Rachel's Environmental News
October 2, 2008
When Americans haul their junk computers, TVs, and other electronic
gear to local collection centers, they get that pleasant rush that
comes with recycling and doing a small part to ensure waste containing
hazardous materials is properly treated. However, that feel-good
feeling may be mostly wishful thinking.
A government report and several recycling experts say it is likely
that much of that hazardous electronic waste is going to wind up in
developing countries where the poorest people in the world will pull
the products apart under crude and dangerous conditions -- the exact
scenario that those conscientious consumers were hoping to avoid.
"There are about five of us doing it right for every 100 recyclers in
the business," said Robert Houghton, chief executive officer of
Redemtech, an international electronics recycler based in Ohio.
Houghton was speaking at a Sept. 17 press conference just hours before
the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a damning report
on U.S. recycling companies to a congressional subcommittee.
Posing as waste buyers from developing countries, GAO investigators
made deals with U.S. recyclers, who were quite willing to circumvent
the single U.S. regulation that restricts the export of one type of e-
waste -- cathode ray tubes. The regulation allows export of CRTs, but
only with prior approval by the Environmental Protection Agency, the
agency tasked with policing such exports, and the importing country.
According to the GAO report, out of 52 recyclers who responded to
GAO's make-believe offer, 43 were willing to illegally sell junk CRTs
for export without seeking the necessary prior approval from EPA.
Adding insult to criminality, GAO says many of the scofflaw companies
actively cultivated an environmentally responsible image on websites
and in advertisements. At least three of them held Earth Day 2008
electronics recycling events to gather the e-waste they would dispose
of illegally. For instance, a Colorado recycler whose CRTs wound up in
China specifically derided the practice of exporting waste to
developing regions in its advertisements. "Your e-waste is recycled
properly, right here in the U.S., not simply dumped on somebody else,"
the ads proclaimed.
The amount of waste is huge: EPA waste surveys find that Americans
removed more than 300 million electronic devices from their homes in
2006. The equipment contains lead, mercury, copper, gold, cadmium, and
other materials that have value if removed and resold but can be
dangerous and labor-intensive to extract.
GAO's report blasts EPA enforcement, as did members of the House of
Representatives during a hearing before a subcommittee of the Foreign
Affairs Committee on Sept. 17.
Lead's Round trip
Material salvaged in developing countries from U.S. electronic junk
may be finding its way back into the U.S. A recent study in the
journal Chemosphere finds evidence showing that recycled material is
returning in the form of children's jewelry (69, 2007, 1111).
Chemistry professor Jeff D. Weidenhamer of Ashland University, in
Ohio, had his class analyze the makeup of children's jewelry that was
purchased at a local dollar store and that was made in China.
One analysis revealed a trinket to be 90% lead with about 5% antimony,
he says, making it likely to be from lead in automobile batteries.
In another study, he found jewelry made from lead, tin, and small
amounts of copper.
"The presence of a low percentage of copper was a clue that the
jewelry could be derived from scrap that included recycled solder," he
says. "That is because copper from printed wiring boards dissolves
when heated along with lead-tin solder. Electronic solders typically
have very low copper."
FOR EXAMPLE, GAO says 26 shipping containers with used CRT monitors
were blocked by Hong Kong port inspectors and shipped back to the U.S.
because they violated Hong Kong import laws. However, GAO found that
three of the containers were reshipped back to Hong Kong due to lax
U.S. enforcement. Indeed, according to the report, the reputation of
Hong Kong's enforcement officials is so superior to that of EPA
officials that one of the recyclers warned GAO's fictitious buyers not
to worry about U.S. laws, saying, "It's the laws at [the port of Hong
Kong] that you have to worry about."
GAO found a thriving international market in trade of used electronics
material, describing a buzz of shipments from industrial nations,
primarily the U.S., to developing countries. Monitoring one Internet
commerce site, GAO found 2,234 requests to purchase liquid-crystal
display monitors and hundreds of requests for used computers. Over
three months, GAO found that brokers in developing countries sought
7.5 million CRTs. More than 75% of the requests stipulated prices of
under $10 per CRT and almost half were under $5.00, signaling to GAO
that it was likely these CRTs would be unsafely pirated for their lead
and glass and disposed of dangerously.
