E-Waste Bill Criticized for ‘Loopholes’
A proposed bill could prohibit exports of certain types of electronics materials meant for recycling with the exception of “refurbishment or repair.”
However, it’s this exception that has angered groups such as the Electronics TakeBack Coalition and the Basel Action Network. The group says the exclusion provides a loophole of which too many recyclers may take advantage.
Electronics that are diverted to landfills can leak hazardous materials like lead, cadmium and mercury into the environment and air. Photo: Boingboing.net
“We’re all in favor of the reuse of electronic equipment,” says Jim Puckett, Director of the Basel Action Network. “But this bill plays right into the hands of the thousands of brokers that want to send broken, outdated equipment to developing countries and a whole lot of useless toxic parts along for the ride. This bill now legitimizes that despicable practice.”
Currently, the U.S. has no federal law against sending e-waste to dealers overseas, despite existence of the widely accepted Basel Convention, an international treaty which controls the cross border movement of hazardous waste.
Also, the ETBC points out how the proposed bill states that e-waste may still be exported, as long as the exporting companies “certify annually to the United States government that the export of such items is intended for refurbishment.”
The ETBC estimates that the U.S.exports enough e-waste each year to fill 5,126 shipping containers, which when stacked, would reach 8 miles high. Furthermore, electronics sent to developing nations often tend to end up in “backyard” recycling operations, where unsafe methods to remove materials for resale are used, causing great harm to human and environmental health.
Consumers looking to properly recycle their e-waste should take care to ensure their products are not being shipped overseas. Certain organizations, such as the International Scrap Recyclers Institute and the International Association of Electronics Recyclers, provide ethical guidelines for compliance which recyclers can subscribe to in order to properly handle e-cycling.
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The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
Donald's Computer Outlet
posted on July 1st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I currently manage a computer outlet store and I have just had the e-waste problem brought to my attention. I first started to notice the problem when I took over management of the store. I would come in for work and people would through there old electronics and computers next to my dumpster or on my front stoop. So naturally I had to find out how to properly dispose of these electronics and it wasn’t until I started to research how to recycle these computers or electronics that I found how bad of a problem this was. With more research I found out how crucial it is to dispose of these things the right way. The next day I offered free computer recycling and on the first day my bin was full. We have been offering this service for about two years and everyday my bin is full. It was very shocking to hear people say that they were just going to through there old computer stuff away. I think that this Website offers great facts and information on this growing problem.
John Pennington
posted on October 16th, 2009 at 8:48 am
The sad fact is that people will generally follow the path of least resistance and/or most profit. The trick is to structure things so that this path is environmentally sound and profitable. That’s not an easy thing to do, and state laws are not enough. If that were the case, then California’s tough laws wouldn’t have resulted in a mountain of CRT glass in Arizona (see the link at the bottom of our opening page to watch a video report). It’s pretty obvious that we need Federal legislation prohibiting shipping e-waste overseas or dumping it into our landfills.
We also need consumers and businesses to pay a disposal fee at the time of purchase to fund the true cost of proper recycling. This fee should be based on the materials in the product and the difficulty in recycling those materials. This would lead to competition in the marketplace with manufacturers having an incentive to build electronics that would have less impact on the environment. In the end, it’s all about the money.
What’s disconcerting is that our legislators know about the problem. Under a nationwide contract with the EPA, my company has processed over twenty five million pounds of obsolete electronics for U.S. Federal Agencies. Through a contract with DRMS, we’ve processed in excess of ten million pounds of e-scrap for the Department of Defense. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get those contracts, yet Washington does little to make sure all other electronics recycling is being done in an environmentally correct manner. Unfortunately, until our elected leaders do something about it, the overseas shipping and inappropriate handling of e-waste will continue.
Regarding the loopholes in this bill allowing working electronics to be shipped overseas. Shipping working electronics, while getting around the legal barriers of shipping electronics overseas, isn’t always the environmentally sound thing to do. You also have to look at the economics of what you’re shipping.
For example, we recently talked with a buyer looking for CRT monitors for shipment to Egypt. We were offered from $2 for old white monitors to as much as $17 for newer black ones. In researching the markets, it turns out that while the more expensive monitors were being legitimately resold into local markets, the $2 monitors were being used for parts in building TVs with the remainder going to dump sites.
It’s not enough to test if the equipment you ship works. If you really want to do the environmentally right thing, you have to do your due diligence in finding out what’s going on with the electronics you sell overseas, and you need to pay attention to the economics of the equipment you ship.
For this reason, our company doesn’t ship electronics overseas, working or otherwise, unless we’re sure that it’s not going to end up being used for parts with most of it ending up in a landfill. A lot of companies claim to have a zero landfill policy, but the truth is that many turn a blind eye to what really happening with the equipment they ship.
For the time being, and until we have Federal legislation that pays attention to the financial motivations behind the dumping, the best we can hope for is an educated consumer who checks out the companies they use to recycle their electronics.