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DCL
The BBC shed some light today on the ongoing problem of electronic waste.
Old electronics are still being exported from Europe to developing countries despite a ban on exactly that trade. The law has mitigated the flow of waste from Europe (primarily to Ghana, Nigeria, India, and Pakistan), but the story explains how the overwhelming number of shipments moving through ports everyday and certain weaknesses in the law lead some to believe that the illicit trade is flourishing. A mere one-third of electronic waste is thought to be managed according to EU protocol.
The U.S. doesn't even have such a ban, and the Basel Action Network's Jim Puckett says we are "way behind" Europe on e-waste, estimating that up to 80 percent of e-waste in the U.S. is exported, again mostly to developing countries, primarily China.
The troubling thing about the exports, aside from the fact that it allows individuals and companies to shirk responsibility for the waste generated largely by quick turnover of electronics, is that they end up, either intentionally or not, in the hands of people without protective gear who are then exposed to toxic components that at least in the U.S. have some regulations for dealing with.
If the EU is having problems controlling e-waste and they're actually trying to stop it, it doesn't paint a good picture for what exports from the U.S. must look like.
