My Final Thoughts about my Final Essay

As I completed my paper, it dawned on me just how much our environment is affected by the e-waste generated by our society. Our culture is so used to throwing things away that we do not even consider the environmental effects. I think we don't necessarily "see" the effects happening, therefore we don't take them into consideration. Facilities that burn or improperly dispose of e-waste are severely polluting the earth's atmosphere. Some of the chemicals that Slade mentions in his book are rediculous. I had to look most of them up to see what they actually were and how they affect the air and ourselves. One of the main chemicals burned cause skin diseases and infertility! Yet, it boggles my mind that people are still allowed to dispose of electronics that way. It is all done for financial purposes of course. What isn't these days? The whole reason for technological obsolescence is to increase finances within companies and manufacturers. Our economy is essesntially driven by the constant flow of new products arriving on the market. Without them, our economy would be in a wirse state than it already is. Yet, with so much new technology, goes all that old technology. And where is it going? Into landfills across the world. It is poisoning our soils, polluting our waters and toxifying our air. Slowly but surely, the environmental effects that e-waste has on our planet will be so bad that people will have to consider a new way of living. We all want the newest electronics, yet we don't consider what we do with our old ones. So next time you throw away a cell phone, make sure you use a recycling program that you know will be environmentally friendly.