Slashdot Mirror
Where Does America's E-Waste End Up? GPS Tracker Tells All (pbs.org)
The United States produces more e-waste than any country in the world, reports PBS News Hour. But where does this e-waste go? The publication utilized the GPS coordinates in some of the e-waste to find out. Basel Action Network, a Seattle-based e-waste watchdog group partnered with MIT to put 200 geolocating tracking devices inside old computers, TVs and printers. They dropped them off nationwide at donation centers, recyclers and electronic take-back programs -- enterprises that advertise themselves as "green," "sustainable," "earth friendly" and "environmentally responsible." From the report: About a third of the tracked electronics went overseas -- some as far as 12,000 miles. That includes six of the 14 tracker-equipped electronics that e-waste watchdog group dropped off to be recycled in Washington and Oregon. The tracked electronics ended up in Mexico, Taiwan, China, Pakistan, Thailand, Dominican Republic, Canada and Kenya. Most often, they traveled across the Pacific to rural Hong Kong. You can read the report in its entirety here.
"Most often, they traveled across the Pacific to rural Hong Kong"
RURAL Hong Kong, haha -- Even the New Territories can't be considered 'rural' by the most urbanite standards.
Bye!
Amazingly all the rest were tracked to my basement.
>> a Seattle-based e-waste watchdog group ...dropped them off nationwide at donation centers, recyclers and electronic take-back programs -- enterprises that advertise themselves as "green," "sustainable," "earth friendly" and "environmentally responsible." ...About a third of the tracked electronics went overseas
A lot of businesses quickly figured out that people who go "awww" when they see whales or polar bears are often more easily parted from their money than the general public, and since calling themselves "green" takes no actual extra work - you might even get the ganza-smelling dude hauling monitors to work cheaper if he thinks he's working for "a cause" - what did you really expect?
The vast majority of the stuff that's getting sent to foreign countries isn't getting reused -- and for good reasons.
First, if something is reasonably valuable, it's probably being reused in the states (e.g. the Dell/Goodwill program mentioned in TFA).
Moreover, old computers and CRTs aren't that useful in the third world. A cheap, new smart phone is much more useful since it has wireless connectivity and a battery (the phone is probably more powerful than a CRT-era desktop to boot). In many developing countries, you're a lot more likely to have a wireless signal than a wired internet connection. Your desktop also won't do much good if the power grid is in poor condition -- or non-existent (you can charge your smart phone from a solar panel). There's a reason that cheap smartphones are popular in developing countries.
WTF happened to the other 66% of electronics?!?!
It was recycled in the US. Your criticism of the story isn't misplaced; the writers are careful not to point out that 2/3's of the e-waste they traced was recycled or disposed of by domestic recyclers. The story claims 200 items were tracked. 65 ended up in various third world hellholes. All of it "went through U.S. recyclers," so it's reasonable to conclude the other 135 items did not get exported. Omitting this is deliberate; most readers are left believing all of our e-waste is exported and polluting the world without the least care. Creating outrage at ebil planet wrecking 'murcia is job one at PBS et. al.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
What expense?
I throw it out in my trashcan like everything else I have that is waste, and the city picks it up for me for free....easy peasy!!!
Actually, in the NOLA area, if you set it outside the can so it is visible, chances are someone will grab it overnight before the garbage men even come....I get rid of all monitors (even old CRTs), and computers past their prime, etc...and someone grabs them before the trash men come.....I guess that's one form of un-intentional recycling....?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Let's be real. This stuff is not being "recycled". Oh, there might be some places pulling some precious metals out of the mix, but most of it is just plastic and metals that no one has any interest in recycling. There would be a lot less waste if devices were more modular, and standards were not constantly changing, but I don't know how you get companies to build stuff like that.
Proverbs 21:19
One worker says he isn’t aware of the risks. “He had no idea,” Su says, after speaking with him in Mandarin.
Well yeah, he had no idea what she asked him. Low skilled workers in Hong Kong are likely to speak Cantonese.