Essay on consumer impacts for an undergrad `Ecosystems & Sustainable Development` course

Running Head : Consumer Impacts Consumer Impacts

[Author 's Name]

[Institution Name]

With the increasing currency being given to environmental issues these days , the ecological impact of consumer goods is becoming a growing concern . Often such concerns are focused on such things as the greenhouse emissions of private automobile use , the deleterious effects caused by heavy chemical use in industrial agriculture and the disposal issues brought about by consumer packaging . As such , popular environmental rhetoric has , historically , given little attention to the environmental impacts of computers and other information technologies

br Instead , the increasing ubiquity of IT in the school , office and government setting is frequently celebrated as reducing waste by eliminating the dependence on . However , this only reflects a blithe definition of sustainability and environmental impacts

As Sager (2009 ) notes , the notion that computers are environmentally innocuous overlooks many of the environmental and health hazards posed by such toxic components as mercury and lead . This would not be a problem if such devices were built to last , but consumer electronics has consistently been an industry of disposable goods . As such , these devices eventually end up being discarded and all too often , most of these toxic components end up in landfills rather than being recycled

Collectively referred to as e-waste , post-consumer computer products and electronics have become one of the fastest growing problems in waste management . Mayfield (2003 ) notes that according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency , the United States generates more e-waste than any other country , with about 4...