Wondering what to do with your old electronics this New Year? Online guides tell consumers how to avoid sending their computers to toxic chop shops.
The holidays are a wonderful time to open those new iPods, computers, cell phones, and digital cameras. But what to do with the old electronics and their toxic chemicals ranging from mercury to lead to cadmium?
A woman in Guiyu, China, prepares to smash a computer monitor so that she can remove the copper inside it. The glass screen itself contains lead, and the inside of the monitor contains toxic phosphor dust. The lead-laden glass was later thrown in a nearby river, where it could leach lead into groundwater.
Basel Action Network, December 2001
In recent years, leading computer companies have developed programs to take back their electronics products, and some new state laws have emerged to force the issue. Now the Computer Takeback Campaign, a national coalition that pushes electronics manufacturers to accept old products, is offering a company-by-company guide to programs offered by computer makers.
Consumers who can't return a product to the manufacturer can turn to recyclers. But while various U.S. companies offer themselves up as "electronics recyclers," not all such outfits are created equal. Some do a good job, but "the majority of recyclers are not responsible recyclers," says Robin Schneider, vice chair of the Computer Takeback Program. "They are using prison labor or shipping it overseas because it is expensive to recycle in the U.S."
China, India, Nigeria and other countries are computer-dismantling sites where thousands of workers salvage copper, gold, and other materials from old electronics. Among other practices, ill-protected workers burn plastic off copper wires, releasing dioxins, and bathe old computer chips in acid baths to recover gold, then dump acid wastes in local waterways.
Mindful of such Dickensian realities around the world, the Electronics Industry Association, which represents the $400 billion U.S. electronics industry, is promoting responsible disposal through a newly updated website, www.EcyclingCentral.com, which educates consumers about recycling and disposal options. In addition, some recyclers have come forward to pledge not to send toxic waste overseas or to prison-based dismantlers; a list of these companies is available here.
The site advises consumers on how to query recycling firms. "One thing we are trying to prevent here is the uncontrolled export of old electronics to countries that don't have the training to manage them responsibly," says Rick Goss, the association's vice president of environmental affairs. "One of the biggest challenges we have right now is, there is no widely used certification process for recyclers. For individuals, school districts, small businesses, and even local governments, it can be difficult to know who is recycling appropriately, and who is contributing to the problems we see from improper management."
Guest (stuka)
Is the industry so arrogent,that IT does not need to regulate its enviroment & recycled materials.Then let the goverment do IT to them,so all can cry about spiraling cost.I also accuse the science that gave us all these gadgets and failed to put in warnings for regulated recyling.
While I'm all for free trade, I do believe that we should internationally ban exporting waste and garbage for all purposes, except as already processed raw materials.
This way, each country would have to deal with its own junk and finance the processing as well, preferably by adding a surcharge to the cost of new devices. That would make repairs of white goods, for example, more competitive with junking the "old" dryer and getting a new one, made in China.
Current operating environment means that regardless of how much greenwash manufacturers apply, most of our old electronics are guaranteed to end up either in landfills, or getting disassembled in the cheapest and also the most polluting possible manner. Disposable items processed by disposable people.
I agree that there must be total ban on export of solid wastes from developed countries to developing like China & India because people in developing countries who import recyclable waste are utterly unmindful of other citizens's welfare and the so called "imported" trash (in addition to indigenous) could be seen in many big cities making it unlivable!
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
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kitk
76 Comments
how to do it?
what the hell is wrong with prison labor?! assuming it is US or other Western countries that do not use prisoners as slaves. the article does not bother to explain. in third-world countries, or modern communist dictatorships (read: China) prisoners are slaves at best. but in the US their labor would be voluntary, and they would make wages, and have many protections and safeties. the problem with recycling machines that are put together very intricately is that it takes more effort to dismantle them than it takes to make them in the first place. and, there are so many kinds, that nothing short of human hands can do it efficiently. I have less than sympathy for countries that allow massive pollution, when they have been given all our hard-earned knowledge of it, and its effects, and prevention. apparently everyone has to learn and advance at an individual pace.
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BandOfGypsies
2 Comments
Re: how to do it?
I concur re: prison labor, prisoners are doing certain amounts of work anyway. why not add computer dismantling to the skillset at the Gladiator Academies? Penal private penal authorities could raise money (that's split with the prisoner upon their release) by establishing a recycling/dismantling solution... if we don't do it, China will!
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