A changing e-waste equation

摘要

A new ES&T paper (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es903350q) presents the first estimate of the worldwide volume of obsolete personal computers (PCs). The authors, who are based in China and the U.S., show that developing world nations will be disposing of more old computers thanrndeveloped countries by 2018-or sooner. This is significant because uncontrolled toxic emissions result from the informal recycling practices that are often used to deal with e-waste in the developing world.