Newark’s Hidden Cost of Old Electronics? – Electronic Waste Disposal and Newark Community Harm
by Adrian Hernandez
Site Description:
Located in Newark’s neighborhood with a roughly four-square-mile, working-class and immigrant community that has been designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an Environmental Justice community due to decades of industrial pollution. With its contaminated sites and heavy truck traffic, the Newark Recycling Department, founded at 62 Frelinghuysen Ave, and the WM Newark Recycling Center at 150 St. Charles St represent two sites where the booming demand for electronics disposal over the past decade (2015–2025) has intersected with a neighborhood already carrying a disproportionate pollution burden. Here, we analyze how these facilities process and regulate the recent surge in electronic waste, driven by rapid technological turnover, and whether oversight of e-waste disposal in Newark reflects the same patterns of environmental neglect that have historically shaped the neighborhood’s relationship with industrial waste management. This project is significant because it extends the well-documented history of environmental injustice in one of Newark’s cities, the Ironbound, where there is always asking whether a new and rapidly growing wave of waste electronics is being regulated any differently than the industrial waste that has burdened this community for over a century, or whether it represents simply the latest chapter in a long pattern of environmental racism.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut diam quam nulla porttitor massa id. Elementum facilisis leo vel fringilla est ullamcorper eget nulla. Orci porta non pulvinar neque laoreet suspendisse interdum. Purus semper eget duis at tellus at urna. Diam maecenas ultricies mi eget mauris. Diam ut venenatis tellus in metus vulputate eu. Ullamcorper morbi tincidunt ornare massa eget egestas. Quis eleifend quam adipiscing vitae proin. Consectetur adipiscing elit pellentesque habitant. Cras fermentum odio eu feugiat pretium nibh ipsum consequat nisl. Lectus mauris ultrices eros in cursus turpis massa. Luctus accumsan tortor posuere ac. Porttitor eget dolor morbi non arcu. Maecenas pharetra convallis posuere morbi leo urna molestie. Neque convallis a cras semper auctor neque vitae. In iaculis nunc sed augue. Suspendisse interdum consectetur libero id faucibus. Sit amet porttitor eget dolor.
Felis eget nunc lobortis mattis aliquam faucibus. At elementum eu facilisis sed odio. Eu facilisis sed odio morbi quis commodo odio aenean sed. Habitasse platea dictumst quisque sagittis purus sit amet. Et ultrices neque ornare aenean euismod elementum nisi quis eleifend. Velit dignissim sodales ut eu sem integer. Morbi tempus iaculis urna id volutpat lacus laoreet non curabitur. Aliquam eleifend mi in nulla posuere sollicitudin aliquam. Nunc congue nisi vitae suscipit. Convallis tellus id interdum velit laoreet id. Turpis in eu mi bibendum neque egestas. Magna fermentum iaculis eu non diam phasellus vestibulum. In cursus turpis massa tincidunt dui ut ornare lectus sit.
Non pulvinar neque laoreet suspendisse. Eros donec ac odio tempor orci. Nullam non nisi est sit amet facilisis magna etiam tempor. Platea dictumst vestibulum rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper. Eleifend donec pretium vulputate sapien nec sagittis aliquam. Proin fermentum leo vel orci porta. Eget dolor morbi non arcu risus quis varius quam quisque. Nec ultrices dui sapien eget mi proin sed. Nisl nisi scelerisque eu ultrices vitae auctor eu augue. Pellentesque pulvinar pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et. Pulvinar elementum integer enim neque volutpat ac. Vel orci porta non pulvinar neque. Laoreet sit amet cursus sit amet.
Pharetra massa massa ultricies mi quis hendrerit dolor magna. Mattis nunc sed blandit libero volutpat. Nec ultrices dui sapien eget. Gravida neque convallis a cras semper auctor neque. Aenean et tortor at risus viverra adipiscing at. Quisque non tellus orci ac auctor augue mauris. Ultrices in iaculis nunc sed augue lacus. Quam elementum pulvinar etiam non. Felis bibendum ut tristique et egestas. Sagittis nisl rhoncus mattis rhoncus. Ac ut consequat semper viverra. Volutpat commodo sed egestas egestas fringilla phasellus faucibus scelerisque. Urna condimentum mattis pellentesque id nibh tortor. Erat nam at lectus urna duis convallis convallis. Malesuada fames ac turpis egestas sed tempus urna et pharetra. Pellentesque diam volutpat commodo sed egestas egestas. Interdum velit euismod in pellentesque massa placerat duis ultricies lacus. Est velit egestas dui id. Pellentesque id nibh tortor id aliquet lectus proin nibh. Id nibh tortor id aliquet lectus proin nibh nisl.
Primary Sources:
Source 1: Canalys, “The end of Windows 10 support could turn 240 million PCs into e-waste” (December 2023)
Location: Canalys website (online page)
Description: This is the original analyst report behind the report about Windows 10 ending its support and how it will cause a large amount of e-waste to fill landfills. Using that, I can talk about how the start of e-waste even begins and grows with each new year.
