How often do you and your family change your phones?
What do you do to your old phone or any other electronic device after you get a new one?
Have you thought about what happens to them after they are discarded?

Components like copper from wires or motherboards are usually extracted and sold in a secondary raw materials market. E-waste of little economic value like plastic casing is usually burnt in Nepal, which leads to fine particles and chemical fumes polluting the air. Some parts like lithium ion batteries have no domestic solution in Nepal and are usually stored in waste processing facilities or at landfills. Chemicals from e-waste contaminate the soil, underground water, and crops in nearby areas and pose a risk to human health. These toxic substances harm the brain, heart, liver, kidney, and skeletal systems of organisms that are exposed to them.

Electronics also embody a lot of carbon emissions during its production. For instance, a single laptop emits about 422.5 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent during production. According to a study published in the journal of Environmental Science & Technology, the manufacturing of electronic devices is responsible for approximately 5% of global carbon emissions. Carbon dioxide is the most abundant greenhouse gas that is contributing to climate change and global warming.

We need to be more careful of our consumption of electronics because most electronics are made of mined rare earth minerals and consume fossil fuels as well as hundreds of pounds of water to make our electronics, only for us to discard them a few years later. These rare materials are often found in fragile ecosystems and native habitat, and affect wildlife as well as the surroundings where they are found in irreversible ways.