Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Media Studies

Reader 1

Ruti Talmor

Reader 2

Nancy Macko

Terms of Use & License Information

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Rights Information

© 2024 Ellen B Hu

Abstract

62 million metric tons of electronic waste (e-waste) were generated globally in 2022, an 82% increase since 2010. These numbers have prompted artists and scholars to highlight the e-waste stream — the flow and life cycle of waste— as an intersection of social, political, and environmental issues. Even so, the role of high-income countries within this context has not been as extensively explored, because related environmental justice concerns are less prominent in these spaces. Growing up in Silicon Valley upended this perception by exposing me first-hand to routine technological turnover. As these processes grew more rapid, I became increasingly aware of how dangerous consumer decisions were, especially when the decision makers couldn’t visualize the far-reaching impacts of their contributions. In conversation with 5C students and e-waste donated from the colleges, 404: Waste In Progress draws attention to the direct and indirect networks that weave high-income consumers into the complex life cycle of e-waste.

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