According to the United Nations Environment Program, about 20 to 50 million tons of electronic waste are generated worldwide each year. A 2008 study by Greenpeace suggests only 25% of European Union e-waste and just 20% of U.S. e-waste is recycled properly.
Eighty percent of e-waste is not recycled properly. Much of it ends up overseas in cities in developing countries such as Accra, Ghana, and Guiyu, China.
The shipping of cathode ray tube (CRT) computer monitors and televisions from the United States to overseas countries is not illegal. Rules set up in 2007 by the EPA stipulate a company only needs approval from the EPA and approval from the receiving country to ship the e-waste. As long as both parties agree, no law has been broken. These rules do not apply to other electronics such as computers.
But according to the General Accounting Office, the EPA’s enforcement of these rules has been lax.
A tool to curb e-waste, but one the United States has refused to ratify, is an international agreement known as the Basel Convention. Since the 1990s, it has restricted trade in hazardous waste by other countries.
Economics is the big player in this drama. According to an October 15, 2008, report in Business Week, in Hong Kong, the e-waste import center of Asia, a container of unprocessed monitors and televisions that sells for $5,000 can net profits of $4,000, according to people familiar with the trade.
The CBS 60 Minutes report “Following the Trail of Toxic E-waste” exposed the truth about Guiyu, China, a city run by people who don’t want to lose the lucrative toxic moneymaker. According to the report, computers are broken up for recycling using the most primitive of methods: bare hands, a coal fire to melt lead solder, and what CBS called a medieval acid recipe to extract gold. Scientists have studied the area and discovered that Guiyu has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world.
The workers are peasant farmers who can’t make a living on the land. Destitute, they’ve come by the thousands to earn $8 a day breaking down computers.
According to CNN, some signs of progress are being made, however. Nokia, Philips and Samsung are setting up voluntary collection and recycling systems in countries where they are not legally obliged to. Apple claims its products are now almost entirely free of the worst toxic chemicals.
Information gathered from:
Oct. 15, 2008; Business Week E-Waste:The Dirty Secret of Recycling Electronics.
August 10, 2009; CNN: Sifting through the mounting problem of e-waste.
