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2013 Autumn | Education & Outreach, Sustainability

Using Numbers to Improve E-Waste Regulation

Student(s):

Momoka Nakamura

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Sarah Westervelt

Partner(s):

  • Basel Action Network

Faculty advisor(s):

John Kissel, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington

During my Capstone, I developed Environmental Benefits Tool, a mobile application that quantifies the environmental impacts of electronic waste (e-waste). When users input an amount of e-waste, it generates the quantities for toxic and precious metal contents and the greenhouse gas emission. My responsibility was to conduct a literature review, to research e-waste, to develop functions and formulas, and to produce an Excel spreadsheet that contains the database. Through my project, I discovered that communicating the environmental impact of e-waste numerically is an effective and powerful method. There currently is no single resource available that compiles all of this information, thus this tool serves as a novel approach in improving e-waste regulation.