UK Man Sentenced To 16 Months For Exporting 'E-Waste' Despite 91% Reuse 212
retroworks writes: The Guardian uses a stock photo of obvious electronic junk in its coverage of the sentencing of Joseph Benson of BJ Electronics. But film of the actual containers showed fairly uniform, sorted televisions which typically work for 20 years. In 2013, the Basel Convention Secretariat released findings on a two-year study of the seized sea containers containing the alleged "e-waste," including Benson's in Nigeria, and found 91% of the devices were working or repairable. The study, covered by Slashdot in Feb. 2013, declared the shipments legal, and further reported that they were more likely to work than new product sent to Africa (which may be shelf returns from bad lots, part of the reason Africans prefer used TVs from nations with strong warranty laws).
Director of regulated industry Harvey Bradshaw of the U.K. tells the Guardian: "This sentence is a landmark ruling because it's the first time anyone has been sent to prison for illegal waste exports." But five separate university research projects question what the crime was, and whether prohibition in trade is really the best way to reduce the percentage of bad product (less than 100% waste). Admittedly, I have been following this case from the beginning and interviewed both Benson and the Basel Secretariat Executive Director, and am shocked that the U.K. judge went ahead with the sentencing following the publication of the E-Waste Assessment Study last year. But what do Slashdotters think about the campaign to arrest African geeks who pay 10 times the value of scrap for used products replaced in rich nations?
Director of regulated industry Harvey Bradshaw of the U.K. tells the Guardian: "This sentence is a landmark ruling because it's the first time anyone has been sent to prison for illegal waste exports." But five separate university research projects question what the crime was, and whether prohibition in trade is really the best way to reduce the percentage of bad product (less than 100% waste). Admittedly, I have been following this case from the beginning and interviewed both Benson and the Basel Secretariat Executive Director, and am shocked that the U.K. judge went ahead with the sentencing following the publication of the E-Waste Assessment Study last year. But what do Slashdotters think about the campaign to arrest African geeks who pay 10 times the value of scrap for used products replaced in rich nations?
And yet (Score:2)
Re: And yet (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the problem with Capitalism these days, if you're not bribing the right people in government, you can't sell stuff.
Re: And yet (Score:4, Insightful)
How is that a capitalism problem? Capitalism puts emphasis on the private sector, not the government. Furthermore, I don't think this is even something advocated by any private entities. All of the lobbying behind this is environmentalist groups (which actually tend to lean socialist and/or communist) who think that they're doing the planet a favor by preventing used electronics from going to countries that are often the last stop in the useful life of goods (when they "recycle" them, they send to scrap the valuable raw materials, and just trash or burn the rest.)
In this case, you have to decide what is worse: Preventing all technology exports to these countries (which guarantees that they'll remain in third world status forever) or allowing about 20% of these goods to end up being discarded on the ground.
This problem is cultural in nature rather than cost related in nature. For example, in countries like Liberia it is actually common for people to defecate in public and just leave it there (they don't even bury it,) and often eat in the same place (breaking the old "don't shit where you eat" rule.) This creates a health AND environmental hazard that really has nothing to do with technology or politics, rather it's just really bad decisions made by the people over there.
Depriving them of technology will NOT solve this problem.
Re: (Score:3)
In this case, you have to decide what is worse: Preventing all technology exports to these countries (which guarantees that they'll remain in third world status forever) or allowing about 20% of these goods to end up being discarded on the ground.
False dichotomy. The computers can be sorted into useful and not before shipment.
Re: (Score:2)
False dichotomy. The computers can be sorted into useful and not before shipment.
Well...no. Remember this is the LAST STOP. Even if it is useful when it arrives, it doesn't stay useful forever. And once it stops being useful, then where does it go?
Re: (Score:3)
Where do ours go if we can't dump them on Africa?
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not so sure. The stuff is sorted by chunks and in bulk. No one ever desolders components to remove specific toxic components. Rather they strip out the wires, separate a picture tube, and grind the rest up. Often they send this stuff to third world countries where the labor rates are better for handling waste (and regulations more lax).
