E-Waste Is China Bound And That Is Not An Entirely Good Thing
Not sure why this is making the news all of a sudden, but two stories just out on how America's technology waste adds to China's pollution problem. First is an Associated Press story by Terence Chea, entitled, "America Ships Electronic Waste Overseas." The story is that america's recycled e-waste is going to places like China, where primitive recycling methods lead to worker health issues and pollution:
While there are no precise figures, activists estimate that 50 to 80 percent of the 300,000 to 400,000 tons of electronics collected for recycling in the U.S. each year ends up overseas. Workers in countries such as China, India and Nigeria then use hammers, gas burners and their bare hands to extract metals, glass and other recyclables, exposing themselves and the environment to a cocktail of toxic chemicals."It is being recycled, but it's being recycled in the most horrific way you can imagine," said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, the Seattle-based environmental group that tipped off Hong Kong authorities. "We're preserving our own environment, but contaminating the rest of the world."
The gear most likely to be shipped abroad is collected at free recycling drives, often held each April around Earth Day, recycling industry officials say. The sponsors — chiefly companies, schools, cities and counties — often hire the cheapest firms and do not ask enough questions about what becomes of the discarded equipment, the officials say.
The other story was on National Public Radio's (NPR) Marketplace last week on how lead from US computers goes to China as waste and then returns as an unwanted part of toys and jewelery. The story is entitled, "Our e-waste comes back to haunt us," and it interviews CLB's own Steve Dickinson, who states none of this should come as surprise:
American customers don't necessarily want lead jewelry. But, says attorney Steve Dickinson, they do want cheap products -- and lead is a cut-rate raw material at a time of sky-high metals prices.Steve Dickinson: The United States has had an unfortunate cycle in the past 10 years of an excessive concern with price. And when price gets pushed down as far as it's been pushed, people should assume that there's going to be a problem.
Sure enough, American authorities recalled tens of thousands of kids' jewelry sets and charms this past summer, in addition to lead-painted toys. In a provocative new study, professors at Ashland University in Ohio found highly leaded trinkets sold in the U.S. bore the chemical fingerprints of lead from old computers.
On a somewhat related topic, it seems America's craving for biofuel is creating its own dangerous backlash as well. Check out these two (at least somewhat overly sensationalized) posts at China Confidential: "Corn Ethanol Equals Genocide" and "Ethanol Extermination: Rising Corn Prices Mean Mass Hunger for Guatemala's Indigenous People."
http://www.chinalawblog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/2264
E-Waste Is China Bound And That Is Not An Entirely Good Thing:
Comments
Good post.
Your readers might want to check out the recent documentary Manufactured Landscapes to see what E-Waste does to some Chinese communities. It's not a pretty picture.
Posted by: Matthew Stinson | November 25, 2007 5:32 PM
Sigh. I've been going to Taizhou's scrap yards for the better part of five years, and there are two things that I've noticed: a) they are substantially cleaner and free of electronics than they used to be, and b) most of the electronics being recycled there are China. I told this to Scott Tong when I spoke to him in August, and he points it out in his story - "Most of this stuff is Chinese waste" - but that doesn't stop him from running with BAN's bogus story about US e-waste returning as toys. That may be true, and lead in toys is a real problem, but to suggest that it's a problem driven by US lead scrap exports is unsupportable.
Posted by: Adam Minter | November 25, 2007 6:38 PM
Yeah, blaming the westerners for all of China's problems.
But US exorters do need to be aware of the Toxic Substances Control Act, especially Sec.12 which deals with the export of toxic waste from the US. Exporters are supposed to notify the EPA (and have permission to export), then the EPA notifies the destination country and is supposed to receive permission.
I wonder if Chinese gov't bodies or individuals (or in class action) bring suits for damage against US companies for this practice?
Posted by: nanheyangrouchuan | November 27, 2007 8:36 PM
100 % Eco Friendly recycling
In this world we have become as humans consumers. We consume every thing.
The problem arises when we forget that what we consume, then throw away, not all of our waste gets properly disposed of.
Not seen, not thought of right?
When our electrical items fail we just throw them away not thinking of where they go.
Here is how you can insure that when you discard your items, your items do not land up in a land fill, or over seas just to pollute a more poverty stricken area:
Make sure that your recycler only uses a complete Eco friendly down stream for the materials being recycled.
This means that when you discard a TV or old computer it only goes to processes that will be completely Eco and human friendly.
Recycling should not be at the cost of our environment or the cost of human rights and safety.
We as a company could make hundreds more on these materials we collect for free, if we just turn our heads and say, not seen not thought of.
We feel that if we can prove that recycling can be done in the cleanest safest way possible so that our environment, and the people who live in it, are not injured in the process, we might just show that recycling can be a culture not a cost.
If we as recyclers do not take this philosophy, then we our selves will pose an environmental risk instead of a solution.
Some times a little less profit can still benefit everyone in the process.
Recycle please, but do it completely Eco friendly.
Besides that.............profit will not matter after a while.......we will end up polluting our selves out of a planet in the long run if we do not start practicing this soon.
Posted by: Green Planet Solutions Inc. | December 29, 2007 9:02 PM