The Scope of US E-Waste

theodp writes "Every day, Americans toss out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers, making electronic waste the fastest-growing part of the US garbage stream. A lot of the world's e-waste is exported to Guiyu, China, where peasants heat circuit boards over coal fires to recover lead (a 15" computer monitor can pack up to 7 lbs. of Pb), while others use acid to burn off bits of gold. Guiyu's willingness to deal with lead, mercury and other toxic materials generates $75 million a year for the village, but as a result. Guiyu is slowly poisoning itself with the highest level of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. The village experiences elevated rates of miscarriages, and its children suffer from an extremely high rate of lead poisoning. TIME suggests checking out recycling brokers and accredited e-stewards the next time you're ready to toss a gizmo."

Comments

Charities

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi,

I am a voluntary sys admin for a mental health charity, Contact, http://www.contactmorpeth.org.uk/

We take in local donations of unwanted PCs, refurbish them and give them away to people with mental health problems, their children or their carers. Some people have told me that their free PC was a life changing event (once they'd got broadband working).

Surely in America you'd be able to start up a similar scheme for charitable donations?

HTH,

Ian

Re:Charities

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for the Federal Government in Canada.

We have a program called Computers for Schools which used to take pretty much anything. The kids would learn to repair machines, solder parts if needed, and make working computers.

Or at least that's how it was several years ago.

Today Computers for Schools wants itemized lists of what you have, everything must work, and no old stuff need apply. In effect, they don't want kids to learn about the innards of machines, they want kids to just learn how to be data entry clerks.

We don't even bother with them now.

Re:Charities

[Penguinisto]

Surely in America you'd be able to start up a similar scheme for charitable donations?

Yep - we do.

/P

60 minutes

[mattwarden]

> TIME suggests checking out recycling brokers and accredited e-stewards the
> next time you're ready to toss a gizmo.

I guess TIME doesn't watch 60 minutes.

'"This is a photograph from your yard, the Executive Recycling yard," Pelley told Richter, showing him a photo we'd taken of a shipping container in his yard. "We followed this container to Hong Kong."'

Re:Deposits and core fees.

[Anonymous Coward]

Such a deposit/tax would simply go to the state's general fund, as it does now with cans and bottles.

Re:7 pounds is complete BS

[goombah99]

yes but my point is still valid. A 15" monitor weighs about 20 pounds and has a 1.7 pounds of lead. not 7 pounds. Most of the lead is neck and frit and can be recovered. The rest is bound in a glass matrix (it can still leach but is a good start on containing it).

Re:Deposits and core fees.

[Anonymous Coward]

"We can't get but a handful of states in the US to put deposits on bottles..."

Good. And I hope that the few that still have bottle deposits (my home state included) get rid of these stupid laws.

The bottle deposit made sense when noone recycled anything. Now, though, just about every town has its own recycling program - but we still have to separate out soda bottles to take back to the store, even though we recycle everything else curbside. (That just doesn't make any sense to me.)

The towns make recycling programs because recycling is either a source of revenue, or at least cheaper than landfill costs. And because it is easy, people generally do it. You want people to recycle electronics? Get towns to collect electronics the way they do bottles, newspaper, and cans.