21 February 2008 - Do
you know what happens when you throw out
your old electronic gadgets? Probably not,
but considering they contain
both toxic chemicals and valuable metals
you'd think someone would know? Unfortunately
our new report 'Toxic Tech: Not in Our Backyard'
reveals the fate of millions of tonnes of
e-waste generated each year is largely unknown.
The amount of old electronics,
or e-waste, such as computers, phones and
TVs being discarded every year is growing
rapidly. In many countries it's the fastest
growing type of waste as cheap prices mean
replacing electronics is cheaper than fixing
them, while low price often means low quality
and a very short life spans.
As electronics increasingly
become part of the throw away culture in
many developed countries, amounts of e-waste
have dramatically increased while solutions
have often lagged far behind. Even in the
European Union (EU) that has tighter regulation
75 percent of e-waste is unaccounted for.
Of the estimated 8.7 million tonnes of e-waste
created annually in the EU a massive 6.6
million tonnes of e-waste is not recycled.
In the US there is very
little regulation of e-waste. Less than
20 percent of US e-waste is recovered for
recycling. Worrying the recycling percentages
for PCs (10 percent) and TVs (14 percent)
are even lower. The imminent switch to digital
TVs in the US and elsewhere will lead to
a massive increase in the amount of redundant
analogue TVs.
Even from the 20 percent
of e-waste collected in the US much is exported
because the US is one of the few countries
where it's still legal to export collected
e-waste to Asia and Africa.
The huge amount of e-waste
not recycled can be accounted for by:
- Storage: Often old
electronics are stored in people's houses.
This only serves to delay the day they are
finally discarded and reduces the chances
they could be effectively reused.
- Landfill/Incineration: When mixed with
domestic waste electronics will most likely
end up in a landfill or incinerated. Both
methods allow toxic chemicals to pollute
the environment.
- Reuse and Export: Old computers and phones
are often exported to developing countries
for reuse or recycling. The vast majority
are crudely recycled in e-waste scrap yards
causing widespread pollution.
Digital Divide
Countries like India
and China have long been a destination for
e-waste dumping by unscrupulous traders
looking to make a quick profit on e-waste
from the US and Europe. Now the amounts
of domestic e-waste generated by these countries
is growing fast. In India only one percent
of e-waste is collected for authorised recycling.
Across Asia and Africa
informal recycling yards have sprung up
where low paid migrant workers use primitive
methods to extract valuable metals. This
informal recycling creates massive environmental
pollution and damages the health of workers
and residents in the area.
Even well intentioned
shipments of computers for reuse are being
abused. In Ghana many traders report that
to get a shipping container with a few working
computers they must accept broken junk like
old screens in the same container from exporters
in developed countries. The broken junk
and eventually even the working computers
inevitably ends up dumped in Ghana where
there is no infrastructure to safely recycle
toxic e-waste.
Solutions
One clear solution is
for the major electronics companies to eliminate
the worst toxic chemicals from their products
and improve their recycling programs. Having
generated demand for the latest new mobile
phone or sleek laptop and made vast profits
from sales of electronics it should not
be a problem the companies are allowed to
ignore.
In 2006 more than one
billion mobile phones were shipped worldwide.
However, Nokia (the market leader) recycles
just 2 percent of the phones it sells.
The major computer makers
do little better, with currently an average
recycling rate of just 9 percent. That means
the major companies don't recycle over 90
percent of their old products.
To address the rising
tide of e-waste all manufactures must offer
free and convenient recycling of their products
to all their customers. Where companies
are unwilling to do this tough legislation
is need to ensure electronics are safely
recycled. Japan has effective recycling
legislation and Sony reports that it collects
53 percent of it's old products in Japan.
That's five times better than the global
average for major PC makers and shows that
solutions are already available.
Greenpeace calls on
Philips to take-back & recycle
While most companies
accept responsibility for recycling their
own products, and are improving their recycling
programs for consumers, several TV companies
are dragging their feet on recycling with
the majority offering no recycling for old
TVs in many countries. Of the TV companies,
Philips stands out by publicly stating that
recycling is the responsibility for the
customer and government and consumers should
pay for recycling, not the product makers.
Behind the scenes Philips lobbies to avert
legislation to make companies more responsible
for recycling their own products.
Basically Philips is
helping ensure the status quo remains, that
has lead to such a large e-waste problem.
We have delivered this report direct to
Phillips and other companies to show how
they need to stop hiding from the problem
of e-waste.
E-waste: The good, the
bad and the ugly
Since August 2006 we
have been ranking the major electronics
companies' efforts phase out toxic chemicals
and improve recycling programs - both vital
steps to tackle e-waste.
Many companies have
made big strides to improve their products
and recycling schemes since the introduction
of the Guide. But no company has so far
succeeded in offering an entire range of
products free of the worst toxic chemicals
or a comprehensive, free, global takeback
scheme to ensure responsible recycling.