Europe does have laws that the original manufacturer must accept the products for recycling, but there's no guarantee that they will do the sorts of recycling that th
Re: (Score:2)
And once it stops being useful, then where does it go?
My environmental training goes basically 'reduce, reuse, recycle, only then discard.
As such, I think there's serious issues with this case. Even if they end up discarded rather than recycled, from what I've read recycling is often not all that 'environmental', due to the pollution and waste caused by the act of collection and recycling. Reuse avoids the expense of tear-down and rebuild, and is thus often cheaper*.
Worst case I think is that the stuff ends up stored in a dump until it becomes economical to
Re: (Score:2)
TFA talks specifically about CRTs. It really doesn't matter whether or not they still work - You can't give the damned things away. If you leave it on the curb with a "free" sign, you'll come home to find someone has smashed the end off to get the five-pounds-of-copper yoke, and left the rest there for you to sweep up.
So if some 4th-worlders can make use of obsolete-but-still-functioning monitors, hey, great! Why wouldn
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Damn, you're stupid.
Most of these "environmental" laws exist to stifle the used product market, preventing manufacturers from being undercut by their own older models. This is capitalism buying regulations in their favor.
Re: And yet (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, the party elite in the soviet union were bribed regularly in order to make sure things happened when they needed to. A government demanding bribes for doing what it's supposed to do is not 'capitalism.'
Re: (Score:2)
No, it's "greedy". And considering greed is one of the main reasons why people go into politics, it's system independent.
Ah, it's heart warming to see that after all at least some creeds unite politicians all over the globe.
Re: (Score:2)
It's the capitalism we've got. The theoretical perfect capitalism would function without bribes, but then so would the theoretical perfect socialism.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey keep quiet. if the NSA used host files snowden would've failed. Don't give them ideas.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It's the logical result of capitalism: You get the best government money can buy.
Re: (Score:3)
Capitalism is defined as a system in which private property rights are respected and people have the right to trade. A system which requires bribing officials to use force to limit trade of private property or sieze the private property of others, by definition, falls outside that definition.
But yeah, this is a long-lost battle to redefine the word amongst the public to mean "whatever evil shit corp
Re:And yet (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:And yet (Score:5, Interesting)
Dell has a program here where I live to destroy all computers that are donated to Goodwill. It doesn't matter if it's two years old or ten years old, if you donate a PC to Goodwill, Dell has a bounty on it and off it goes to the shredder.
I'd hardly call it a 'green' program. It's Dell insuring that there isn't a strong secondary market for PCs. It's heartbreaking sometimes to see the nice new keyboards, mice, and displays come out on the sales floor, and know that recent-vintage machines were probably donated with them.
Oh, and it's because the bogey-man would get the 'information' on the hard drives. And... and... and... somebody might install something from Microsoft on the machines that they didn't properly pay for... or worse... something other than Microsoft.
Re: (Score:2)
This isn't really Dell, but many people just do not want an older computer, even if poor or a charity. Definitely the schools refuse this stuff, they sometimes even refuse new stuff if it's not high enough quality.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Last time I checked most of the crap that we consider bleedin' edge technology is manufactured by the yellow man, with the software inside being made by the light brown man.
If you want to be racist, at least choose your battles in such a way that you don't look like white trash in the end.
Re: (Score:2)
Arbitrage is not for you (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember, arbitrage is only legal when dealing with intangible financial instruments. Arbitrage with actual products is gauche and therefore punishable.
Punishing the little fry ... (Score:2, Insightful)
If the arbitrage was carried out by humongous multinationals, such as Japan's Mitsubishi Group or America's GE's, no, nobody dare to punish them
It's only punishable when small fry does it, small fry like that Mr. Benson in TFA
The headline is juicy, but hides a real problem. (Score:3)
The way quite a bit of e-waste gets out of countries with strong regulations is by being shipped in "working" or "repairable" units, which are in principle allowed by law, even though they are actually waste. So this may be a bad thing, or may be a good thing, depending on the details. The mere fact that the devices are working or repairable does not mean that they aren't waste--if someone gave you a working 20-year-old TV, would you want it?
