Follow-up from my podcast series: 
Episode 1 of Sam's E-waste Recycling Podcast consisted of interviewing my three roommates: Amy, Chloe, and Khira. Seeming as two of the three of them had previously worked for technology companies Dell and Texas Instruments, I thought hearing from them would offer a unique perspective of how much information someone working in the tech space would know about e-waste recycling. To my surprise, my third roommate Khira who does not work in the tech industry knew the most about e-waste recycling. She mentioned that her family takes their products into goodwill for the electronic waste drop-off service that they hold in partnership with the UN and other technology companies such as Dell. 
After the podcast, I told my roommates about the high volume of toxic metals and chemicals that come out of electronic devices during their disassembly. They were shocked to find that heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium to name a few were distributed around these disassembly facilities and later get into local waterways and soil patches through dust particles. Studies have shown that bioaccumulation of these metals in children lead to limited attention spans, executive function, and academic performance. 
After discussing these negative health and environmental implications of others taking apart e-waste, my roommate Chloe had some realizations about her buying habits. I asked her about her future buying habits in and out of the tech space. She wanted to clarify from her interview that she threw out her old devices because they would end up in a landfill anyways whether she recycled them or not. In terms of buying habits, she said that she will most likely not put sustainability in mind when purchasing technology in the future because she relies so heavily on it everyday that she is going to buy what is best for her. My other roommates agreed that even if there was a more sustainable phone that did not increase toxicity or human health risks, they would still continue to purchase the iPhone. My guess is that almost all people in the US would do the same. She did mention that in terms of other items like clothes, shoes, or cars, she does take social good projects or sustainability concerns into those purchases. 
As I did not get to reflect on my own electronic e-waste during the podcast, I would like do so now. As seen in picture 4, I have a pair of Apple Airpods, an HP computer, a computer mouse, and a Dell computer. I additionally have an iPhone but I used it to take the picture of the devises. In comparison to my roommates, I have a generally low about of electronic devises. When reflecting on my previous amount of e-waste, I have disposed of one laptop computer at my local electronic waste ground in my neighborhood back in California. I additionally have turned in two previous iPhones (5S and 7S) to the Apple Store only when they were no longer functioning. This is a great example of when e-waste is simply unavoidable. Last August my iPhone came down with a 'disease' as the tech expert on Guadalupe Street explained to me and I was forced to buy a new one. This was very similar to the process of me switching from my iPhone 5S to my 7S back in 2017.

It is theorized that Apple and other technology companies send out small bugs every 2-3 years to an entire line of iPhones so they stop working, and thus have consumers be forced to come back into the store to buy another product. If this is true, there should be regulations against this action because if technology was built for life, then there would be a considerable amount less of e-waste than there currently is. This would be such an easy fix to the amount of e-waste curated and as a result, would lead to the decrease in the quantity toxic chemicals released from e-waste recycling facilities as they would have less inventory coming in.

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