Having attended the class, I have some insight, which I could not get from the classroom, but it is useful to me and closely related to our daily lives.
Firstly, this lesson is talking about smartphones. A smartphone is widely used by most people worldwide and this electronic gadget actually constitutes more than 70 sophisticated components. In fact, the production of smartphones needs to consume a lot of energy. However, people are used to changing their smartphones due to technological trend and advancement, which results in generating a lot of electronic waste (e-waste) continuously flowing into community landfills. As smartphone is currently not classified as one of the regulated electrical equipment under the scheme of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WPRS), discarded smartphones will be treated as ordinary e-waste and exported to the developing countries such as Pakistan, Mexico, etc. Ultimately, it will make the landfills of these countries become more saturated and overburdened. This is neither a long lasting arrangement nor fair to those countries.
Secondly, the lesson also enlightened me that what is a linear economy and circular economy. A linear economy is about the company’s profit more than environment and a circular economy is opposite to the linear economy. I think we all have to change from a linear economy to a circular economy so that we can consume less energy, eliminate unnecessary waste and make ourselves more sustainable.
Lastly, people always say “recycle” but this is not the best choice for greening the earth. The best approach for greening is “prevention” and I think all of us should stop creating e-waste so that the earth can be saved and environmental issues can be improved.