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
The way quite a bit of e-waste gets out of countries with strong regulations is by being shipped in "working" or "repairable" units, which are in principle allowed by law, even though they are actually waste. So this may be a bad thing, or may be a good thing, depending on the details. The mere fact that the devices are working or repairable does not mean that they aren't waste--if someone gave you a working 20-year-old TV, would you want it?
If I didn't already have something better, then yes, I would want it. My current main television is about 10 years old, and I bought it used two years ago to replace another that was 14 years old and needed an expensive repair.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
What would you watch on it? Where would you get the power to run it?
Re: (Score:2)
Probably whatever OTA Analog broadcasts are around ( no digital receivers so older analog is fine), VHS / DVDs from players from the same era, and whatever the local market that wants the damn things has available ETC.
Just because you are privileged and can afford cable / digital OTA / blueray ETC doesn't mean there isn't a market ( which there obviously is ) for older tech in less privileged areas.
Besides, I would rather see the stuff being used than have to have plants built for stripping the old crap of
Re: (Score:2)
I have a friend who runs a 16:9 CRT TV, he watches IPTV that comes through ADSL on the ISP provided box, and digital movies from Samba shares on his desktop computer, which is connected to a 100Hz CRT monitor. I was amazed that he set up the shares himself, lol.
Downloaded SD movies look and sound better than ever, by the way. Generated by competent people, from BD rips and with the sound in at least AAC 128K if you're lucky.
Re: (Score:3)
I live in the UK, and I am using a desktop 3 years old, the family PC is over five years old, and our laptops that are 5 year old Lenovo T61's because they are better than the newer models. We dont play games on PCs - we have Android phones for that. PCs are for LibreOffice and Firefox (and the
Re: (Score:2)
Aljazeera news and Nollywood movies - so much better than Fox News and Hollywood.
Where would you get the power to run it?
From a Honda Generator.
Re: (Score:2)
Where would you get the power to run it?
From a Honda Generator.
Ahh, that was the old days. Now people buy china generators. They don't live long enough to get exported. They just get scrapped when they fail utterly, or when they're missing too many parts you can't get.
Re: (Score:2)
My current main television is about 10 years old, and I bought it used two years ago to replace another that was 14 years old and needed an expensive repair.
You are not the "norm". For the majority of consumers 2 years old is obsolete.
Re: (Score:2)
My current main television is about 10 years old, and I bought it used two years ago to replace another that was 14 years old and needed an expensive repair.
You are not the "norm". For the majority of consumers 2 years old is obsolete.
For the majority of consumers in the first world. If you ever traveled more than 10 miles from your house you might find that other people live differently than you do. A 10 year old TV in some communities in India is a luxury!
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm, I just now replaced a TV that was15 years old, only replaced because it was breaking down. (I still have it though, it's too heavy to drag down to the recyclers)
Remember several decades back when there were still television repair shops, so you'd go to have it fixed, replace the picture tubes, tune the chokes, etc?
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm, I just now replaced a TV that was15 years old, only replaced because it was breaking down. (I still have it though, it's too heavy to drag down to the recyclers)
Remember several decades back when there were still television repair shops, so you'd go to have it fixed, replace the picture tubes, tune the chokes, etc?
There's a perfectly functional Sanyo TV, matching DVD player, and VHS tape deck from 2002 sitting in my entertainment center.
Right next to a 1970s Lafayette Electronics (remember their electronics kits and Ham/CB radios?) analog stereo receiver, the kind with slide-rule AM/FM dial for the tuner portion, and an analog signal-strength/FM-stereo-signal-centering meter. That powers two pairs of 12"-woofer Rat-Shack "Optimus" speakers from the early 1980s. Still sounds great, and easily powerful/loud enough to r
Re: (Score:2)
That's so 5 years ago.
Today people may consider it "obsolete", but lacking the funds to replace it with something new, it'll have to do. And just WHY people don't buy new crap, whether they are like my dad who just recently realized that he might ponder considering replacing his VHS recorder with a DVD player ("It's still working, ya know?") and who buys a new computer every 10 years or so ("it's still working and I don't run it on battery anyway"), or whether they simply cannot afford a new set despite wan
Re: (Score:2)
You're both correct and both incorrect.
