Proposal

As we have been talking in class about this project and the endless possibilities, an idea popped into my mind. How do we link the e-waste, which has been a huge part of our class, to the ideas of protests and informative discussion? I propose this: We take a campus wide survey to both students and faculty and ask them what phones they have, what phones they had two years ago, and how often they replace their phones. It is very typical to find that the average person will replace their phones every two years if not sooner due to damage or other factors. It seems we are always looking for the latest and greatest things. As the new iPhone 6 has released, many people who have either just gotten a new phone or have a relatively new one are already buying another so that they can the latest and greatest.

     After doing this survey we can research and see what harmful chemicals and other pollutants can be involved in the particular device and how it affects the environment. We can fully incorporate this into the e-waste discussions that we have been having during class. Then we can set up a teach-in on campus. We can have speakers such as Dr. Shutkins and other qualified people come in and give the statistics and global impact just from our students on campus. From there we can inform people of the true impact they are having and what we can do as a campus to limit our global impact on e-waste.