Purpose: The purpose of this memo is to analyze the article “E-waste: An overview on generation, collection, legislation and recycling practices” for readability and pseudoscience versus real science.
Summary: In this memo, the readability and trustworthiness of the article are proved. The paper’s writing and presentation are clear and well-planned; the authors use common and understandable words and phrases. The authors used one of the most reliable methods – gathering information from various reports and data centers and then combining it.
Journal and Article
Information about the Journal
This article is published in issue 122 of a journal named Resources, Conservation and Recycling. It is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that is available exclusively online. Unfortunately, it is not of open-access, but institutional and personal types of subscription are offered (“Resources, conservation and recycling, n.d.”). Resources, Conservation and Recycling is published monthly by a Dutch analytics and publishing company Elsevier BV. This journal’s articles are written for students, researchers, scientists, and engineers who are interested in topics like innovation processes, tools, and methods and material flow analysis.
Information about the Authors
Amit Kumar
Amit Kumar is an Indian-Canadian Ph.D. candidate from the Norman B. Kevil Institute of Mining Engineering, UBC. He is the best student of Maria Holuszko, an assistant professor at this university. This article is Kumar’s first serious and peer-reviewed publication that he wrote together with his professor.
Maria Holuszko
Maria Holuszko was born in Poland and received an undergraduate degree from Silesian University of Technology, Poland, and Ph.D. and MASc degrees from the Norman B. Kevil Institute of Mining Engineering, UBC. Nowadays, she is an assistant professor and co-founder of the Urban Mining Innovation Center (UMIC) at the Norman B. Kevil Institute of Mining Engineering, UBC (“Maria Holuszko,” n.d.). Holuszko’s research has been published in many peer-reviewed journals, including Applied Science and Technology and Liquid Fuel Technologies, and she is an author of a chapter for the book “Future energy, improved, sustainable and clean options for our planet.”
Denise Crocce Romano Espinosa
Denise Espinosa, born in Brazil, is an Associate Professor of the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of São Paulo, where she got MASc and Ph.D. degrees. She had several projects on hydrometallurgy, extractive metallurgy, and e-waste recycling and is experienced in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering. Her other publications include “Recycling of batteries: a review of current processes and technologies,” (2004), “Fabrication and properties of anode-supported tubular solid oxide fuel cells,” (2004), and “A review of cleaner production in electroplating industries using electrodialysis,” (2017).
Introduction
Article’s Main Purpose or Thesis
The intended audience for this article is various researchers, students of faculties of engineering, and those people who are interested in the problem of e-waste. In this world, e-waste is one of the fastest-growing and most dangerous and harming waste streams from the point of view of its volume and environmental influence on the Earth. Recovery of precious metals and e-waste recycling could help to reduce the global demand for new metal production and the total amount of material disposed of in landfills.
This Memo’s Thesis
The writing and presentation are clear and well-planned; the authors use common and understandable words and phrases and tend to tell facts and express their thoughts in a concise though deep manner. The authors used one of the most reliable methods – gathering information from various reports and data centers and then combining it.
Readability of Article
Characteristics of Technical Writing
Firstly, the authors of this article address particular readers – researchers, students of faculties of engineering, and those people who are interested in the problem of e-waste. Secondly, this article helps solve the problem (which is another Markel’s characteristic of technical writing) of an increasing amount of e-waste as it states the reasons for that and suggests several ways of addressing them (Markel, 2012). This paper is produced collaboratively by three authors: Amit Kumar, Maria Holuszko, and Denise Crocce Romano Espinosa. Then, the paper is designed so that it increases readability since it has headings and subheadings and a number of templates and graphics (Kumar et al., 2017, p. 34). The authors of this paper use both words and images to help convey the message through various channels.
Measures of Excellence in Technical Writing
First, the article is well designed, and its professional appearance corresponds to all rules and adheres to a traditional format standard. Second, it addresses another measure, correctness, by adhering to the conventions of usage, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Then, the article achieves comprehensiveness since, for example, the authors do not forget to mention six distinct categories of e-waste (Kumar et al., 2017, p. 33). Moreover, this paper makes small and major numbered and independent sections so that it is easier to find information – accessibility is achieved (Kumar et al., 2017, p. 33). Finally, the authors are stating only true facts and do not mislead the readers.
The Article’s Scientific Validity
Scientific Method or Design Process
The scientific method chosen for this article is gathering and analyzing official data.
Scientific Hypothesis or Design Model
To prove their hypothesis about the necessity of reducing e-waste, the authors analyzed the reports published by the United Nations University and World Bank and combined them with the electronic and electrical equipment sales data.
Conclusion
The authors found a linear relationship between the amount of e-waste generated and the GDP. Moreover, if people recycle e-waste, urban mining may recover metals like silver, gold, and copper with an estimated value of D forty-eight billion. This article has contributed to my understanding of the problem of e-waste because I never thought it was so severe. This article does not need further revision because all information needed is presented.
References
Kumar, A., Holuszko, M.., & Espinosa, D. C. R. (2017). E-waste: An overview on generation, collection, legislation and recycling practices. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 122, 32-42.
Maria Holuszko. (n.d.). The University of British Columbia. 2020,Web.
Markel, M. (2012). Technical communication. West Lafayette, IN: Language Arts & Disciplines.
Resources, conservation and recycling. (n.d.). ScienceDirect. 2020, Web.