In the USA the average TV is replaced at about
six years old [displaysearch.com]. It used to be longer.
I might consider my TV obsolete, but it's not so bad as to require replacement yet. Same with my computer. Going by family history what tends to happen is that the main TV in the living room gets replaced by a bigger/better one, then the old TV there moves downstairs to the family room, that one ends up in a bedroom, etc...
Re: (Score:2)
It's not—if they can use the TV, they will want to. The problem is that most likely they can't. Even if it's in working order, it has to be able to display the signals that are available to receive, and you have to be able to get power for it. And CRTs draw a lot of power.
Re: (Score:3)
Africa has electricity. And they have television signals that European televisions can use. And they have this anachronistic thing called the television repair shop.
What they don't have is a European/American attitude towards turning everything slightly old into trash, or the income necessary to be wasteful.
Very good point above (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, Norm!
Re: (Score:3)
These TVs are waste because they are not digital, the countries they are going to are probably a long way from going digital.
Re: (Score:2)
Even in the US a converter box or cable box takes care of the digital problem.
Re:The headline is juicy, but hides a real problem (Score:4, Interesting)
These TVs are waste because they are not digital, the countries they are going to are probably a long way from going digital.
CRTs also hold up to the elements much better, and some places do not have 24hr AC. Or any AC. (Air conditioning, not power)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Anyone has visited or lived in Africa will tell you that. You just need to look at satellite photographs of Earth at night to see that Africa has electricity. Like any rural area, the main hazards to power supply are thunderstorms and local wildlife. Power failures are frequent, along with the associated power surges and fluctuating power line voltages.
Africa is on the equator, so the climate is like Florida or New York in Summer but all year round. Sunrise at 6am, sunset at 6pm. Air conditioning is a luxur
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
blacks: the most violent uncivilized race
note - "saying those things offends me and that makes you a bad person and a big meanie head!" is not a rebuttal against anything i said.
saying those things can only offend yourself because in absence of a clear definition of "violence" and "civilization" in context it just exposes you as ignorant and racist (what a coincidence!).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If it is a small mini-portable TV that fits in the corner of a mud-brick hut, then probably yes. There isn't much space once you have a couple of bunk-beds on each side of the door, a cooker and refrigerator on the far wall, and some cupboards on each side. The only space left is an upper corner, which is just enough space for a small TV.
Re: (Score:2)
Are we talking about Africa now or about my college's dorm?
Re: (Score:2)
What about a 5 year old TV? Most of those still work, and are discarded merely because there's a newer model.
Re: (Score:2)
I find it amusing that every reply so far has focused on the rhetorical question at the end of your post, even though you hit the real issue on the head.
Sure, this equipment is nicely sorted and in usable condition, but is there a distribution network on the receiving end? Are there actual storefronts, or merely front companies for stripping operations? From TFA:
Benson was previously convicted of exporting similar hazardous waste to Nigeria in 2011, and was appealing against his conviction – unsuccessfully – while continuing to illegally export televisions and freezers to West Africa, the Environment Agency said.
It seems Mr. Benson has made a habit of this tactic, and should already know that his methods run afoul of export laws. It's not a case of the big
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, this equipment is nicely sorted and in usable condition, but is there a distribution network on the receiving end? [...] From TFA:
That's a good question, but the excerpt that you pasted does not in fact address it. Care to try again?
It seems Mr. Benson has made a habit of this tactic
The quoted section only proves that he has gotten in trouble for this before, not anything else.
what do I think? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Or Jenny McCarthy could tour your country and talk about the folly of vaccination. That actually does change a lot of minds in a lot of countries.
