ABSTRACT
The term "virtual" is used a lot when talking about resources that go into making things - virtual water, energy, CO2 equivalent. But there is nothing virtual about them. Virtual blood flows through our electronic devices. Richard Clapp was also in the news a few years back when the journal Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine revoked an invitation to publish a paper he wrote based on the aforementioned data. According to a spokesperson for the publisher of the journal, "It was determined that it was original research and the format of it wasn't appropriate for Clinics, which is a review journal". The rates at which we can expect e-waste to increase are sobering. According to the United Nations Environment Program, by 2020, e-waste from computers will increase, from 2007 levels. They further predict e-waste from cell phones, over the same time period, to increase 700 percent in China and 1,800 percent in India.
