How Could We Reconcile Health Technologies and Environmental Sustainability?

The growth of the digital health market entails the appearance of newer and newer fitness trackers, wearables, health sensors – leaving the older models to the sock drawer or worse, the dustbin. What happens to health tech’s waste and what options do people have who don’t want their gadgets to end up in the trash towns of developing countries? More plastic than fish in the oceans soon “If the present trends continue, by 2050 our oceans will have more plastic than fish”, said Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations to mark World Environment Day in June 2018. Not only the oceans started to be filled up with waste. The world looks more and more as a colossal dustbin. Dozens of videos on social media show sea shores buried under a thick layer of thrown-away plastic, metal or other non-degradable materials – from discarded computer screens through orange juice bottles until cotton buds for cleaning ears, all usually in the third world. The landscape is devastating, and what more depressing is – the animals dying due to it. The dead albatross, its stomach bursting with refuse. The turtle stuck in a six-pack ring, its shell warped from years of straining against the sturdy plastic. Humanity suffocates from its own waste – and lets the planet, its fauna and flora drown with it. The report of the World Bank Group says that driven by rapid urbanization and growing populations, global annual waste generation is expected to jump to 3.4 billion tons ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Bioethics Business Healthcare Design Healthcare Policy Policy Makers Researchers digital health digital health tech e-waste electronic environment green health technology Innovation planet recycling sustainability Source Type: blogs