Electronic Product Lifecycle: Consumption and Disposal

Australian Curriculum (v9.0) content description: Year 9 Geography

The impacts of the production and consumption of goods on places throughout the world, and strategies to manage sustainability in these places (AC9HG9K08)

General capabilities: Ethical Understanding

Syllabus outcomes: GE4-3, GE5-3

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability

Relevant parts of Year 9 Geography achievement standards: 

Students explain the effects of human activity on environments. They analyse the interconnections between people and places and environments. They identify and explain how these interconnections influence people, and change places and environments.

• Critical Thinking
• Collaboration
• Curiosity
• Digital Literacy
• Enterprise
• Ethical Understanding
• Global Citizenship

UN SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Target 12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.

Target 12.8: By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature.

• Device capable of presenting audiovisual recordings
• Devices with internet connectivity for online research
• Rs of Sustainability factsheet

Level of teacher scaffolding: Low – facilitate discussion and guide online research

This Closing the E-Loop unit has been developed in partnership with Comsol, a manufacturer, importer and distributor of electronics, who use a step-by-step approach to sustainability to establish a sustainable, environmental and socially supporting ecosystem for technology products and services. A key pillar of Comsol’s overarching framework is education. They believe that knowledge-sharing about the electronic waste crisis, sustainability and closed-loop solutions for electronic products provide opportunities for society to speed up the transition to a circular economy.

You can access all expert interviews and video content created for this unit through Vimeo. If you would like more information about the main topics and areas covered by these interviews, we have categorised them to make them easier to find and use in whatever context you see fit!