Contenido de la comunicación

1.   INTRODUCTION

What should be the accountability of consumers in discarding electronic waste (e-waste) such as old computers and printers?  Was it dropping off e-waste at the nearest recycling depot?  If so, how were those e-waste management programs performing?

Unfortunately, recycling programs in North America were not as green as its users believed [1].  In fact, disturbing information from several sources suggested the social cost of recycling in the past decade had been neglected on a large scale.

1.1. Size of the Problem

According to a report by UN Environment Programme, 20-50 million tonnes of e-waste was generated annually worldwide – mainly from U.S., Canada, Japan, and South Korea.

Unfortunately, environment groups estimated that only half of the e-waste collected for recycling in North America was processed domestically.  In Canada, one estimate suggested up to 80% of Canadian e-waste was shipped overseas to developing towns like Guiyu in China (Basel Action Network, “Exporting Harm”, 2001), which had become the world’s second most polluted area by some analysts.  In fact, China was producing more than one million tons of e-waste per year (Greenpeace China, Jamie Choi, 2009).  Yet, more than 90% of e-waste in China landed in open streets and small villages due to lack of environmental standards in China.  This after-thought problem was directly connected to the same credit-driven consumerism and wasteful lifestyle that fuelled global warming.  United Nations, Greenpeace, and the Basel Action Network were deeply concerned.

2. “RECYCLING” BY RELOCATION

2.1. The Business

Safety standards in North America had driven up the cost of handling and disposal to a wide margin.  Exporting e-waste to developing countries was estimated to be nearly 10 times more cost-effective [2].  In Guiyu, an estimated 150,000 workers or 80% of the residents in some villages - mostly poor migrants from the countryside - endured health risks for a higher income (Associated Press, Christopher Bodeen, 2007).  Local entrepreneurs who founded a shop early were able to move up to middle class (Patrick Brown, 2008).

The business of recycling e-waste was reselling more precious metals such as copper, silver, and gold from circuit wires and microchips.  For the migrant workers, the business of reselling precious metals was more predictable and profitable than farming.  This was their living with a daily salary of approximately USD $1.50 in 16-hour long workdays.

In order to get to the more precious metals, one had to first remove the lead solder.  Due to absent safety regulations, open fire and acid bathers continued to be the most cost-effective way to melt and soften the solder.  As a result, the fastest and most efficient way to extract precious metals remained holding the circuit board with a clamp over an open fire or hot pan, then pull off electronic components individually with a plier - without masks or gloves.  The workers knew the risks, but they relied on this as their living and they desperately needed the money to support their family (Greenpeace, 2008).

Every year, an estimated 3M tonnes of e-Waste were relocated to China through ports in Hong Kong or Nanhai before onshore transportation to major hubs like Guiyu (Patrick Brown, 2008).  The transfer of e-waste from developed countries to developing countries was criminal by the UN Basel Convention, but enforcement would require more resources than some profit-driven enterprises would care to allocate - authorities at the Hong Kong port, on average, received 4 ocean vessel arrivals and 2,800 containers per hour [3].

Recently, provincial Chinese authorities found that large scale import of legal scrap metal was far more profitable and less dangerous.  Unfortunately, the local economy at Guiyu and others like it depended almost entirely on processing e-waste.

2.2. The Impact

Migrant workers and children living in Guiyu were at considerable health risk (Basel Action Network, 2001).  According to early research by Dr. Xia Huo, a medical researcher at Shantou University, there appeared to be an elevation of blood lead levels (BLLs) in nearly 80% of the children living in Guiyu.  While normal BLL levels were 10 μg/dL (micrograms per decilitre of blood), the average level for children in Guiyu was 15.3 μg/dL [4].  The study concluded there could be correlation between the BLLs in children and the number of unregulated e-waste workshops in the area.  Other activities that led to health concerns included:

• Shredding plastic from computers with workers and children nearby without masks - breathing in the dust as they separated the plastic by colour

• Sweeping printer toner out of ink cartridges cartridge without masks

• Soaking circuit boards in highly corrosive acid to pull off microchips – releasing very strong nitric and mercuric acid clouds in the process

In addition to health concerns, the earth and water in some area were contaminated beyond redemption.  The soil was saturated with lead, chromium, and tin.  Remaining computer parts and residue were dumped along the nearest river.  As a result, residents could not drink the local water from the river and must buy imported bottled water.  Those who could not afford the price of bottled water were forced to drink underground water, which could lead to digestive problems (Greenpeace, 2008).

