space Press Releases, News Stories

By Kendra Mayfield, Wired News

3 June 2002 -- Obsolete computers, televisions, VCRs and cell phones are flooding landfills and incinerators, causing hazardous substances such as lead and mercury to seep into the environment.

Now, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to change its universal waste rule to encourage re-use and recycling, rather than dumping, of electronic equipment.

But the EPA's plan doesn't go far enough, critics say. Electronic junk "recycled" in the United States is likely to be shipped to China, India or Pakistan, where it ends up in waterways or burned in rice fields, instead of being re-used as high-tech materials on store shelves.

"We think it's a good first step to addressing the e-waste problem," said Michael Bender, executive director of the Mercury Policy Project. "But it doesn't address the large percentage of computers that are dumped on developing countries outside the United States, nor does it address the need for recycling standards to avoid scam recycling."

Electronic waste is "the most rapidly growing waste problem in the world," according to Leslie Byster, communications director for the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

Improper disposal of e-waste that contains heavy metals and pollutants poses a significant threat to human health, leading to respiratory illness, skin infections, stomach disease and other conditions.

Computer or television monitors contain cathode ray tubes, which typically contain enough lead to be classified as hazardous waste when being recycled or disposed of. A typical computer monitor may contain up to eight pounds of lead.

The EPA's proposed rules would classify CRTs as reusable products, rather than waste. The proposal would also lift the waste designation from glass removed from CRTs and streamline regulations for mercury-containing equipment, such as barometers, switches and temperature gauges.

The EPA hopes that the proposal will encourage reuse and recycling of the more than 250 million computers in the United States that may become obsolete in the next five years.

But critics say that the EPA's action fails to address the growing number of computers, televisions and other electronics that are improperly recycled domestically or exported overseas.

"We think there isn't yet a significant infrastructure to ensure that all computer parts (and other electronics) will actually get recycled and that they won't get stored at the expense of local governments or shipped overseas," said David Wood, program director of the GrassRoots Recycling Network.

The EPA's plan won't address the abundance of old computers that already sit in basements and warehouses.

Another problem is the "planned obsolecense that manufacturers are building in to products is being expanded exponentially," Bender said.

E-waste is expected to grow with the profusion of DVDs, pagers and cell phones with shorter life-spans that are yet to hit store shelves.

"As technology increases and the demand for technology increases, more and more products will be entering the waste-stream," Wood said. "As we use more circuit boards and introduce things like flat-panel TVs, we are putting whole new types of toxins into the environment, for which toxicological data are not yet available."

"We're not just talking about electronics," Bender agreed. "We're talking about any materials that manufacturers produce with large amounts of plastics, metals or hazardous constituents."

Earlier this year, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and the Basel Action Network issued a report revealing just how big the e-waste problem is.

According to the report, "Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia," between 50 and 80 percent of e-waste collected for recycling is shipped overseas.

"It's cheaper to put (electronic junk) on a container ship to China than it is to find a company in the United States that will recycle it responsibly," Wood said.

In South China, residents with no safety equipment recover metal parts from electronic waste by smashing monitors to get CRT tubes, exposing themselves to toxic poisons.

According to the report, the United States is the only developed country in the world that has failed to ratify the Basel Convention, a United Nations environmental treaty which has adopted a global ban on hazardous waste exports from the most developed countries to the developing world.

Activists say that the United States should follow Europe's lead and pass a directive on e-waste. Manufacturers should pay the cost of collecting and recycling electronic goods, they argue.

Company take-back programs, like Dell Computer's DellExchange and HP's recycling program, will pick up unwanted computer equipment from any manufacturer and recycle it in the United States for a fee.

But some U.S. companies, like Dell, have been criticized for using prison labor to reprocess computers and cut recycling costs.

"Companies are scrambling to do everything they can to avoid taking responsibility for the product like they are in Europe," Bender said. "We want them to do something that is at least as stringent as what they are expected to do in Europe."

"We should make the brand owners and the producers of equipment responsible at the end of their useful life," agreed Wood, who is also organizing director of the Computer TakeBack Campaign.

The EPA's proposed rules are now open for public comment. Critics say that consumers should petition for recycling standards and a proposal that does more than simply streamline regulations. "It is a necessary step," Bender said. "But it leaves out more than it addresses."