Its report, the investigators say, corroborated past claims by
environmental groups of "crude and inefficient" disassembly methods
using "open-air burning of wire to recover copper and open acid baths
for separating metals, exposing people to lead and other hazardous
materials."
It doesn't have to be this way, GAO says, pointing to Samsung
Corning's CRT recycling operation in Malaysia. Some 250 shipping
containers totaling 4,000 tons of CRT glass leave the U.S. each month
for the center where the glass is safely recycled, according to GAO.
Calling EPA "an accomplice rather than an enforcer," Ted Smith, chair
of the nonprofit Electronics TakeBack Coalition, urged Congress to
pass legislation to quash the more common and hazardous recycling
going on in developing countries. GAO's report is the latest salvo in
a long-running battle to control, if not ban, the export of e-waste to
opportunists in developing countries who want to cheaply extract the
potential raw material without having to worry about regulatory
oversight (C&EN, Jan. 2, 2006, page 18).
In 2001, members of the Basel Action Network, a Seattle-based
nonprofit group, traveled to China. At one town, Guiyu, they found "a
cyber-age horror show," said Jim Puckett, BAN executive director, at
the press conference. "We saw thousands of laborers -- men, women, and
children making a dollar a day smashing, cracking, melting, and
cooking our old computers. The sheer volume coming in by truck each
day was stunning. Whole villages made their living cooking printed
circuit board and burning the tiny wires pulled out of computers to
extract metals."
Puckett said he returned this year and found little had changed. "If
anything, the waste has grown, and it mostly still comes from the
U.S.," he said.
BAN's report was backed up by studies published in the National
Institute of Environmental Health Science journal Environmental Health
Perspectives and recent surveys by the United Nations Environment
Programme, the GAO report notes.
There is an international treaty on exports of hazardous materials,
the Basel Convention, and it requires agreement from a receiving
country before hazardous wastes can be exported. Since 1989, the
treaty has been ratified by 170 countries but not the U.S., GAO says.
The U.S.'s sole e-waste regulation went into effect in January 2007,
due to concerns over lead in the CRTs' glass.
SINCE THEN, the GAO report says, EPA has issued only one
administrative penalty, and that was due to GAO's investigation.
GAO wants EPA to broaden the electronic material covered by hazardous
waste regulations and to develop basic components of a compliance
strategy to enforce the CRT provisions. It also urges the agency to
prepare a legislative package to bring to Congress and to encourage
U.S. ratification of the Basel Convention.
In a written response to the report, EPA said it does not believe
development of an e-waste regulatory program is appropriate. It also
charges that GAO was overemphasizing the size of the problem and that
only 15 to 20% of e-waste by weight is recycled, the rest winding up
in a landfill.
Timothy Lyons, EPA deputy press secretary, tells C&EN that EPA now has
20 investigations under way, along with the penalty cited in the
report. He stresses, however, that EPA's role is best served in
educating the regulated community and the public. He would not comment
on the status of the 20 investigations, saying they are ongoing.
Congress is preparing to fill this regulatory void, according to Reps.
Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Gene Green (D-Texas). They promised to
begin meeting next year with the electronics industry, recyclers, and
environmental groups to draw up comprehensive e-waste legislation.
Sony is among a handful of electronics manufacturers that are
establishing a national system to collect and recycle old electronic
products, said Mark Small, Sony Electronics vice president for
environment, safety, and health. "We don't allow recyclers to export
to developing countries," he explained. "We do our own audits, but we
need the help of the federal government. We can't have a system in
which 50 states and untold numbers of cities pass an array of
recycling regulations. This makes it almost impossible for us to carry
out our program."
Redemtech's Houghton noted his firm recycles products for corporate
clients in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He describes a thorough
tracking system that fully accounts for every item Redemtech receives.
Most recyclers, Houghton said, operate under a " 'don't ask, don't
tell' type of relationship and are all too happy to agree on paper to
behave responsibly. But the vast majority of people in my industry
turn around and choose to export e-waste for the economic advantages
that it offers.
"Recyclers that cheat know they are very unlikely to get caught, and
corporate customers who suspect their recycling vendors are guilty
don't worry about it because there is very little risk there will be
public disclosure that could damage their brand," Houghton
continued.
"Corporate clients enjoy a lower price to handle their recycling needs
when they work with these exporters," Houghton said. "Right now, there
is no downside. We have to replace this with a system that requires
audits and enforcement of regulations."
