High-tech trash

I have probably gone through about 7 cell phones since 8th grade when I received my first one. Most, if not all of the phones are sitting in random drawers or baskets scattered around my house. In my house we keep almost everything, thinking that we “might need it one day!’. To think of the millions of pounds of used electronics that wind up in the backyards of people in developing countries is strange. Well maybe not strange, strange may not be the right word, unbelievable I simply cannot believe it. How and where the heck does one throw out a computer anyhow!?! I almost must admit that it was the picture that accompanied the article, not so much the article itself that really caught my attention. That pile of “e-trash” that that boy was holding looked completely unsafe. I do not know much about chemistry or metals or anything but I am guessing that spending large quantities of time around fire, lead, plastic and other potentially hazardous substances cannot be good for a person’s health. At the same time no one really wants piles and piles of old electronic junk sitting in their house either. So here are the options. Create stricter laws concerning the disposal of e-trash, or stop upgrading so often that the demand for the newest and latest technology is decreased and the amount of e-trash produced decreases. Or maybe we should just all do like my family and keep our outdated electronics. Who knows that Nintendo 64 might actually come in handy some day.