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The Resource High tech trash : digital devices, hidden toxics, and human health, Elizabeth Grossman

High tech trash : digital devices, hidden toxics, and human health, Elizabeth Grossman

Creator
Summary
"The Digital Age was expected to usher in an era of clean production, an alternative to smokestack industries and their pollutants. But as environmental journalist Elizabeth Grossman reveals in this penetrating analysis of high tech manufacture and disposal, digital may be sleek, but it's anything but clean. Deep within every electronic device lie toxic materials that make up the bits and bytes, a complex thicket of lead, mercury, cadmium, plastics, and a host of other often harmful ingredients. High Tech Trash is a wake-up call to the importance of the e-waste issue and the health hazards involved. Americans alone own more than two billion pieces of high tech electronics and discard five to seven million tons each year. As a result, electronic waste already makes up more than two-thirds of the heavy metals and 40 percent of the lead found in our landfills. But the problem goes far beyond American shores, most tragically to the cities in China and India where shiploads of discarded electronics arrive daily. There, they are "recycled"--Picked apart by hand, exposing thousands of workers and community residents to toxics. As Grossman notes, "This is a story in which we all play a part, whether we know it or not. If you sit at a desk in an office, talk to friends on your cell phone, watch television, listen to music on headphones, are a child in Guangdong, or a native of the Arctic, you are part of this story." The answers lie in changing how we design, manufacture, and dispose of high tech electronics. Europe has led the way in regulating materials used in electronic devices and in e-waste recycling. But in the United States many have yet to recognize the persistent human health and environmental effects of the toxics in high tech devices. If Silent Spring brought national attention to the dangers of DDT and other pesticides, High Tech Trash could do the same for a new generation of technology's products." http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0732/2007025185-d.html
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource (xiv, 334 pages)
Contents
  • The underside of high tech
  • Raw materials : where bits, bytes, and the earth's crust coincide
  • Producing high tech : the environmental impact
  • High-tech manufacture and human health
  • Flame retardants : a tale of toxics
  • When high tech electronics become trash
  • Not in our backyard : exporting electronic waste
  • The politics of recycling
  • A land ethic for the digital age
  • Appendix. How to recycle a computer, cell phone, TV, or other digital devices
Isbn
9781559635547
Instance
Label
High tech trash : digital devices, hidden toxics, and human health
Title
High tech trash
Title remainder
digital devices, hidden toxics, and human health
Statement of responsibility
Elizabeth Grossman
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"The Digital Age was expected to usher in an era of clean production, an alternative to smokestack industries and their pollutants. But as environmental journalist Elizabeth Grossman reveals in this penetrating analysis of high tech manufacture and disposal, digital may be sleek, but it's anything but clean. Deep within every electronic device lie toxic materials that make up the bits and bytes, a complex thicket of lead, mercury, cadmium, plastics, and a host of other often harmful ingredients. High Tech Trash is a wake-up call to the importance of the e-waste issue and the health hazards involved. Americans alone own more than two billion pieces of high tech electronics and discard five to seven million tons each year. As a result, electronic waste already makes up more than two-thirds of the heavy metals and 40 percent of the lead found in our landfills. But the problem goes far beyond American shores, most tragically to the cities in China and India where shiploads of discarded electronics arrive daily. There, they are "recycled"--Picked apart by hand, exposing thousands of workers and community residents to toxics. As Grossman notes, "This is a story in which we all play a part, whether we know it or not. If you sit at a desk in an office, talk to friends on your cell phone, watch television, listen to music on headphones, are a child in Guangdong, or a native of the Arctic, you are part of this story." The answers lie in changing how we design, manufacture, and dispose of high tech electronics. Europe has led the way in regulating materials used in electronic devices and in e-waste recycling. But in the United States many have yet to recognize the persistent human health and environmental effects of the toxics in high tech devices. If Silent Spring brought national attention to the dangers of DDT and other pesticides, High Tech Trash could do the same for a new generation of technology's products." http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0732/2007025185-d.html
Member of
Action
digitized
Cataloging source
N$T
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1957-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Grossman, Elizabeth
Dewey number
363.72/87
Index
index present
Language note
English
LC call number
TD799.85
LC item number
.G76 2006eb
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
NLM call number
WA 671
NLM item number
G877 2006
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Electronic waste
  • Electronic apparatus and appliances
  • Electronic apparatus and appliances
  • Product life cycle
  • Electronics
  • Waste Products
  • Electronics
  • Environmental Pollutants
  • Hazardous Waste
  • Waste Management
  • TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING
  • Electronic apparatus and appliances
  • Electronic waste
  • Product life cycle
  • Recycling
  • Elektronikschrott
  • Sonderabfall
  • Gesundheit
Label
High tech trash : digital devices, hidden toxics, and human health, Elizabeth Grossman
Instantiates
Publication
Antecedent source
unknown
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-322) and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
The underside of high tech -- Raw materials : where bits, bytes, and the earth's crust coincide -- Producing high tech : the environmental impact -- High-tech manufacture and human health -- Flame retardants : a tale of toxics -- When high tech electronics become trash -- Not in our backyard : exporting electronic waste -- The politics of recycling -- A land ethic for the digital age -- Appendix. How to recycle a computer, cell phone, TV, or other digital devices
Control code
170604947
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (xiv, 334 pages)
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9781559635547
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
1222a85f-e35a-40ab-9073-d092d36bb0ad
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)170604947
System details
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.
Label
High tech trash : digital devices, hidden toxics, and human health, Elizabeth Grossman
Publication
Antecedent source
unknown
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-322) and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
The underside of high tech -- Raw materials : where bits, bytes, and the earth's crust coincide -- Producing high tech : the environmental impact -- High-tech manufacture and human health -- Flame retardants : a tale of toxics -- When high tech electronics become trash -- Not in our backyard : exporting electronic waste -- The politics of recycling -- A land ethic for the digital age -- Appendix. How to recycle a computer, cell phone, TV, or other digital devices
Control code
170604947
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (xiv, 334 pages)
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9781559635547
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
1222a85f-e35a-40ab-9073-d092d36bb0ad
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)170604947
System details
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.

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