Re: (Score:2)
And if you were interested in politics as a European, you'd wait for your politicians to come and tell you what to think about it, then you'd have to think hard to come up with a reason why they're lying and demand that they should support the opposite, since you learned that whenever your politicians consider something important, it's important to oppose it. Especially if it is "without any alternatives", which is a sure sign that there is a very obvious and very obviously better alternative they don't wan
This is surprising. (Score:5, Interesting)
I've got a Nigerian neighbour (I live in Australia) who fills containers with electronics and sends them to Africa. I spoke to him about it and he said that they repair the stuff there, and reuse most of it. Considering that the analogue TV signal was switched off last year, and essentially all CRT TV's don't work, a lot have been dumped on streets, and they naturally been picking them up for free.
So it's surprising that they so blatantly claim that they're dumping them, when I can hardly see the sense in spending the money on shipping containers half way across the globe, only to dump it there, when it has already been dumped here. Clearly there's some thing going on which the business world isn't particularly keen on. If this person jailed was being paid to dispose of garbage and he was just dumping it in countries that don't care about dumping, then that's a different matter, but I get the feeling that our garbage is somewhat more valuable in developing countries.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And now we know just who was losing money here...
15 months - really? (Score:5, Funny)
In the UK, that's the normal sentence for defending oneself from a criminal attack or leaving your wheelie trash bin out an extra day.
Re: (Score:2)
You should get time in prison for escalating the level of violence. That's one thing the UK gets right that the USA gets wrong. Here we treat, for example, women who murder a potential rapist as a hero.
I've never seen that, although I have seen that women who murder an actual attempted rapist are seen as heroes. I have a hard time disagreeing, too, even though I am (for example) against the death penalty. I don't see it as directly contradictory, either; the death penalty is premeditated. That is murder. Killing someone to prevent a rape, that's in the heat of the moment.
I agree that being dead is worse than being raped, but you give up your right to not be killed when you attempt rape. Don't want to be k
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you think I work on 3d printing FLOSS (Score:2, Insightful)
I have volunteered many, many hours to some 3d printing FLOSS projects over the years.
There is a reason.
Manufacturing is a corrupt, bizarre industry. It does not take magic to build a vacuum cleaner. Mechanical inclination is innate to the human brain. The planned obsolescence fad has done nothing in the past 50 years except transfer wealth from the middle class to the top 1%, essentially by committing mass fraud by forcing engineers to use their skills to produce products that fail on purpose for no reason
Re: (Score:2)
The planned obsolescence fad has done nothing in the past 50 years except transfer wealth from the middle class to the top 1%, essentially by committing mass fraud by forcing engineers to use their skills to produce products that fail on purpose for no reason.
+5 - Insightful. Too bad I have no mod points left. :(
"The Economy" is indeed a kind of giant Ponzi scheme.
Re: (Score:3)
You left out a couple of words, toxic and wasteful. Not only do they drive pointless consumerism but that consumerism drives pollution and the waste of essential resources. Basically myopic insatiable greed destroying humanities future to feed today's egoistic lusts of a psychopathic minority.
Even when not repairable, source of components (Score:3, Interesting)
Valuable components for repair of other TVs can be easily desoldered from irreparably broken TVs. This would reduce the environmental load in today's world when the planet is already overloaded.
On the other hand how to dispose of the rest when the country doesn't have proper facilities for that.
I think the question whether something is waste or not and whether its good or bad to export it to third world countries is pretty complicated.
I wonder if it would be illegal to mass desolder second hand electronic components and send them to the third world country for the purpose of repair of broken TVs (regardless of questions of economy or component reliability).
If containing broken pieces makes a shipment illegal - if a manufacture ships a container of new TVs and some of them are defective, is it classified as illegal export of waste and the manufacturer goes to jail for 16 months?
Karel Kulhavy, Twibright Labs [twibright.com]
E-Waste? (Score:3)
they were more likely to work than new product sent to Africa (which may be shelf returns from bad lots, part of the reason Africans prefer used TVs from nations with strong warranty laws).
Wouldn't shipping shelf returns to Africa be e-waste as well? Is management of budget video/electronic chains going to be serving their 16 months when caught?
Lesson learned (Score:3)
Never let action get in the way of posturing. What matters is the pretense of concern, not the resolution of problems.
Rosewill (Score:2)
As many of you should know, Rosewill is the house brand for NewEgg.