Source 2: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Program, “Electronic Waste Management Act” (July 1, 2019)
Link: https://www.nj.gov/dep/dshw/recycling/whatsnew/Electronic%20Act%20Signed.htm
Location: NJDEP website with link to the law’s text. (online page)
Description: This is the state’s own page with a direct link to the Electronic Waste Management Act, which bans disposing of TVs and computers in regular trash. I could use it as a way to explain what has already been done to handle the e-waste in Newark and what electronics are causing the waste.
Source 3: Shanti Menon, “500 trucks pass through one Newark intersection in an hour. Kids are paying the price,” VitalSigns (Environmental Defense Fund), May 27, 2022.
Location: EDF VitalSigns website (online page)
Description: This article allows me to show how the truck traffic from Newark’s waste, recycling, and port facilities affects residents’ health. Allowing me to show the real cost of the electrical waste industry’s location in Newark’s neighborhoods.
Source 4: Ethan M. Steinberg, Bloomberg News, “E-Waste Is Filling Up Landfills. Here’s How to Reduce It,” (December 23, 2024)
Location: Bloomberg News Environment & Energy
Description: This article shows the global scale of electronic waste and how many electronics are actually discarded while still able to run. I’ll compare it with Newark’s free drop-off events to show how easy it is for people to remove old devices from their homes without properly handing them off.
Source 5: “A middle way on e-waste” editorial, The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), September 2007.
Image: (Can’t get the link for the archive since a paywall blocked it)
Location: Newark Public Library archives, Star-Ledger.
Description: This Newspaper article discusses what New Jersey officials and the press argued about e-waste before the state law passed, including the toxic materials in discarded electronics and who pays for recycling. This source would be used to finish up the conclusion of the project to show the solution of what we can do to make sure the e-waste is being properly handled and disposed of correctly.
Primary Source Analysis: Source 3
In the source “500 trucks pass through one Newark intersection in an hour…” by Shantai Menon, the author talks about the lifelong residents of Newark in the South Ward dealing with trucking that is causing harm to them. You see statements that the South Ward Environmental Alliance has described and tracked a community that is packed with high-waste facilities and truck traffic and found a link to high rates of child asthma. With their discovery being backed by residents, doctors, and EDF experts, they were able to see a clear picture of how the pollution is spreading. With this artical we can see how Newark’s waste infrastructure that handles things like discarded old electronics will go through low-income neighborhoods with young children.
Menon can support these claims and her arguments by showing the highly dense area of Newark neighborhoods and how many industries are actually close to them. She goes on by listing the waste transfer station, the metal and paper recycling factories, and warehouses to handle electronic waste, and even truck repair shops. Also, New Jersey’s largest incinerator is just to the north of many of these homes and the area. The Environmental Alliance explains that Newark is “surrounded, ” meaning each resident is living inside an industrial zone instead of being “near one”. Because of the buildings, the traffic for them has reached an alarming rate, with students in the area counting up to 5,00 trucks in just three hours doing their runs. And most of these trucks were waste haulers, which showed how the waste industry is moving its materials directly through Newark. The effect can be seen in a study from Rutgers Pediatrics reporting that one in four Newark children has asthma, compared to one in ten across the whole of Essex County. With these details, we can see how these trucks can cause harm and how they are increasing the burden of waste on Newark people.
Secondary Sources:
First source:
Wayne Williams, “Experts say the end of Windows 10 support could turn 240 million PCs into e-waste”, betanews, 2023. https://betanews.com/commentary/windows-10-240-million-pcs-e-waste/
This source retells a claim by market research firm Canalys that predicts an 8 percent growth in the PC market by 2024. This growth is mostly driven by customers upgrading their pandemic-era PCs and buying new AI-capable devices; however, Windows 11’s hardware requirements may prevent older PCs from being refurbished for the new updates. Canalys states that about 240 million PCs will become e-waste when Windows 10 support ends in October 2025, whether old or new. But also states that their chance of being refurbished may be impossible if they aren’t compatible with Windows 11. But then talks about how Windows won’t stop until 2028 for old models, but the article still talks about how vendors must ensure their devices are durable, repairable, and recyclable, and remain usable and secure for as long as possible. The reason why this article will be able to help me is that it will help show the timeframe we have and also show the reason why e-waste comes into play. First, the reason why it matters to show the timeframe is that it allows us to come up with plans before a deadline. Or even prepare to handle 240 million e-waste and how to deal with it. It grants the person a reason to be urgent with their response to this subject and shows that it is not only for New Jersey but the whole country. Secondly, it allows us to see how much e-waste can come out of nowhere; it will allow me to talk about how going for a brand-new device is always right and might cause more harm. It also allows me to speak on the company front about how they are responsible for e-waste.