Copyright 2008 American Chemical Society
October 2, 2008
When Americans haul their junk computers, TVs, and other electronic
gear to local collection centers, they get that pleasant rush that
comes with recycling and doing a small part to ensure waste containing
hazardous materials is properly treated. However, that feel-good
feeling may be mostly wishful thinking.
A government report and several recycling experts say it is likely
that much of that hazardous electronic waste is going to wind up in
developing countries where the poorest people in the world will pull
the products apart under crude and dangerous conditions -- the exact
scenario that those conscientious consumers were hoping to avoid.
"There are about five of us doing it right for every 100 recyclers in
the business," said Robert Houghton, chief executive officer of
Redemtech, an international electronics recycler based in Ohio.
Houghton was speaking at a Sept. 17 press conference just hours before
the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a damning report
on U.S. recycling companies to a congressional subcommittee.
Posing as waste buyers from developing countries, GAO investigators
made deals with U.S. recyclers, who were quite willing to circumvent
the single U.S. regulation that restricts the export of one type of e-
waste -- cathode ray tubes. The regulation allows export of CRTs, but
only with prior approval by the Environmental Protection Agency, the
agency tasked with policing such exports, and the importing country.
According to the GAO report, out of 52 recyclers who responded to
GAO's make-believe offer, 43 were willing to illegally sell junk CRTs
for export without seeking the necessary prior approval from EPA.
Adding insult to criminality, GAO says many of the scofflaw companies
actively cultivated an environmentally responsible image on websites
and in advertisements. At least three of them held Earth Day 2008
electronics recycling events to gather the e-waste they would dispose
of illegally. For instance, a Colorado recycler whose CRTs wound up in
China specifically derided the practice of exporting waste to
developing regions in its advertisements. "Your e-waste is recycled
properly, right here in the U.S., not simply dumped on somebody else,"
the ads proclaimed.
The amount of waste is huge: EPA waste surveys find that Americans
removed more than 300 million electronic devices from their homes in
2006. The equipment contains lead, mercury, copper, gold, cadmium, and
other materials that have value if removed and resold but can be
dangerous and labor-intensive to extract.
GAO's report blasts EPA enforcement, as did members of the House of
Representatives during a hearing before a subcommittee of the Foreign
Affairs Committee on Sept. 17.
Lead's Round trip
Material salvaged in developing countries from U.S. electronic junk
may be finding its way back into the U.S. A recent study in the
journal Chemosphere finds evidence showing that recycled material is
returning in the form of children's jewelry (69, 2007, 1111).
Chemistry professor Jeff D. Weidenhamer of Ashland University, in
Ohio, had his class analyze the makeup of children's jewelry that was
purchased at a local dollar store and that was made in China.
One analysis revealed a trinket to be 90% lead with about 5% antimony,
he says, making it likely to be from lead in automobile batteries.
In another study, he found jewelry made from lead, tin, and small
amounts of copper.
"The presence of a low percentage of copper was a clue that the
jewelry could be derived from scrap that included recycled solder," he
says. "That is because copper from printed wiring boards dissolves
when heated along with lead-tin solder. Electronic solders typically
have very low copper."
FOR EXAMPLE, GAO says 26 shipping containers with used CRT monitors
were blocked by Hong Kong port inspectors and shipped back to the U.S.
because they violated Hong Kong import laws. However, GAO found that
three of the containers were reshipped back to Hong Kong due to lax
U.S. enforcement. Indeed, according to the report, the reputation of
Hong Kong's enforcement officials is so superior to that of EPA
officials that one of the recyclers warned GAO's fictitious buyers not
to worry about U.S. laws, saying, "It's the laws at [the port of Hong
Kong] that you have to worry about."
GAO found a thriving international market in trade of used electronics
material, describing a buzz of shipments from industrial nations,
primarily the U.S., to developing countries. Monitoring one Internet
commerce site, GAO found 2,234 requests to purchase liquid-crystal
display monitors and hundreds of requests for used computers. Over
three months, GAO found that brokers in developing countries sought
7.5 million CRTs. More than 75% of the requests stipulated prices of
under $10 per CRT and almost half were under $5.00, signaling to GAO
that it was likely these CRTs would be unsafely pirated for their lead
and glass and disposed of dangerously.
Its report, the investigators say, corroborated past claims by
environmental groups of "crude and inefficient" disassembly methods
using "open-air burning of wire to recover copper and open acid baths
for separating metals, exposing people to lead and other hazardous
materials."
