High Tech Trash Analysis

Effective marketing is a major facet of any flourishing company. By understanding consumer behaviors, which are a blend of "psychology, sociology, social anthropology, marketing and economics,” companies have the ability to ploy consumers into marketing tactics, to make fortunes off consumers psychological tendencies"” (Dickenson, “Consumer Behavior”). Unfortunately, thoughtless marketing is the least bit of the consumers worries. Selling unnecessarily products, or creating products that aren’t designed to last, are destroying environments in third world countries, a fact rarely noticed by consumers. By selling unnecessary products to consumers, companies are creating an unsustainable amount of waste, filled with all kinds of toxins, while

Chris Carroll a staff writer for National Geographic decided to find out where used electronics end up. In his essay, “High Tech Trash,” Carroll describes the horrid condition In Ghana, China, where poor areas like Ghana are the popular dumping grounds for “e-waste.” e-waste is old technology that we no longer have use for, and ends up in dumps. Carroll describes the condition in which people scrap our old waste by tearing apart old devices and burning away flame retardants so they can make a profit. “Choking, I pull my shirt over my nose and approach a boy about 15, his thin frame wreathed in smoke” (Carroll 79). After they make their profit, the old gadgets usually ends up contaminating the water source nearby. Carroll says, “Nearby, hulls of broken monitors float in the lagoon. Tomorrow the rain will wash them into the ocean” (Carroll 80). Its unfortunate simple business practices can cause so much damage to our environment, without any repercussion. Through unethical and unsustainable marketing strategies, our environment in return is taking the brunt force of major tech company’s unwillingness to create a device that will benefit both the consumer’s wallet, and the environment in which it gets

In his essay, “Empathy and Climate Change: A Proposal for a Revolution of Human Relationships,” Krznaric believes empathy is the key ingredient into fixing environmental issues. “Tackling climate change urgently requires an empathetic revolution, a revolution of human relationships where we learn to put ourselves in the shoes of others and see the consequences of global warning from their perspective” (Krznaric 215). Although he uses global warming as his environmental issue, the same empathetic approach could very well be the cure to help stop environmental damage from unethical business practices. Although many business practices that relate to environmental issues are legal, we as a society have a moral obligation to help create a clean and stable environment for the people that we are