Hey, this is actually an area of research of mine. This e-waste issue is a global problem. How we actually recycle part of the electronics is actually very concerning. Part of them are recycled properly, but more end up in 3rd world countries where people are exposed to some incredible toxins that leech into the soil, air, and bodies of people exploited in situations that are complex to explain. Polluted rivers in China, children suffering from Lukemia, lead poisoning, and lowered IQs due to the processes used to handle these wastes. We have made improvements, but this industry is an environmental disaster. Prison labor is commonly used and you can search reports of prisoners breaking older CRT monitors and facing exposure to lead because of it. It's absolutely sickening.

Oh, and it gets totally better because it's not just e-waste that is an environmental catastrophe within the computing industry - it's the entire industry overall. The water that it takes to create silicone chips could satiate a city, the pollutants that are released can be maddening.

The superfund sites riddled over Silicon Valley due to the older ways in which we produced computing is mind boggling.

I think if more people actually understood the incredibly grave impacts of the electronics and computing industry then they sure as hell would not throw out their phone the moment a new one comes out.

To act like we are isolated from one another in the way that we destroy our planet is fundamentally ignorant. Each pollutant, each act of destruction takes away our communal world. The computing industry is going to undergo an amazing transformation.

What I believe in could be our future of a biologically-infused computing future. I do not mean to come off weird / overly self promotion, but I am just passionate about this subject. Here is a post where I talk about the future of quantum biology infused computing future and an interview with Science Educator Philip Ball on the same topic:

• https://steemit.com/podcast/@kgg/epos-01-05-quantifiable-quantum-biology-quantum-computing-and-a-biologically-infused-computing-future
• https://steemit.com/quantum/@kgg/full-interview-philip-ball-on-quantum-biology-quantum-computing-and-biological-computing

A few years ago I read "High Tech Trash" by Elizabeth Grossman (link: https://islandpress.org/book/high-tech-trash) after being informed by my friends in Silicon Valley that they had to drink water from bottles and never from the tap due to the way the water was. They just didn't trust it. I was astounded, being from the Midwest, I had no idea that the coast faced those problems because of this industry. It's what made interested in this topic and has caused me to take it up as an area of research. This book specifically pointed out many of the issues that this industry faces and my study of the future of a quantum biology and quantum computing future is part of a solution (which we still have to take on classical computing production issues - but we will get there).