solved in a short time, the entire society should work together as a whole, treat this problem seriously. Otherwise, it is hard to say that the world will not become the one in the movie of “Wall-E”, a world, full with garbage.




Reference:

Lu, R. (2008, Jan 8) China Today: The problem of E-waste. Retrieved Oct 12, 2013 from http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/238544.htm

Mobithinking (2013, May) Global mobile statistics 2013 Part A: Mobile subscribers; handset market share; mobile operators. Retrieved from Oct 14, 2013 from http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats/a

Watson, I. (2013, May 31) China: The electronic wastebasket of the world. Retrieved Oct 13, 2013 from http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/30/world/asia/china-electronic-waste-e-waste/index.html


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