Basel Action Network / Electronics Take Back Coalition:
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 7, 2008
1:48 AM
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CONTACT: Basel Action Network / Electronics Take Back Coalition
Sarah Westervelt at BAN in Seattle: 1.206.652.5555, or swestervelt@ban.org
Barbara Kyle at ETBC in San Francisco: 415-206-9595, or bkyle@etakeback.org
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Beware Electronics “Recyclers” that Don’t Recycle
Consumers Warned of e-Waste Recyclers that Ship Old TVs or Computers to Developing Countries
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SAN FRANCISCO/SEATTLE - January 7 - In the wake of the Christmas electronic gadget buying season, with many buying new flat screen TVs, new cell phones and computers, the Basel Action Network (BAN) and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition (ETBC) today cautioned consumers not to be fooled by the many hundreds of businesses nationwide calling themselves electronics recyclers but in actuality most don’t do any recycling but instead ship your old TV or computer to developing countries. There it is dumped or processed with primitive, dirty technologies that threaten workers health and the global environment. The environmental groups have created a list of responsible recyclers and are asking consumers to do business only with recyclers on that list.
“We may think we’re doing the right thing by giving our old electronics to a ‘recycler’ or a free collection event,” said Sarah Westervelt, BAN’s e-Stewardship Program Director. “But many of those businesses calling themselves recyclers are little more than international waste distributors. They take your electronic items for free, or pocket your recycling fee, and then simply load them onto a sea-going container, and ship them to China, India or Nigeria.”
The Recycling Lie
Once on foreign shores your old computer or TV is likely to become part of a cyber-age horror story. In China woman and children breathe in the lead-tin solder vapors as they cook circuit boards, dioxins are produced when wires are burned and acids baths are flushed into the rivers as primitive metals extraction techniques take their toll on the local environment and the health of thousands of migrant farmers. In Nigeria the imports that are not repairable are dumped and burned in swamps. BAN revealed this sad truth as early as 2002 in their film and report “Exporting Harm: The High Tech Trashing of Asia” and again in another report and film entitled “The Digital Dump: Exporting Re-use and Abuse to Africa, in 2005.
Unfortunately, according to BAN and ETBC, the practice continues unabated in the United
States because the government refuses to ratify the Basel Convention and the Basel Ban Amendment – international accords prohibiting trade in hazardous waste to developing countries and has otherwise expressed no interest in controlling its toxic waste exports as long as they are claimed to be destined for recycling or re-use. As such exports are in contravention of international law, but not US law, US “recyclers” are able to claim they abide by all environmental laws and are even EPA approved.
Doing the Right Thing: The e-Stewards Initiative
To help distinguish between these exporters and globally responsible recyclers, BAN and ETBC created the e-Stewards Initiative – a program identifying North America’s most responsible e-Waste recyclers that have agreed to adhere to strict criteria created by the non-profit environmental groups. The criteria require that no hazardous electronics equipment or parts (as defined internationally) will be exported to developing countries or be processed by captive prison labor, and that none of it will end up in landfills or incinerators. Responsible recyclers can be found at: www.ban.org/pledge1.html or www.computertakeback.com/responsible_recycling/index.cfm. Consumers are urged to avoid recyclers not on this list including free e-waste collection events that do not state that they only use e-Stewards recyclers on this list.
“We strongly urge all consumers to avoid all but those recyclers that have qualified as e-Stewards. If your local recycler has not qualified for the program, ask them to do so. Otherwise while trying to do the right thing with recycling, you can unwittingly become a player in a global digital dumping game, and end up poisoning those in developing countries,” said Barbara Kyle, National Coordinator of ETBC.
For more information:
For photographs of electronic wastes dumped in Africa and China: http://www.ban.org/photogallery/index.html
For more information on the horrors of e-waste export read the reports Exporting Harm and The Digital Dump, found on the Basel Action Network website: www.ban.org
For a list of responsible recyclers (e-Stewards): www.ban.org/pledge1.html
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