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High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health
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.
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.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 6, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 4, 2008
This was eye opening and somewhat terrifying. Elizabeth Grossman compiles a large amount of information about electronics and technology products and the need to create awareness around the potential hazards of letting this stuff into our waste stream.
May 15, 2008
This book has some interesting points, but the author belabors the language so much that it was very hard to get through. It does make me think twice about all the electronics I own though.
January 25, 2018
I thought this book was great. I think I leaned a lot. Its a through review of the subject recycling. I liked reading about the mining of a few of the minerals, and I also liked learning about superfund sites in silicon valley. There is so much I could write about this book. I had never thought about designing electronics for recycling from the design process. I think electronics are anything that plug into a wall instead of only computer equipment like they do in the European union. It I hope that electronics are recycled more than when the book was written.
September 5, 2017
A very easy-to-read overview of the environmental impact of e-waste disposal, with a specific focus on chemical toxins that are produced/released in the manufacturing and recycling of electronic devices. Not useful for my thesis, but for someone who just wants to know more about e-waste, this is a very simple and easy-to-understand book to start with.
November 28, 2007
Please refrain from buying that new high-tech gadget if you can live without it.
Every step of that computer, cell phone, iPod, or big screen's life is toxic, from the hands of the workers exposing themselves to carcinogenic materials to manufacture it, to the children in China who boil plastic and pull apart heavy metals to recycle the parts for us.
This is an environmental issue as well as a labor issue.
Did you know that the South Bay / Mountain View area is actually one of the worst polluted places in the U.S. because of high tech manufacturing? Its up there with all the Superfund sites.
Grossman's book is well worth the read (and she's from Portland too!).
Every step of that computer, cell phone, iPod, or big screen's life is toxic, from the hands of the workers exposing themselves to carcinogenic materials to manufacture it, to the children in China who boil plastic and pull apart heavy metals to recycle the parts for us.
This is an environmental issue as well as a labor issue.
Did you know that the South Bay / Mountain View area is actually one of the worst polluted places in the U.S. because of high tech manufacturing? Its up there with all the Superfund sites.
Grossman's book is well worth the read (and she's from Portland too!).
August 28, 2012
Grossman is incredibly biased and overstates many issues, however this is definitely an eye-opener for some and a good transition into a complex issue. After reading this I encourage people to do some of their own research and analysis, and not just have a temporary "Im never buying electronic goods again!" reaction.
December 31, 2014
The author takes several hundred pages to tell a 10 page story.
Chapter 2 starts with a page about going to Arizona to see the copper mines, it reads like a travelog........ boringgggggggggggggggg
Chapter 2 starts with a page about going to Arizona to see the copper mines, it reads like a travelog........ boringgggggggggggggggg
July 13, 2011
A layman's look into the horrible world of e-waste.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews