Dirty Secret: How TVs, Computers Get 'Recycled'

by Jackie Alan Giuliano, PhD, Environment News Service

It is easy to see that smokestacks or corporate polluters are the source of environmental problems. But it is sometimes harder to understand the destructive indifference that many people practice every day. Obviously, few polluting industries would exist if there were not customers for their products.

Billions of dollars are spent on electronics every year, especially on computers and televisions. It feels great to get a new TV or computer and many of us take the extra effort to bring the old equipment into a store that promises to recycle it. Recently, I brought some old computer equipment to an office supply store that was doing a recycling campaign. It felt good to have made an effort to keep the equipment out of a landfill. But where did the equipment really go? About 500 companies and groups in the US take part in the electronics recycling industry. Many of these companies are paid handsomely by major US corporations to keep these old computers, TVs and radios from polluting ecosystems, making their companies a target for criticism since their corporate logos are displayed proudly on the equipment. The number of electronic items to be recycled is projected to grow from 12 million in 2000 to 25 million in 2005. Many more than that are thrown out each year. It is estimated that between 1997 and 2007, 500 million pieces of electronic equipment will be discarded, containing 1.5 billion pounds of lead, 632,000 pounds of mercury, and three million pounds of cadmium, all toxic substances.

The US cannot handle all of this waste, so this hazardous waste is "recycled" by selling it to countries like China and India. In New Delhi, children are routinely employed to burn circuit boards. In Karachi, solder is removed from circuit boards by children with blowtorches, a process that is usually done indoors with no ventilation. The children breathe the highly toxic fumes.

In a poor village in the Guiyu region of China, northeast of Hong Kong, Seattle activist Jim Puckett filmed what few of us will ever see or even think about - the real destination for many of our computers brought in for recycling. In that village, Pucket filmed clouds of toxic gas rising from open vats of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid tended by the workers. Without any protection for their lungs, these workers breathed in life shortening gases as they dissolved the gold out of computer parts. The leftover gray sludge was dumped alongside the river adjacent to the site.

Puckett, in a special report to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on February 25, 2002, said he saw very little recycling. Instead, he saw huge amounts of toxic waste piling up along waterways. A soil sample revealed toxins at rates hundreds of times greater than that of a Superfund site in the US.

Puckett's report, released by the Basel Action Network, Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, and two Asian organizations, said, "The export of e-waste remains a dirty little secret of the high-tech revolution." The report says, "A free trade in hazardous waste leaves the poorer peoples of the world with an untenable choice between poverty and poison."

But we demand low prices, regardless of the global cost. Mark Small, vice president for environment, safety and health at Sony Electronics, Inc., said electronics waste is a small fraction of the total waste generated by the manufacturing of toys, clothing and other items made in Asia. "To be blunt," he said, "we need those low labor rates to get value out of products, so that you can go to Wal-Mart and buy a boombox for $30."

Our indifference translates into a profound disconnection with the natural world and a loss of our roots and our home. Abusing our environment and ignoring the cries of pain of our neighbors is easy if you don't feel a connection to the world. To do something about the shameful waste in our society, check out some of the resources below:

1. The full report, "Exporting Harm: Techno Trash to Asia," is at: http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/technotrash.htm
2. Don't throw out those unneeded floppy disks and those wasteful CD's from America Online. They can be recycled. Send them to Green Disk. Info at: www.greendisk.com/sp1_1.html
3. Join the Campaign for Responsible Technology at: www.svtc.org/listserv/lssignup.htm
4. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and tell them to take steps to control our high tech waste. If you know your zip code, you can find them at: www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html

Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be reached at: jackie@healingourworld.com or http://www.healingourworld.com