Report is Critical of US For Dumping E-Waste Overseas 152
coondoggie writes "In what may be the least astonishing news of the day, some major US companies who say they are environmentally recycling electronic waste — aren't. Rather more startling — they are dumping everything from cell phones and old computers to televisions in countries such as China and India where disposal practices are unsafe to people and dangerous to the environment. Controlling the exportation of all of the e-waste plops on the doorstep of the US Environmental Protection Agency which is doing a woeful job, according to a scathing 67-page report issued by the Government Accountability Office today."
Re:Other countries to blame (Score:5, Informative)
From the report:
State-of-the-art facilities that can safely dismantle CRTs and other electronic gadgets:
1 Umicore (Belgium)
2 Samsung Corning (Malaysia)
Unsafe dismantling/recycling goes on largely in South-east Asia and parts of West Africa. The following countries are mentioned:
- Cambodia
- China
- India
- Indonesia
- Nigeria
- Senegal
Re:Other countries to blame (Score:3, Informative)
Their? [slashdot.org]
If you wait long enough (centuries, if necessary), this turns into 'ours' quite suddenly.
CC.
Storyofstuff (Score:4, Informative)
May I invite people to look at the "Story of Stuff"? It's a very well done small movie about the waste economy...
http://storyofstuff.com/ [storyofstuff.com]
Cheers,
B.
nationalgeographic (Score:4, Informative)
have an excellent feature on ewaste this month for free!
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/01/high-tech-trash/carroll-text [nationalgeographic.com]
"Recycled" electronics are simply burned (Score:3, Informative)
Just saw a mini-documentary on this a couple days ago. Turns out many electronic parts are simply burned to get at the precious metals.
http://current.com/items/76355482_toxic_villages [current.com]
Is there any way to get at the metals via shredding and then panning? Any material or mining engineers have any input?
Re:I don't think morals are that B/W (Score:5, Informative)
1. Most importantly, that's a bullshit strawman. Laws about drugs are mostly _internal_ laws. E.g., US citizens tell other US citizens what they can't do. Fair enough.
The only point where it becomes equivalent to what I was saying, is when you start telling another country that they're not allowed to do drugs. It happens too. And there I'll have the same position: fucking leave them alone. It's not your job to dictate world morals. Stick to your own country.
2. Actually, I'll make an even stronger claim there: why should drugs be my problem in the first place? Most are harmless enough, and there are millions of people doing drugs that haven't harmed anyone as a result.
And the usual "OMG it's addictive" argument is bull too. We do allow tobacco, which causes some pretty strong physiological addiction. As in, actual brain chemistry changes. Some drugs, e.g., hemp, don't even do that. We allow alcohol, where the withdrawal symptoms can literally _kill_ you. Look up delirium tremmens some day. That's withdrawal syndrome for alcohol addiction.
And I've worked with people who smoked pot before, and they didn't strike me as the kind that'll get violent or delirious. Now tobacco, _that_ can get funny. You keep me in a meeting for 2-3 hours without my cigarettes, and I hope you don't imagine I can still pay any attention. But somehow my nicotine addiction is considered harmless, while that mellow admin who occasionally does pot is a menace to society. Hmm...
So unless you also feel a need to tell blacks (or for that matter whites, asians, and everyone else) that they aren't allowed to smoke or drink any more, why _would_ you care about them selling heroine or coke to each other.
Re:Other countries to blame (Score:3, Informative)
I should add that my comments on "doing the right thing" were ONLY for recycling efforts. Most NZ companies throw out the trash randomly like everybody else in the world.
The main point was about greenwashing and fake-recycling.
Heard an interesting speaker recently on developing products from cradle to cradle and near 100% recycling. I believe they are starting the initiatives in Sweden. (god I love Sweden...)
ref:
http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/cradle-to-cradle-design [huddler.com]
One of his main comments was on how future generations will look down on our era as a sockingly wasteful society. Sort of how we look down on medievil times and their beliefs and way of life.
Re:I don't think morals are that B/W (Score:4, Informative)
Laws about drugs are mostly _internal_ laws. E.g., US citizens tell other US citizens what they can't do. Fair enough.
Right, which is why the US never goes into South America and targets drug production and/or manufacturing. And there's definitely no push to eradicate poppy farming in Afghanistan.
Newsflash - It isn't Columbians and Afghanis doing heroin and cocaine, it's Americans. And it's the US telling those countries what they can and can't do because they don't know how to deal with their own citizens when it comes to drugs.
Re:Other countries to blame (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Other countries to blame (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Other countries to blame (Score:3, Informative)
The scale of these electronics dumps in China defies imagination if you haven't seen them for yourself. This isn't some back ally industry that the Chinese government couldn't stop overnight if they had any mindset to do so. I'd argue that the Chinese government is just as culpable for allowing their country being a dumping ground for hazardous waste as the countries that send it are.
Is it wrong to export the waste? You bet, I work for a recycling company that doesn't, that regularly has to compete with companies with much lower overhead because they do, I'd be a lot better off if it wasn't legal, but until countries stop accepting it (and many countries particularly in Africa are banning the importation of non-functional electronics) is the blame really one sided?