2.3. The Politics

Not all local residents and government officials were ignorant of the inherited health risks and environmental consequences.  However, residents and officials who benefited from e-waste management did not want attention from the media since the local economy depended heavily on it.  They could lose their revenue stream from the steady supply of imported e-waste if the unsafe and dirty practices received attention.  For this reason, reporters had very limited access to these facilities; police and officials also decided to look the other way.

With pressure from Beijing, provincial government campaigns designed to enforce the law were slowly putting unsafe and dirty practices out of business - the most dangerous practices were no longer done in public or towns.  In summary, the central government and regional authorities tried to enforce the ban on e-waste, but local officials had so far ignored the law for the most part – relocating dirty work to more remote villages.

3. SOLUTIONS

International treaties, regulations, and law were already in place.  The enforcement of those laws and treaties through environmental standards and open collaboration with local Chinese authorities for additional presence on the street could be effective first steps.  However, the fact remained that e-waste were primarily imported from North America.  A more sustainable solution must address the source of the problem – unnecessary and wasteful consumption made possible by credit and excessive borrowing.  For Americans, Canadians, and the citizens of the world, the more sustainable solution to eliminate e-waste was to prevent consumption and change social attitudes toward the necessities of “upgrade”.

The average lifespan of computers in developed countries has dropped from six years in 1997 to just two years in 2005 [5].  Moore’s Law forecasted the number of transistors on an integrated circuit (IC) could double approximately every two years – nearly the same lifecycle of mobile phones.  This meant computers could be 10 times slower than the latest model in less than 8 years.  As Moore`s Law accelerated, so did the rate of e-waste in society as marketers pushed consumer harder and harder to upgrade to the latest model.  In one regard, Moore’s Law was also foreshadowing the rate of increase in e-waste.  One way to prevent e-waste was to prolong the life of existing hardware.  Why must consumers upgrade to new hardware to see productivity gain?  What about software?

Software design that led to efficiency and productivity gain could be another way to prolong the life of consumer electronic goods.  For instance, Princeton University and the University of Pittsburgh published an article, “HashCache: Cache Storage for the Next Billion”, which suggested a method of caching that used 6 to 20 times less memory than current techniques while still providing comparable or better performance [6].  HashCache had been successfully deployed in two locations in Africa with plans for further deployments in the developing-world.  Extending the life of existing hardware by designing smarter software to complete the same task could reduce e-waste.

However, since exporting e-waste to developing countries was estimated to be nearly 10 times less costly, software developers must design solutions that increased productivity by more than 10 times to successfully convince consumers in retaining the hardware – not an easy feat.  For this reason, the power rested with the consumers to make immediate impacts.  Reselling consumer electronics on Craig’s List or eBay could reduce the amount of e-waste.  Reselling any unused electronics before the end of their second year to capture the remaining salvage value could be a good way to convert unused goods into working cash as well as prolonging the life of manufactured goods.  In closing, the continued use and reuse of consumer electronics could eliminate e-waste.  Shipping computers and electronic goods to people who could not afford them in developing countries could be charity in nature, but it was insufficient when the recipients could neither understand English nor integrate the benefit of computers in their daily lives.

Bibliografía/Referencias

• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (2008, October 22).  The National, [online]. Toronto, Canada: Brown, Patrick.  Recovered September 5 2009, from http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/environmentscience/ewaste_dumping_ground.html

• Associated Press (2009, April 3).  Technology, [online]. Guiyu, China: Bodeen, Christopher.  Recovered September 13 2009, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/article798844.ece

• Government of Hong Kong (2008). Hong Kong: The Facts, [online]. Hong Kong, China.  Recovered September 13 2009, from http://www.yearbook.gov.hk/2008/en/pdf/E-Facts.pdf

• Environ Health Perspect  (2006, September 8).  Shantou University Medical College, [online]. Shantou, China: Huo, Xia.  Recovered March 28 2007, from http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1913570

• Greenpeace (2008). The e-Waste Problem, [online].  Recovered September 13 2009, from http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/the-e-waste-problem

• Princeton University (2009). HashCache: Cache Storage for the Next Billion, [online].  New Jersey, USA: Badam, Anirudh.  Recovered September 14 2009, from http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~abadam/papers/hashcache.pdf

Reconocimiento - Nocomercial - SinObraDerivada (CC-by-nc-nd 3.0 o cualquier otra posterior)