Research Essay: Strategies To Deal With E Waste In Australia

Question

Task:Write a research essay based on a problem and solution essay model structure

Topic: Choose a topic of interest that is related to your further studies at university. Your teacher will help you with this. Please see the EAP2 ‘Sample topics’ guide for some ideas.

Essay writing process

1. Brainstorm ideas for problems and solutions
2. Plan how your essay using the ‘Essay Plan Template’.
3. Research, using the CQU library website or Google Scholar as a resource.
4. Use examples and evidence from your research to support the points you want to make.
5. Write your first draft, using A.P.A Style Referencing.
6. Submit your first draft in Moodle.
7. Read the feedback from your teacher, noting areas to improve
8. Edit your draf
9. Submit your final essay in Moodle.

Answer

Introduction
We are providing some sample solutions of research essay to help you in building up a concept plan in drafting the solution yourselves. In this research essay the problem of electrical and electronical waste in Australia is being discussed. The problems of waste from electrical and electronic waste (WEEE) are one of the major problems in Australia and around the world. For example, in South Australia alone, it is foreseen that, in 1999, the amount of computers that have been landfilled is around 24000 and there are around 68000 mobile phones has become outdated. Much of the focus is on mobile phones as well as the computer; the European Union (EU) specifies a list of equipment that is considered as white goods added into the range, like washing machines refrigerator (Nisa, 2014). Brown goods like video recorder computer equipment power tools and electronic games. It will need a proper waste management that can help the people around Australia to overcome this problem. Some activities are helping Australia to deal with this problem of Waste from Electrical and Electronic (WEEE). In this research essay, it will discuss over the major problems and the solutions that needed to save Australia from these toxic wastes.

Thesis Statement:
This research essay objects to study three problems of waste in Australia from electrical and electronic waste (WEEE) and provide three solutions to tackle the problems.

Discussion
Problems of Electrical and Electronic Waste in Australia
Australia is developing in many fields but the problem of e-waste is affecting it in many ways. The problems which are arising when the government is making policies regarding e-waste management is that it is not covering all the aspects that are affecting the country (Kumar, Holuszko & Espinosa, 2017). According to the UN report (2014) on e-waste -“global electronic waste has reached record high levels. 41.8 metric tons of waste was generated in 2014, fuelling concerns about the growing risks to public health, resource conservation environment.” (Global E-Waste Volume Hits New Peak in 2014: UNU Report - United Nations University, 2018).

As stated by Kalpana & Prabhavathi (2014), the pollution is spreading across the country but still, people do not know about it in a broader way and the public engagement is less, as a result, many are not acquainted with the situation. The policies and strategies are changing every day in every field, so to ensure development a country needs to explore, enact and adopt new strategies to cope up with the growing effects of the e-waste. It is noted that the presence of inadequate strategies and its incompetent implementation is the major concern for Australia’s waste management system (Herat, 2007). The lack of summarizing and checking the inspections and incorporated actions are affecting the work of minimizing e-waste problems. E-waste is harming human health by spreading in the air, which also is affecting the climate and is increasing the global warming situation. Further, e-waste is damaging the fertility of the soil and landfill problems.

Three Problems and Three Solutions

Problem 1: Recycling laws not covering all e-waste problems: As stated by Golev et al., (2016), waste is increasing on a regular basis, but the laws are not upgrading up to that extent. Australian management electronic waste is lagging in setting targets and implementing laws to recycle, reuse and overuse of waste products and manufacture new techniques to mitigate e-waste pollution.

Solution to the problem:

• Recycling practices and updating the law: As stated by Davis & Heart (2008) globally, people are concerned about the waste products, and specifically about the pace of electronic waste. The government and some environmental groups were taking measures to overcome the problems. People are practicing the model of recycling. European Union has proposed the most advanced law or legislation to handle the waste electrical and electronic equipment. In that law, it is proposed to the producers to set up an end of life product return system, which was mentioned in the Proposal for a Directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (1999). Overall, 51% of the household waste gets recycled in Australia, which is better than the European countries. The national waste policy of Australia needs to update, as many of the e-waste products are not included in this law.
• 
• Figure1: Factors, which may promote the recycling of EEE by households in South Australia
  (Source: Tanskanen, 2013)

Problem 2: Lack of awareness: E-waste problems is a major issue and it is spread by the citizens by not being aware of the situation of what waste to dump, what to recycle, what to reuse and what can be overused. If the people are made aware then automatically they will tend to make less pollution with knowledge of the consequences. It is noted that waste management methods are crucial to spread awareness among the citizens in order to reduce wastage.

