October 5, 2010
Curtis Palmer/FlickrPoliticians and Silicon Valley computer giants want to stop the export of e-waste from the U.S.
Silicon Valley and some House Democrats are teaming up to stop the annual export of millions of tons of e-trash to developing nations.
Apple, Dell and Samsung support the legislation, introduced by Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Gene Green, D-Texas, which would prohibit the sale of some e-waste to countries such as China and India.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than 300 million tons of old computer hardware, mobile phones and other electronic waste was shipped out of the country in 2007.
And while the EPA says e-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the U.S., the agency has no framework to control or monitor the removal, disposal or export of this hazardous and toxic garbage to other countries.
"Every year, we scrap 400 million units of electronics in the U.S.," Thompson said in a news release. "Each piece of e-waste can be incredibly harmful to our environment. Congressional action to stop the free flow of these dangerous materials is long overdue and we must act now before it is too late."
The bill, called the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, will also spur growth in the domestic recycling industry, say the lawmakers.
Some local e-waste recyclers think the bill is missing the target.
"Let's clean up our landfills before we go clean up landfills overseas," said Eddie Inamdar, the CEO of Union City's recycle1234.com.
He said legislation should be aimed at requiring enforced e-waste recycling here in the U.S., not at simply prohibiting exports of the junk.
"Our landfills are so messed up," he said, describing the e-waste that businesses and homeowners throw out with their regular recycling. "Why should we worry about Ghana's when we do such a lousy job with our own?"
But, he does agree that the legislation will do some good.
"It'll stop everyone overseas blaming Americans for dumping our trash on them," he said.
"The marketplace has rejected the practice of dumping e-waste on developing countries, but exporting instead of recycling is still common in our industry," said Robert Houghton, president of Ohio-based asset recovery company Redemtech Inc., in a press release.
"Such so-called recyclers are virtually defrauding customers who count on them for responsible recycling, at the same time they are helping to poison workers in recycling sweat shops overseas," he said. "By ending the toxic trade in e-waste, this bill does the right thing, and will create thousands more jobs in recycling and refurbishment here in the U.S."
Posts
