An investigation by an international coalition of environmental organizations has revealed that huge quantities of hazardous electronic wastes are being exported to China, Pakistan and India where they are processed in operations that are harmful to human health and the environment. The organizations -- Basel Action Network and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition with support from Toxics Link India, Greenpeace China and SCOPE -- have produced a report on the investigation entitled: Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia.
"We found a cyber-age nightmare," said Jim Puckett, coordinator of BAN. "They call this recycling, but it's really dumping by another name. Yet to our horror, we further discovered that rather than banning it, the United States government is actually encouraging this ugly trade in order to avoid finding real solutions to the massive tide of obsolete computer waste generated in the U.S. daily."
BAN referred to the fact that the United States is the only developed country in the world that failed to ratify the Basel Convention, a United Nations environmental treaty which has adopted a global ban on the export of hazardous wastes from the worlds most developed countries to developing countries. Further, the U.S. has actually exempted toxic E-waste from its own laws governing exports, simply because the material was claimed to be destined for recycling.
BAN and SVTC are calling on the United States to follow Europe's example and immediately implement the global ban on the export of hazardous wastes from the United States to developing countries and likewise to solve the E-waste problem "upstream" by mandating that the electronics industry institute "take-back" recycling programs, toxic input phase-outs and green design for long-life, upgradeability and ease of recycling.
"Consumers in the U.S. have been the principal beneficiaries of the high-tech revolution and we simply can't allow the resulting high environmental price to be pushed off onto others" said Ted Smith, executive director of SVTC. "Rather than sweeping our E-waste crisis out the backdoor by exporting it to the poor of the world, we have got to address it square in the face and solve it at home, in this country, at its manufacturing source."
Basel Action Network is a global network of activists working for global environmental justice and against trade in toxic wastes, toxic technologies and toxic products. Visit: www.ban.org.
The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is a community-based coalition that advocates for cleaner production, and sustainable occupational and environmental health practices within the electronics industry.