Developed countries, and corporate America specifically, are pushing mountains of electronic waste (E-Waste) on developing countries. As the push for better and better performance, newer hardware with higher capacities continues, the discarded machines are being illegally unloaded on developing countries.
In 1989, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was adopted in Basel, Switzerland (the Basel Convention). The Basel Convention originally banned only hazardous waste exports to Antarctica, but has since (in 1992) succeeded in a ban of hazardous waste exports from developed countries to developing countries. In 1992, the amount of electronic waste, while significant, wasn’t nearly at the level that it is today.
Prestigious news organizations have covered the trend. This BBC article from 1996 lists some staggering numbers: “50 million tonnes of old PCs are thrown away each year” - “500 tonnes coming in daily” (to Nigeria) - “Children risk their health stripping components from the old PCs”.
So, if it’s illegal to export hazardous waste to developing countries, how does all of this “junk” get out of the developed countries? Apparently, there are unscrupulous agents who list the hardware as “used computers”. This guise of “used computers”, which implies that the hardware is useful, gives them a convenient loophole to dump the junk on developing countries. There’s no infrastructure in place in the USA, and probably not in Europe either, to *really* classify each and every system as past it’s useful life or not.
E-Cycling events are happening all over the USA. Many of these events yield multiple truckloads of castoff hardware - CPUs, monitors, disk drives, keyboards, etc - mostly from individuals. The volunteers in these events typically try to cherry pick the useful systems for non-profit and charity organizations before they make it onto the truck. While this recycling of useful systems helps the non-profits and charities, it insures that the percentage of useful systems on the truck is diminished. Nearly all of these systems will find there way onto a cargo ship to a developing country.
As the IT infrastructure turnover in America fuels “Web 2.0″, ERP and large database deployments, the same loading docks that accept the new hardware usher the old hardware out the door. The trucks take the castoff equipment away, not to new, green recycling centers that capture the raw materials and protect the environment, but to waiting cargo containers with destinations like Africa and Asia. The cocktail of toxins contained in this cargo will most likely remain there, contaminating ground water and food supplies for years to come. Corporate America is generally careful to remove storage devices from the computers to protect their precious data, but seldom does anyone ever consider the deadly toxins that still remain in the box.
When the hardware arrives at it’s destination, it’s sometimes scavenged for useful parts. But, this scavenging is not overseen by the EPA, it’s done by children and the poor, who need the $2 a day to pay for basic necessities. This $2 a day is a high price to pay for the increased risk of cancer and heavy metal poisoning that the toxins in these machine will cause. The list of toxins associated with old computers is long, and contains substances that have long since been controlled in America:
- Lead in cathode ray tube and solder
- Arsenic in older cathode ray tubes
- Antimony trioxide as flame retardant
- Polybrominated flame retardants in plastic casings, cables and circuit boards
- Selenium in circuit boards as power supply rectifier
- Cadmium in circuit boards and semiconductors
- Chromium in steel as corrosion protection
- Cobalt in steel for structure and magnetivity
- Mercury in switches and housing
We won’t allow these toxins in our landfills, but don’t mind at all sending them to a developing country.
The next time you think about upgrading your computer, think about keeping it around for a few more months. Odds are, you just need web browsing and office applications. Avoid the “CPU envy” feeling when your friends upgrade. *Don’t* upgrade just because your Windows installation is hopelessly infected - find a local Linux enthusiast and have her load one of the more user friendly distributions. You’ll have similar applications, a more robust operating system, and you’ll be keeping a machine out of the landfill. When you do decide to upgrade, check out ecycling.com for information on how to responsibly discard your old computer.
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