Solution to the problem:

• Spreading awareness: According to the Australian Bureau of statistics, people of Australia participated in recycling waste and reusing those waste. From the last decade, it has shown that the people are very positive about it. However, it is not enough to make the difference. Its only 9% product that got recycled while 88% were sent to landfill. If the people aware of the consequences of disposing of this E-waste then people could have, the Australian waste management should bring new ideas to recycle all the electronic equipment.

Problem 3: Outdated recovery targets and management of E-Waste: In order to fulfill any goal or objectives it is necessary to set targets, which can be achieved in a better and faster way. Further, this will allow resolving the issues and solving the existing problems. However, in Australia the e-waste problems are going higher compared to its strategies of resolving it, this is because of using an outdated target. The targets set earlier was for the prevailing crisis of that situation, but the current e-waste pollution is more so a new target needs to be set to diffuse the e-waste pollution.

Solution to the problem:

• Fulfilling all the pending targets of waste management: In order to fulfil the pending targets, it is important that the Australian government enhance on the need for waste management and recycling processes. It is noted that the nation is leading in the collection of e-waste (Davis & Herat, 2010). As the new products hitting the market, the burden of the waste on the landfill is increasing day by day. The waste that is already in the landfill should be recycled fast and fulfill the entire pending target.
• E-Waste management: E-waste management should start by all the industries; they can start it with waste minimization and sustainable design of the product. According to the report of United Nations "some 3.5 billion people, half the world's population, lack crucial waste management services, significantly harming the environment, health, and economies" (Recycling, proper waste treatment can be veritable ‘gold mine’ – UN environmental study, 2018). Waste minimization will happen if the industries adopt the following points:
  • Inventory management: - Proper control of the materials while manufacturing will reduce the waste. Means if the industries focus on the quantity of hazardous material and less use of raw material than the waste produced will reduce.
  • Production- process modification: - If the industries in Australia want to reduce the waste generation, then they should change the production process, means industries should change the materials that they used to make the product or improve their maintenance of equipment that can lead to a significant waste reduction. Hazardous materials can replace or it can use less (Ongondo, Williams & Cherrett, 2011).
  • Volume Reduction: - Volume reduction techniques used to reduce the volume of the hazardous portion. Wastes containing different types of metals which need to treat separately so that the value of the metal in the sludge can recover.
  • Recovery and Reuse: - Recovery and reuse can eliminate the cost of waste disposal, reduce the waste material cost, anyone can recover waste from off-site or on-site recovery facility.

Conclusion
Based on this research essay it is observed that the problems of awareness among the citizens, which is a major concern as the maximum population, are using appliances that are causing e-waste pollution. Moreover, laws not covering all waste types, setting targets and lack of proper inspection, in the end, are affecting the desired outcome, which is to solve the e-waste problems in Australia. It can be understood that this is a major issue for the country, which can be a downfall compare to other countries. Therefore, the above solutions provided in this research essay need to be implemented soon to mitigate the e-waste pollution and give relief to the citizens suffering from the pollution. The research essay is being prepared by our experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable assignment help service.

References
Davis, G., & Herat, S. (2008). Electronic waste: The local government perspective in Queensland, Australia. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 52(8-9), 1031-1039.

Davis, G., & Herat, S. (2010). Opportunities and constraints for developing a sustainable e-waste management system at local government level in Australia. Waste Management & Research, 28(8), 705-713.

Global E-Waste Volume Hits New Peak in 2014: UNU Report - United Nations University. (2018). Retrieved from https://unu.edu/news/news/ewaste-2014-unu-report.html

Golev, A., Schmeda-Lopez, D. R., Smart, S. K., Corder, G. D., & McFarland, E. W. (2016). Where next on e-waste in Australia?. Waste management, 58, 348-358.

Herat, S. (2007). Sustainable Management of Electronic Waste (e?Waste). Clean–Soil, Air, Water, 35(4), 305-310.

Kalpana, B., & Prabhavathi, M. (2014). E-WASTE MANAGEMENT.

Kumar, A., Holuszko, M., & Espinosa, D. C. R. (2017). E-waste: an overview of generation, collection, legislation and recycling practices. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 122, 32-42.

Nisa, M. (2014). E-waste management. Journal of NanoScience and NanoTechnology, 2(1), 766-768.

Ongondo, F. O., Williams, I. D., & Cherrett, T. J. (2011). How is WEEE doing? A global review of the management of electrical and electronic wastes. Waste management, 31(4), 714-730.

Recycling, proper waste treatment can be veritable ‘gold mine’ – UN environmental study. (2018). Retrieved from https://news.un.org/en/story/2013/10/452582-recycling-proper-waste-treatment-can-be-veritable-gold-mine-un-environmental

Tanskanen, P. (2013). Management and recycling of electronic waste. Acta materials, 61(3), 1001-1011.