Electronic waste, otherwise known as e-waste, is the widely used term for electronic products that have become unwanted, obsolete, or merely no longer work, and have thus reached the end of their ‘useful’ life. It involves anything electronic and includes a massive variety of products, like phones, computers and monitors, iPads, laptops, TVs, DVDs and CDs (as well as DVD and CD players), fax machines, printers and VCRs.
Because technology is advancing at such a rapid rate, many electronic devices become ‘rubbish’ after only a few short years — sometimes months — of use. Often, items have not even reached points at which they no longer work, but because of the nature of societal trends and consumerism, become discarded, so that we might purchase the latest model or advancement.