A few years ago they started selling fairly decent quality mechanical keyboards ( not as good as some high end keyboards, but certain good quality ).
Almost everything on these keyboards is repairable. If a keyswitch breaks you can buy a new a new one and solder it in. If the controller breaks you can replace it.
Even if the pc board breaks, you can get a "phontom" pc board and reuse the parts and the case.
What you cannot do is purchase it fr
Re: (Score:2)
So you can buy a cheap keyboard that breaks in six months
I've never broken a keyboard through typing alone, and I type a lot. What are you doing to break your keyboards in 6 months?
Re: (Score:2)
What's your idea of "crappy cheap notebook with the crappy cheap keyboards" that breaks all the time?
I buy cheap, and the keyboards don't break. Take a hammer to the keyboard, however.... Are you saying you type with a hammer?
That's not a euphemism...
Re: (Score:2)
What you cannot do is purchase it from NewEgg in Illinois and two other states ( NC and NY IIRC ). Why because of the ewaste regulations. So you can buy a cheap keyboard that breaks in six months and basically has to be thrown out, but you cannot buy a keyboard that is meant to last ten years and even then be repaired.
Your comment is frustrating because it does not explain why the e-waste regulations do not permit sale of these devices, and so we have no way to know whether NC and NY are being lame, or Newegg is.
Recycling (Score:3)
The last thing that the manufacturers want are people to reuse old equipment. Each is a loss of a potential sale of a new unit. In the perverse eyes of capitalism.
Re: (Score:2)
I think the problem you're pointing out is a cultural one - the belief that profit "above all else" is the primary directive of shareholders, rather than value creation.
Back when things were "built to last", that was under more of a Capitalist sytem than we have today. The asshole MBA types have taken over management at every level, with their "what we c
Re: (Score:3)
Back when things were "built to last", that was under more of a Capitalist sytem than we have today. The asshole MBA types have taken over management at every level, with their "what we can we leverage to squeeze greater profit out of this" destructive mentality.
Uh no. Squeezing is the basic tenet of capitalism. Whatever the market will bear, remember? There is nothing uncapitalistic about making your products shitty so that you can collect more profit. And there's nothing uncapitalistic about spending your ill-gotten gains on bribes to support your business, either. That's just reinvestment.
Re: (Score:2)
Uh no. Squeezing is the basic tenet of capitalism.
"Uh no", it isn't. Where do you see that in the definition Capitalism? The definition of Capitalism is a system in which private property rights are respected and people have the right to trade. NOWHERE in there does it EITHER compel you to create value while earning profit OR destroy it in the name of profit. Therefore, it's a cultural/individual choice within the confines of the definition of Capitalism.
Squeezing the market may be what they put in the
Re: (Score:2)
And there's nothing uncapitalistic about spending your ill-gotten gains on bribes to support your business
By the very definition of the word "capitalism", spending money on bribes to get the government to use force to artificially prop up your business is NOT capitalism. By definition. Seriously. Stop f'ing calling it that. That would be called a "corporatocracy" and it's the opposite of free-market capitalism.
Re: (Score:2)
Political systems HAVE NAMES. You can't just use whatever name you feel like. The system you are describing, which is what we have now, has a name, it's called a corporatocracy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Political systems HAVE NAMES. You can't just use whatever name you feel like. The system you are describing, which is what we have now, has a name, it's called a corporatocracy
False. What we have now may be that, but it's also capitalistic.
Benson video in his own words (Score:2)
bad headline is bad (Score:2)
That is all.
Re: (Score:2)
In principle, reuse is a really good thing. And in some cases it's a good thing in practice too. There are definitely things we can export to Nigeria for which Nigerians will benefit from that export. But there is also a very dirty recycling industry in the third world. For stuff they can't use, we ought to keep it and recycle it expensively, rather than shipping it there and have them die young of heavy metal exposure recycling it cheaply.
Re: (Score:3)
For stuff they can't use, we ought to keep it and recycle it expensively, rather than shipping it there and have them die young of heavy metal exposure recycling it cheaply.
I understand your sentiment, but think how it feels to be told by the first world "You can not have this stuff that you want because you can not use it responsibly." Talk about arrogance!
