When Apple releases a new iPhone, hundreds of people line up to replace their “old” phone. But for all the hype surrounding the new product, there is hardly any talk about what happens with the old product.

In fact, the obsolete and broken electronics that are forgotten by their owners are usually forgotten by society in general when it comes to safely and ethically disposing of electronic waste, or “e-waste.”

The United Nations University, a research arm of the U.N., defines e-waste as “items of all types of electrical and electronic equipment … that have been discarded by the owner as waste without the intention of re-use.”

The only potential usefulness of e-waste, then, is for recycling and recovering the materials used in the product. However, e-waste has some significant risks that other waste products might not have.

According to the 2009 U.N. report on e-waste, “Toxic and hazardous elements are present in e-waste,” which require “proper handling and treatment of such harmful elements to prevent environmental or health impact.”

Therefore, electronics need special attention when it comes time for disposal, so countries need to develop good practices for addressing the removal of e-waste.

Why does e-waste create a larger problem than other forms of waste? Electronics can’t be stored like other waste products because they contain hazardous materials such as arsenic and lead.

When electronics are disposed of in landfills, they release toxins into local water sources. Water from rain or runoff flows through landfills, and it often picks up materials and chemicals present in the landfill and brings these materials into the local water supply.

Simply storing e-waste is not a safe solution.

However, processing e-waste isn’t always better than storing it. Many developed nations export their e-waste to developing nations, which reclaim precious metals and other valuable materials from the waste.

However, the way that e-waste is processed is very detrimental to the health of local communities. Often, e-waste is burned in large open piles to eliminate plastics and leave behind the valuable metals.

Burning the plastic releases toxic gases into the air and toxic ash into water supplies, which create large health problems for the workers in these e-waste processing industries as well as local communities.

In 2009 TIME featured the city of Guiyu, China, in an article that exposed some of the poisonous effects of e-waste processing. Rivers in the city ran full of toxic waste, and the city’s health reports say that children in Guiyu suffer from alarming levels of lead poisoning.

Reports like these come in from all over the developing world, wherever e-waste is handled in similar dumping grounds.

E-waste is an issue for all people, but it is especially important for Americans. According to statistics released in 2014 by the United Nations University, the United States produces nearly four times as much e-waste per person as the worldwide average.

As one of the world’s leading producers of e-waste, we also have a responsibility to safely dispose of it.

Simply exporting the problem to other nations is not an appropriate solution to our e-waste problem, so it is upon us as producers and consumers of electronics to address the waste that we create.

Perhaps the most underestimated solution for responsibly handling e-waste is reducing it altogether. An MIT Materials Systems Laboratory study found that nearly 120 million cellphones were thrown away by Americans in 2010.

If all American consumers chose to keep their phone for three years, twice as long as the current average lifetime of 18 months, then the total e-waste from phones would be cut in half without the need for any new recycling standards or processes.

Similarly, changing current consumption habits surrounding computers, TVs and speakers could dramatically reduce the amount of e-waste produced without any changes in the way we address the waste itself.

In addition to reducing the amount of waste produced, re-evaluating how e-waste is handled domestically can offset the negative effects that e-waste has.

Some businesses, such as CompRenew in Grand Rapids, promise to safely recycle electronics and have certification and oversight to monitor their compliance to strict environmental standards.

By diverting e-waste to responsible sources like CompRenew, consumers can ensure that their e-waste is being dealt with ethically and sustainably.