Kaitlyn B's List: Unscholarly

• 12 June 2009 (Seattle, WA.) – The toxic waste watchdog  organization, the Basel Action Network (BAN), is warning consumers to be  extremely careful about where they take their old TVs for recycling following  the nationwide conversion from analog-to-digital broadcasting. They are urging  consumers to only use qualified e-Steward recyclers, the only list identifying  electronic waste recyclers that will not export toxic TVs and other electronic  waste to a developing country.
• • note how many things are recycled and the consequences for illegally recycling to developing nations
• It has been conservatively estimated by some recyclers that due to the digital  conversion, about one in four households will get rid of a TV this year. If that  is true, it would mean 27,790,564 TVs, each containing an average of 5 pounds of  lead, will be disposed or recycled. And with 80% of this total shunted offshore  to developing countries, about 56,000 tons of toxic lead alone would be  transferred and dumped on some of the world's poorest communities.
• A 2008 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) condemned the EPA  for not having comprehensive rules to control e-waste exports and poorly  enforcing the one law that does exist for TVs and Computer monitors known as the  “CRT Rule”.[2] Since then, the EPA has begun welcomed  enforcement of that rule, but unfortunately the law contains loopholes,  exempting much of the leaded glass from regulation. BAN, together with the  Electronics TakeBack Coalition (ETBC), is currently seeking national legislation  to ban the export of all toxic e-waste (not just CRTs) to developing countries  as all European countries have already done.[3] And BAN has  created the e-Stewards Initiative – a list of responsible  e-cyclers* that have agreed not to export hazardous e-wastes to  developing countries.

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• If you're like some 80% of Americans, you'll simply toss your obsolete gizmos  into the trash. After all, that Jurassic 15-in. (38 cm) computer monitor doesn't  look as though it's packing up to 7 lb. (3 kg) of lead. Every day Americans  throw out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers, making electronic  waste the fastest-growing part of the U.S. garbage stream. Improperly disposed  of, the lead, mercury and other toxic materials inside e-waste can leak from  landfills.
• • note they think EPA is lacking? The conditions in china
• The U.S. is the only industrialized country that refused to ratify the  19-year-old Basel Convention, an international treaty designed to regulate the  export of hazardous waste to developing nations. Meanwhile, the Environmental  Protection Agency (EPA) oversees the export of only one type of  e-waste--cathode-ray tubes in old TVs and monitors--and a report last August by  the Government Accountability Office dismissed the EPA's enforcement as  "lacking."
• A lot of exported e-waste ends up in Guiyu, China, a recycling hub where  peasants heat circuit boards over coal fires to recover lead, while others use  acid to burn off bits of gold. According to reports from nearby Shantou  University, Guiyu has the highest level of cancer-causing dioxins in the world  and elevated rates of miscarriages.

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• • What ewaste has done to developing countries and how big the problem really is
• Agbogbloshie has become one of the world's digital dumping grounds, where the  West's electronic waste, or e-waste, piles up -- hundreds of millions of tons of  it each year.

• “Life is really difficult; they eat here, surrounded by e-waste,” Anane tells  them. “They basically are here to earn a living. But you can imagine the health  implications.”
• “Some are from Germany and the U.K., and also from America,” he says, when asked  where the equipment has come from. He sorts through them looking for working  electronics that can be sold. He says that maybe 50 percent of the shipment is  junk and the rest he will be able to salvage in some way.

• As part of the investigation, one of the students buys a number of hard  drives to see what is on them, secretly filming the transaction to avoid the  seller's suspicions.

   

  The drives are purchased for the equivalent of US$35.

• Just a few miles from Hong Kong’s port, hidden behind eight-foot-high  corrugated walls, are mountains of computer monitors, printer cartridges from  Georgia, relics of old video arcades…
  
  In China, e-waste has become big  business.

   

  The southern Chinese city of Guiyu has been completely built around the  e-waste trade. Miles and miles of nothing but old electronics.

• The man explains how hundreds of thousands of tons of American e-waste makes  its way into China, despite laws intended to stop it.

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• Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical  and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) describes loosely discarded, surplus,  obsolete, broken, electrical or electronic devices. The processing of electronic  waste in developing countries causes serious health and pollution problems  because electronic equipment contains some very serious contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium and brominated flame retardants. Even in  developed countries recycling and disposal of e-waste involves significant risk  for examples to workers and communities and great care must be taken to avoid  unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaching of materials such as heavy  metals from landfills and incinerator  ashes.
• • define electronic waste
    
• Guiyu in the Shantou region of China, Delhi and Bangalore in India as well as the Agbogbloshie site near Accra, Ghana have electronic waste processing areas.^[9][17][18] Uncontrolled  burning, disassembly, and disposal can cause a variety of environmental problems  such as groundwater contamination, atmospheric pollution, or even water pollution either  by immediate discharge or due to surface runoff (especially near coastal areas),  as well as health problems including occupational safety and health  effects among those directly involved, due to the methods of processing the  waste. Thousands of men, women, and children are employed in highly polluting,  primitive recycling technologies, extracting the metals, toners, and plastics  from computers and other electronic waste.

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