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Digital pollution refers to the negative impact of digital technology and electronic waste on the environment and human health. This can include emissions from electronic devices, toxic chemicals in electronic waste, and the proliferation of e-waste in landfills. Technology users contribute to digital pollution on a daily basis, which include:
The USA discards 30 million computers each year and 100 million phones are disposed of in Europe each year. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that only 15–20% of e-waste is recycled, the rest of these electronics go directly into landfills and incinerators. [17] [18] Electronic waste at Agbogbloshie, Ghana
Computer monitors are typically packed into low stacks on wooden pallets for recycling and then shrink-wrapped. [1]Electronic waste recycling, electronics recycling, or e-waste recycling is the disassembly and separation of components and raw materials of waste electronics; when referring to specific types of e-waste, the terms like computer recycling or mobile phone recycling may be used.
Digital technologies are acting as integrating and enabling technologies for the economy and profoundly affect society; changes in technology use have damaged the environment but also have the potential to support environmental sustainability. [6] [7]
The World Computer Exchange accepts computer donations of electronics that they give to low-income communities worldwide. [113] Free Geek is a collectively run, non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon. It aims to reuse or recycle used computer equipment that might otherwise become hazardous waste, and to make computer technology more ...
The modern version of recycling is more complicated and involves many more elements of financing and government support. For example, a 2007 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that the US recycles at a national rate of 33.5% and includes in this figure composted materials. In addition, many multinational commodity ...
Computer virtualization refers to the abstraction of computer resources, such as the process of running two or more logical computer systems on one set of physical hardware. The concept originated with the IBM mainframe operating systems of the 1960s, and was commercialized for x86 -compatible computers, and other computer systems, in the 1990s.
Information pollution is seen as the digital equivalent of the environmental pollution generated by industrial processes. [ 3 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Some authors claim that information overload is a crisis of global proportions, on the same scale as threats faced by environmental destruction.