Second Source
Rachel Ramirez, “The Burning Issue: New Jersey’s new law will shield poor communities from new sources of pollution. What about existing ones?”, Grist, 2020. https://grist.org/justice/new-jersey-environmental-justice-law-covanta-incinerator-newark-camden/
This is an article written by Rachel Ramirez on the new law passed for New Jersey and why they needed it. It goes into detail about how, if you go into Newark, specifically the Ironbound area you see a lot of heavy industrial facilities, high traffic chokes with large trucks passing through needihoods and smoke coming from multiple incinerators around the area. Then get comments from Newark citizens and activists on how they are taking a serious stance on how these chemicals and industries are a public health risk, thanks to Governor Phil Murphy. Talks about how the bill requires the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to make and maintain a list of all overburdened communities across the state and make sure that any industry trying to build something would need to go through the DEP and hold a hearing to see if the permits will be approved or denied for the betterment of the community. Talks about how many older citizens from even the early 1990s remember when these factories were being built and how creating these chemicals in the area affects the citizens. And lastly, it ends with Camden and Newark citizens saying they are a community and they just want to help each other and to feed people, and we can only do that by being connected to the ground and using the wealth in the land. Because pollution takes that away from them. With this text, it will allow me to talk about Newark’s history with pollution, making sure that I not only have a case to say this isn’t anything new but rather in a different form than e-waste. It also allows me to talk about how the laws were put in place to help stop these companies from dumping these electronics and how we are giving tools to stop them. And lastly, how citizens from different parts of the country can push their states and communities to push for new laws like this to help their community better and stop these companies from damaging it. And how they should structure it after seeing if things have improved or not improved in Newark, New Jersey.
Third Source
Dan Alexander, “Will this happen more in NJ? Garbage trucks exploding in fire”, NJ1015, 2025. https://nj1015.com/lakewood-battery-fire-incident/
This report comes from a radio show blog post about the incident, where a garbage truck driver loaded it to dispose of property. But on the way there, the garbage truck started to produce smoke and caught fire. The fire was quickly put out as the trash was dumped out of the truck. It was later revealed that a large number of lithium-ion batteries exploded in the truck after being crushed by all the other trash. When crushed, they will leak and cause a explosion leading to a fire. Now this is a perfect demonstration of what e-waste can do: these lithium-ion chemicals, when released to the air, will burn and explode; now imagine if that was in the ground or in the air. If a chemical so toxic as to explode was exposed to us, then it would surely cause problems for anyone in the area. It also shows how even the truck they have for transporting these items is just a reused Garbage truck, meaning if they’re not careful, this could happen again since so many other bacteria are already in the truck from other garbage.
Image Analysis:
Here, looking at the image of the recycling center, my eye goes first to the site’s surroundings, with the building around it. Against the dome building, we see white metal that still seems to pop against the dome. Then my eye moves to the orange cone at the bottom center, past the other trash/garbage, since the warm color draws your eye. And after looking at the cones, my eyes start to go back up to follow the line of stone bricks and yellow barrier heading towards the right side of the pile. Then it takes me to the trucks with no containers on them, circling back to the other material garbage. This path moves from waste to machinery, then to different waste. It basically shows an endless cycle of seeing more waste, then back to trucks repeatedly.
As I was looking at this image, I was clearly able to see that there are three zones in the image: the foreground, which is the closest to us, with a large amount of scrap spilled out. The middle part being surrounded by stone bricks and yellow barriers full of old not recyclable weathering away. And a large white, brand-new pile full of electronics. All showing them from an elevated position, taking the picture of the segmentation of the site.
We can see on this site it is very much blue mixed with a white/dirty white, having a lot of yellow accents to break this up. We can see how they try to use blue to give off an organized, professional look, but the dirty white gives it an impression of being older and not well maintained. Each color says something while negating what the other is trying to say. As well, in this image we can see how big the pile is, almost the same size as the building around it. And just looking at the image, the whole thing mostly has giant trash piles, while the small human in the green vest stands right next to them, unnoticeable at first. Showing how the e-waste pile is the subject of the image and should be focusing on that.
The main contrast I can see is the attempt of a clean facility building against the messy waste thrown around on the ground that is dull and messy. In a sense, it gives an image of what is happening to the real world itself and how they try to cover it up. Don’t look at the dull ground; look at the new clean building against the amount of waste we have. Each detail is important so when I can see a single orange cone in the bottom middle of the picture, and I feel like that something like that is out of place but also important because that a marker cone. It is supposed to let them know that the trash can’t go past it means that scrap metal trash is a small patch, not even the average they get.
Something that should be seen quickly is that there are no residents, no homes, no neighbors that we can see, but we know that they are close based on background information. As well, there is no green, no grass or weeds on the ground. Meaning that these images is trying to show us is how heavy messy recycle industry is doing with the large amount of electronic waste and how it just exposes it to the natural ground. Allowing it to deteriorate, contaminate the ground, and spread out into the area. As well as making sure to show as little of people making it seem that this site isn’t part of the community and showed up uninvited and started messing things up.