It doesn't have to be this way, GAO says, pointing to Samsung
Corning's CRT recycling operation in Malaysia. Some 250 shipping
containers totaling 4,000 tons of CRT glass leave the U.S. each month
for the center where the glass is safely recycled, according to GAO.
Calling EPA "an accomplice rather than an enforcer," Ted Smith, chair
of the nonprofit Electronics TakeBack Coalition, urged Congress to
pass legislation to quash the more common and hazardous recycling
going on in developing countries. GAO's report is the latest salvo in
a long-running battle to control, if not ban, the export of e-waste to
opportunists in developing countries who want to cheaply extract the
potential raw material without having to worry about regulatory
oversight (C&EN, Jan. 2, 2006, page 18).
In 2001, members of the Basel Action Network, a Seattle-based
nonprofit group, traveled to China. At one town, Guiyu, they found "a
cyber-age horror show," said Jim Puckett, BAN executive director, at
the press conference. "We saw thousands of laborers -- men, women, and
children making a dollar a day smashing, cracking, melting, and
cooking our old computers. The sheer volume coming in by truck each
day was stunning. Whole villages made their living cooking printed
circuit board and burning the tiny wires pulled out of computers to
extract metals."
Puckett said he returned this year and found little had changed. "If
anything, the waste has grown, and it mostly still comes from the
U.S.," he said.
BAN's report was backed up by studies published in the National
Institute of Environmental Health Science journal Environmental Health
Perspectives and recent surveys by the United Nations Environment
Programme, the GAO report notes.
There is an international treaty on exports of hazardous materials,
the Basel Convention, and it requires agreement from a receiving
country before hazardous wastes can be exported. Since 1989, the
treaty has been ratified by 170 countries but not the U.S., GAO says.
The U.S.'s sole e-waste regulation went into effect in January 2007,
due to concerns over lead in the CRTs' glass.
SINCE THEN, the GAO report says, EPA has issued only one
administrative penalty, and that was due to GAO's investigation.
GAO wants EPA to broaden the electronic material covered by hazardous
waste regulations and to develop basic components of a compliance
strategy to enforce the CRT provisions. It also urges the agency to
prepare a legislative package to bring to Congress and to encourage
U.S. ratification of the Basel Convention.
In a written response to the report, EPA said it does not believe
development of an e-waste regulatory program is appropriate. It also
charges that GAO was overemphasizing the size of the problem and that
only 15 to 20% of e-waste by weight is recycled, the rest winding up
in a landfill.
Timothy Lyons, EPA deputy press secretary, tells C&EN that EPA now has
20 investigations under way, along with the penalty cited in the
report. He stresses, however, that EPA's role is best served in
educating the regulated community and the public. He would not comment
on the status of the 20 investigations, saying they are ongoing.
Congress is preparing to fill this regulatory void, according to Reps.
Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Gene Green (D-Texas). They promised to
begin meeting next year with the electronics industry, recyclers, and
environmental groups to draw up comprehensive e-waste legislation.
Sony is among a handful of electronics manufacturers that are
establishing a national system to collect and recycle old electronic
products, said Mark Small, Sony Electronics vice president for
environment, safety, and health. "We don't allow recyclers to export
to developing countries," he explained. "We do our own audits, but we
need the help of the federal government. We can't have a system in
which 50 states and untold numbers of cities pass an array of
recycling regulations. This makes it almost impossible for us to carry
out our program."
Redemtech's Houghton noted his firm recycles products for corporate
clients in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He describes a thorough
tracking system that fully accounts for every item Redemtech receives.
Most recyclers, Houghton said, operate under a " 'don't ask, don't
tell' type of relationship and are all too happy to agree on paper to
behave responsibly. But the vast majority of people in my industry
turn around and choose to export e-waste for the economic advantages
that it offers.
"Recyclers that cheat know they are very unlikely to get caught, and
corporate customers who suspect their recycling vendors are guilty
don't worry about it because there is very little risk there will be
public disclosure that could damage their brand," Houghton
continued.
"Corporate clients enjoy a lower price to handle their recycling needs
when they work with these exporters," Houghton said. "Right now, there
is no downside. We have to replace this with a system that requires
audits and enforcement of regulations."
Copyright 2008 American Chemical Society
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