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Poor Nations Are Littered With Old PC's, Report Says by LAURIE J. FLYNN, New York Times
24 October 2005 – Much of the used computer equipment sent from the United States to
developing countries for use in homes, schools and businesses is often
neither usable nor repairable, creating enormous environmental problems in
some of the world's poorest places, according to a report to be issued
today by an environmental organization.
The report, titled "The Digital Dump: Exporting Reuse and Abuse to Africa," says that the unusable equipment is being donated or sold to developing
nations by recycling businesses in the United States as a way to dodge the
expense of having to recycle it properly. While the report, written by the
Basel Action Network, based in Seattle, focuses on Nigeria, in western
Africa, it says the situation is similar throughout much of the developing
world.
"Too often, justifications of 'building bridges over the digital divide'
are used as excuses to obscure and ignore the fact that these bridges
double as toxic waste pipelines," says the report. As a result, Nigeria and
other developing nations are carrying a disproportionate burden of the
world's toxic waste from technology products, according to Jim Puckett,
coordinator of the group.
According to the National Safety Council, more than 63 million computers in
the United States will become obsolete in 2005. An average computer monitor
can contain as much as eight pounds of lead, along with plastics laden with
flame retardants and cadmium, all of which can be harmful to the
environment and to humans.
In 2002, the Basel Action Network was co-author of a report that said 50
percent to 80 percent of electronics waste collected for recycling in the
United States was being disassembled and recycled under largely
unregulated, unhealthy conditions in China, India, Pakistan and other
developing countries. The new report contends that Americans may be lulled
into thinking their old computers are being put to good use.
At the Nigerian port of Lagos, the new report says, an estimated 500
containers of used electronic equipment enter the country each month, each
one carrying about 800 computers, for a total of about 400,000 used
computers a month. The majority of the equipment arriving in Lagos, the
report says, is unusable and neither economically repairable or resalable."Nigerians are telling us they are getting as much as 75 percent junk that
is not repairable," Mr. Puckett said. He said that Nigeria, like most
developing countries, could only accommodate functioning used equipment.
The environmental group visited Lagos, where it found that despite growing
technology industries, the country lacked an infrastructure for electronics
recycling. This means that the imported equipment often ends up in
landfills, where toxins in the equipment can pollute the groundwater and
create unhealthy conditions.
Mr. Puckett said the group had identified 30 recyclers in the United States
who had agreed not to export electronic waste to developing countries. "We
are trying to get it to be common practice that you have to test what you
send and label it," he said.
Mr. Puckett also said his group was trying to enforce the Basel Convention,
a United Nations treaty intended to limit the trade of hazardous waste. The
United States is the only developed country that has not ratified the treaty.
Much of the equipment being shipped to Africa and other developing areas is
from recyclers in the United States, who typically get the used equipment
free from businesses, government agencies and communities and ship it
abroad for repair, sale or to be dismantled using low-cost labor.
Scrap Computers, a recycler in Phoenix, has eight warehouses across the
United States to store collected electronics before they are shipped to
foreign destinations, and Graham Wollaston, the company's president, says
he is opening new warehouses at the rate of one a month. Mr. Wollaston, who
describes his company as a "giant sorting operation," said there was a
reuse for virtually every component of old electronic devices: old
televisions are turned into fish tanks for Malaysia, and a silicon glass
shortage has created huge demand for old monitors, which are turned into
new ones. "There's no such thing as a third-world landfill," Mr. Wollaston
said. "If you were to put an old computer on the street, it would be taken
apart for the parts."
Mr. Wollaston said the system was largely working, though he conceded that
some recyclers dump useless equipment in various developing nations, most
notably China. "One of the problems the industry faces is a lack of
certification as to where it's all going," he said. He says his company
tests all equipment destined for developing nations.
The Environmental Protection Agency concedes that "inappropriate practices" have occurred in the industry, but said it did not think the problem should
be addressed by stopping all exports.
"E.P.A. has been working with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development countries for the last several years on development of a
program that would provide much greater assurance that exports of
recyclable materials will be environmentally sound," Tom Dunne, of the
agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, wrote in an e-mail
message.
FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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