What is the name for the disposal method in which waste is buried in the ground?
Landfill
What is meant by recycling?
Processing waste materials so that they can be used to make new products
Which term describes a place where old devices are taken to be broken down so that materials such as gold and copper can be recovered?
Reprocessing plant
What is meant by reuse?
Passing on a working device to someone else instead of throwing it away
What is meant by the disposal of a digital device?
Getting rid of a device once it is no longer wanted
In the lifecycle of a digital device, which term describes the place where old devices are collected before being sent on to be broken down?
Recycling centre
What does the term e-waste mean?
Discarded electrical and electronic equipment
A business replaces all of its laptops every year instead of every five years. What is the main environmental effect of this?
More devices are manufactured and more are thrown away
23% of electronics thrown away in the UK still work or need only minor repair. What does this suggest?
Many devices could be reused instead of being thrown away
Why is dumping old digital devices in landfill more harmful than recycling them?
Valuable metals are lost and toxic materials can leak into the soil
Why does sealing a lithium battery inside a device make the device harder to recycle?
The battery cannot be removed, so it may catch fire
In the large scrap yard at Agbogbloshie in Ghana, how are materials such as copper usually recovered from e-waste?
By burning cables and breaking equipment apart by hand
Why does recycling metals from old devices help the environment?
Less metal needs to be mined from the ground
Which environmental damage is caused by mining the raw materials used in digital devices?
Contamination of the land and erosion
A laptop manufacturer wants to reduce the amount of e-waste created by its products. Which change would help most?
Making parts that can be replaced and repaired easily
Which of these is an example of e-waste?
A broken games console put in the bin
Why is passing a working laptop on to another pupil better for the environment than sending it for recycling?
No new materials or manufacturing are needed
Worldwide, about 300 tonnes of gold are thrown away in e-waste each year. What does this suggest?
Valuable materials are lost instead of being recovered
Which change would make recycling old devices safer for the people who do it?
Using machines in a proper facility to take devices apart
What is meant by the replacement cycle of a digital device?
The time between buying a device and replacing it
A manufacturer releases a new phone every year. What is the environmental effect of customers replacing their phones this often?
More raw materials are mined because more phones are made
What is the main purpose of an energy rating on a device?
To compare how efficiently different devices use energy
A school sets its computers so displays go onto standby after ten minutes of no use. Why does this help the environment?
Less electricity is used, so fewer fossil fuels are burned
Raw materials, components and finished devices are often carried by lorry and ship. Why does this harm the environment?
Burning diesel releases pollution into the air
Making computer chips uses large amounts of water. Which environmental problem can this cause?
Waste water that is not cleaned can pollute rivers
Which of these is an example of planned obsolescence?
A battery sealed into a phone so it cannot be replaced
A five-year-old laptop still switches on, but its owner replaces it because the new operating system will not run on its processor. Which cause of the replacement cycle is this?
Newer software needs more advanced hardware
A chip factory takes large amounts of water from a nearby river. What environmental problem can this cause?
Homes and wildlife may be left without enough water
A chip factory uses large amounts of electricity, which is often generated by burning coal and gas. Why is this a problem for the environment?
Burning fossil fuels releases pollution into the air
A company mines metal ores to make parts for phones. Which environmental damage is caused by the mining itself?
The land is left contaminated and eroded
Which term describes designing a product so that it stops working or becomes outdated after a set period of time?
Planned obsolescence
What is the name for materials such as coal, oil and metal ores that cannot be replaced once they have been used up?
Non-renewable
Which term describes the extraction of metals and other materials from the ground so that they can be used to make components?
Mining
Which material used to make digital devices is renewable?