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, well, we also do a lot to make sure that they don't actually have the opportunity to have a safe environment, and I suspect that feels worse. Talk about arrogance!
Re: (Score:2)
Talk about arrogance!
Arrogance is being told that your actions are self-defeating and harming others, then being told that you know better and carrying on.
Re: (Score:3)
Recycling is not socialism. Recycling is profit when it makes economical sense to do so. You will find this happens with most metals and a few other products like building materials and certain types of glass. Recycling is an economic drain increasing costs to producers and thereby consumers when it doesn't make economic sense to do so. You will find this with certain paper and most plastic and quite a bit of types of glass.
The reason is because it is either more expensive or cheaper to create new materials
Re: (Score:3)
In most of Europe, they have a special tax and a requirement for recycling these devices which covers most of it. In the US, not so much that I know of.
As usual, just California. We have an e-waste recycling fee which is charged at purchase time. When you want to dispose of electronics, there is no charge. I take them to the transfer station which is convenient for me, but municipalities often have a curbside electronics _pickup_ once or twice a year. Not here, I live in the sticks, which is why there's a transfer station on the way into town from my house.
Re: (Score:3)
You're assuming that those same African consumers are buying them FOR aerial reception. DVD players aren't exactly luxury items anymore (I could walk into Wal Mart RIGHT NOW and buy a shit DVD player for about $25) and pirated DVDs of movies & TV shows are available in those countries for a pittance. I'd venture a guess that in the poorest countries, rural TV reception is barely worth bothering with ANYWAY, and most TV content gets delivered via sneakernet and open-air markets.
Also, most American CRT TV
Re: (Score:2)
You're assuming those same consumers are actually buying these TV's and they're not just being dumped in a country that doesn't ban dumping leaded glass and other toxic materials in CRT TV's..
Re: (Score:2)
Leaded glass is not a big deal - one example is those "crystal" drinking glasses. Lead on the printed circuit boards is the much bigger deal, especially if the things are burnt for gold recovery.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You not only assume that this shit DVD player is available in Africa, you also assume that 25 bucks ain't a shitload of money and then some to some people...
Re: (Score:2)
10-15 years ago, video CDs and VCRs were popular in those same poor countries... with hardware and media costs roughly 2-4 times what a DVD player costs now. For the third world, optical media is actually ideal... you can store it under awful conditions, re-sell it almost without limit as long as it's not physically abused, and mail it for only slightly more than the cost of mailing a postcard.
Also, there's "poverty", and there's "Poverty(tm)". Even in countries with economies healthier than, say, Niger or
Re: (Score:2)
> It's getting more difficult now that most of the TVs have been trashed.
Well, there's always "Plan B" once 3840x2100 monitors become affordable... at THAT resolution, you can literally emulate phosphor smear and misconvergence, to the point where it almost becomes indistinguishable from a "real" CRT. Increase the framerate to 240fps, and you can even emulate interlaced scanline fade (assuming the game wasn't what would now be called "240p60" with black scanline gaps).
Re: (Score:3)
I somehow doubt most corporations would like the idea of being forced to replace their entire infrastructure every two years. That would get very expensive very fast.
This actually sounds more like Keynesian theory of breaking windows to build economies (a direct violation of the classic "broken window fallacy".) For a modern example of what you just espoused, look at the Cash for Clunkers program. The environmentalists didn't care for it because it didn't further their goals, and used cars around this time
Re: (Score:2)
Industrial and commercial use of e-waste would of course be permitted. After all, it's professionals doing it. Just us idiots consumers, we have to be protected from the harm the hazardous ewaste could do to us. And our children. Oh won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!
Re: (Score:2)
Please don't give them ideas. I'm already pondering whether I should stockpile on sodium persulfate because sooner or later it will become impossible to get. Either because of environment issues or because someone found out how to use it to blow stuff up.
And NO, there is exactly NO NEED to point out how to use it to blow stuff up! I need it to make PCBs and it's already damn hard to get anything that could be used to etch them that doesn't either take half a year to accomplish anything or can't be used safe