Environmentalists seek to keep e-waste in North America
Only rarely are facilities that receive the waste capable of getting rid of it appropriately
by Tom Ramstack, All Headline News (AHN)
17 February 2011 (Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico) – Representatives from the United States, Mexico and Canada are trying to figure out a strategy this week to stop the illegal trade in electronic wastes.
The wastes, called e-wastes, can contain cancer-causing toxins such as lead, cadmium and mercury. Nevertheless, they commonly are resold in Asian or African countries where laws against dumping the wastes rarely are enforced.
Representatives from environmental agencies of the three governments are meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico.
International agreements, such as the Basel Convention, require that e-waste handlers have adequate infrastructure and trained personnel to properly dispose of the material.
However, only rarely are facilities that receive the waste capable of getting rid of it appropriately, said Marco Heredia, spokesman for the international Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).
The United States disposes of about 100 million television sets and computers each year, according to the CEC.
Mexico discards about 7 million potentially hazardous electronic devices annually and Canada about 3.5 million.
The U.S., Japanese and European governments set up e-waste recycling programs in the 1990s.
The amount of the waste soon overwhelmed recyclers, prompting them to export the equipment to foreign countries, according to the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace.
Some of it is resold in working condition, but soon ends up in landfills after relatively short use.
Other parts of the waste are recycled in India, China or Pakistan, where labor costs can be as little as one-tenth as high as Western countries.
Scrap yards in the Asian countries extract valuable substances such as copper, silver, nickel and gold.
About 19 percent of the weight of cellular phones consists of copper, according to Greenpeace.
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation says the e-waste could create environmental jobs if it is handled properly in the countries of origin.
“By fostering the recycling and refurbishment of e-waste, the CEC also aims to help fight the illegal trade of these components in and from North America,” the organization said in a statement.
Only 23 U.S. states regulate e-waste disposal, according to the CEC. The regulations commonly require electronic device manufacturers to buy back the equipment from their owners if they want to discard it.
Mexico has no law specific to e-waste but does regulate it under a more general 2003 law on hazardous materials.
The CEC was created by the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.
As concern about e-waste grows, environmentalists in Asian and African countries are calling for a ban on the imports.
In India, information technology expert Deepak Shikarpur recently complained in the news media that India was being used as a dumping ground for 50,000 tons of e-waste every year but only 11 percent of it is recycled.
“This e-waste is finally burnt in the open, along with garbage, releasing large amounts of mercury and lead into the atmosphere,” Shikarpur reportedly said.
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.
More News
|
