America Ships Electronic Waste Overseas

NewsToBeRead

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071118/exporting_e_waste.html

AP
America Ships Electronic Waste Overseas
Sunday November 18, 2:28 pm ET
By Terence Chea, Associated Press Writer
American Consumers Unwittingly Fuel Toxic Global Trade in Electronic
Waste


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Most Americans think they're helping the earth
when they recycle their old computers, televisions and cell phones.
But chances are they're contributing to a global trade in electronic
trash that endangers workers and pollutes the environment overseas.

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.

Many so-called recyclers simply sell the working units and components,
then give or sell the remaining scrap to export brokers.

"There are a lot of people getting away with exporting e-waste," said
John Bekiaris, chief executive of San Francisco-based HMR USA Inc.,
which collects and disposes of unwanted IT equipment from Bay Area
businesses. "Anyone who's disposing of their computer equipment really
needs to do a thorough inspection of the vendors they use."

The problem could get worse. Most of the 2 million tons of old
electronics discarded annually by Americans goes to U.S. landfills,
according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. But a growing
number of states are banning such waste from landfills, which could
drive more waste into the recycling stream and fuel exports, activists
say.

Many brokers claim they are simply exporting used equipment for reuse
in poor countries. That's what happened in September, when customs
officials in Hong Kong were tipped off by environmentalists and
intercepted two freight containers. They cracked the containers open
and found hundreds of old computer monitors and televisions discarded
by Americans thousands of miles away.

China bans the import of electronic waste, so the containers were sent
back to the U.S.

The company that shipped out the containers was Fortune Sky USA, a
Cordova, Tenn.-based subsidiary of a Chinese company. General manager
Vincent Yu said his company thought it was buying and shipping used
computers, not old monitors and televisions, and is trying to get its
money back.

Fortune Sky exports used computers and components to China, Malaysia,
Vietnam and other Asian countries.

"There's a huge market over there for secondhand computers that we
don't use anymore," Yu said. "I don't think it's going to cause any
pollution. If the equipment can still be used, then that's good for
everybody."

Yu refused to say where he bought the material, but Basel Action
Network tracked it to a San Antonio, Texas, company that collects
computers, printers and other electronics from schools and businesses.

Activists complain that most exporters don't test units to make sure
they work before sending them overseas.

"Reuse is the new excuse. It's the new passport to export," said
Puckett of Basel Action Network. "Other countries are facing this glut
of exported used equipment under the pretext that it's all going to be
reused."

At the other end at customs, the goods don't always get checked
either.

"It is impossible to stop and check every single container imported
into Hong Kong," said Kenneth Chan of Hong Kong's Environmental
Protection Department. "Smugglers may also deliberately declare their
.... waste as goods."

In the first nine months of this year, Hong Kong authorities returned
85 containers of electronic junk, including 20 from the U.S.

Exporting most electronic waste isn't illegal in the United States.
The U.S. does bar the export of monitors and televisions with
cathode-ray tubes without permission from the importing country, but
federal authorities don't have the resources to check most containers.

The EPA recognizes the problem but doesn't believe that stopping
exports is the solution, said Matt Hale, who heads the agency's office
of solid waste. Since most electronics are manufactured abroad, it
makes sense to recycle them abroad, Hale said.

"What we need to do is work internationally to upgrade the standards
(for recycling) wherever it takes place," he said.

The EPA is working with environmental groups, recyclers and
electronics manufacturers to develop a system to certify companies
that recycle electronics responsibly. But so far the various players
have not agreed on standards and enforcement.

Many activists believe the answer lies in requiring electronics makers
to take back and recycle their own products. Such laws would encourage
manufacturers to make products that are easier to recycle and contain
fewer dangerous chemicals, they say.

Eight states, including five this year, have passed such laws, and
companies such as Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Sony now take back
their products at no charge. Some require consumers to mail in their
old gear, while others have drop-off centers. HP says it also now
designs its equipment with fewer toxic materials and has made it
easier to recycle.

Basel Action Network: http://www.ban.org/

Computer Take Back Campaign: http://www.computertakeback.com/

International Association of Electronics Recyclers:
http://www.iaer.org/