Here it is the culmination of this semester long project boiled down to a video.  I could not define Electronic Waste before this semester, now my eyes have been wide open to a devastating problem that the United States has been too willing to ignore.  The amount of electronic waste that the world produces in a single year is staggering. “Some 20 to 50 million metric tonnes of e-waste are generated worldwide every year” (Computer TakeBack Campaign). In the United States of the 2.63 million tons of electronic waste less than 10% is actually recycled in a responsible manner.  There is a ‘green’ movement with everyone around our country wanting to jump on the bandwagon and claim they are being responsible.  With the move from analog to digital in less than nine months, what will this country do with the millions of analog television sets that will instantly become obsolete?  Citizens of the United States must take action and not sit quietly by while our consumption and desire for the latest technological advancements sends our electronic waste to developing countries in dire need of real change, of a real social movement that changes their very livelihood not just a feel good solution for ourselves.

 

 

As citizens of the wealthiest country in the world, we must take stock in our position in relation the rest of the planet.  We can no longer live in ignorance under the impression that what happens half a world away is of no concern to us.  Let’s take a look at the world demographics for a moment and see what would happen if we kept all existing human ratios the same but reduced the entire population of the world down to exactly 100 people.  This information is taken from the Family Care Foundation.

 

60 would be from Asia

14 would be from Africa

12 would be from Europe

EIGHT would be from Latin America

FIVE would be from the USA and Canada

ONE would be from the South Pacific

 

51 would be male

49 would be female

 

82 would be non-white

18 would be white

 

67 would be non-Christian

33 would be Christian

 

80 would live in substandard housing

 

67 would be unable to read

 

50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation

 

33 would be without access to a safe water supply

 

39 would lack access to improved sanitation

 

24 would not have electricity

Of the 76 that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night

 

SEVEN people have access to the Internet

 

ONE would have a college education

 

ONE would have HIV

 

TWO would be near birth; ONE near death

 

FIVE people would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth; all FIVE would be US Citizens

 

33 would be receiving – and attempting to live on – only THREE PERCENT of the income of the ‘village’

On February 17, 2009 all TV signals will switch from analog to digital. In less than one year, millions of TVs across the United States will become obsolete. While converter boxes will be available for the analog-to-digital switch, many consumers will take this opportunity to upgrade to that new LCD or Plasma TV they have been waiting for, myself included. The question of what to do with that old TV remains, trash or recycle.  Before this project, I would simply have taken my old TV down to the local dump and toss it in without regard to where it will eventually end up or of the leaching of the toxic chemicals inside.  We all know that recycling must be free and easy to get consumers to take part in it and very few TV manufactures are willing to do it. Sony Electronics USA is the first television company in the United States to develop a ‘takeback’ program. Their program is national and free. Sony is committed to ensure that e-waste collected in its program will not be dumped in developing countries, go to prison labor recycling plants or end up in landfills or incinerators. For more information click here.

This post will have little to do with electronic waste.  I had the opportunity to spend 8 days in Mexico this past week, four in Aguascalientes (population close to 100,000) and 4 in Mexico City (one of the largest cities in the world).  This was a family vacation for my uncle’s wedding, not sitting on the beach sipping strawberry margaritas.  I had the opportunity to really see Mexico and what life is like and I can honestly say that there are too many things I take for granted, flushing the toilet for example.  There is not enough water pressure in the public water and sewer systems for the toilets to flush toilet paper. The paper goes in a little waste basket next to the toilet.  That took some getting used to and it wasn’t just the house we stayed in.  Most public bathrooms did not even have toilet paper available.  I knew enough not to drink the water and there was a case of bottled water for our family to drink.  Recycling is a way of life for us but in Aguascalientes everything is thrown away.  There is no curbside recycling program.  My uncle told us that people do not pay homeowner’s taxes until their property is complete. Most homes we saw had pieces of rebar jutting out of the roof as a way to avoid paying taxes, less tax revenue meant a struggling infrastructure which we saw everywhere we went.

I live in the country on a 40 plus acre farm. Everywhere we went from Aguascalientes to Mexico City, houses were built either touching each other or with less than a foot of space in between.  There was maybe a 3 foot patch of green grass in front of the house but many families used that space to park their vehicles.  I thought gas was relatively cheap in Mexico around $1.80/gallon.  We saw only one brand of gas, Pemex, which is owned and operated by the Mexican government.   My uncle’s new family operates a series of private schools, one in Aguascalientes, one in Pachuca, and one in Mexico City.  All three schools teach courses in English and Spanish.  The mother of the family grew frustrated with the lack of accountability within the Mexican public schools and developed a private school first in Mexico City.  With violence growing in Mexico City and fear for their safety, the family moved to Aguascalientes about 10 years ago and built a private elementary school there.  The school in Pachuca is also for elementary age students (they start kindergarten when children are only 3 years old!). I flipped through a workbook for the kindergarten class and they are learning things American students won’t learn until the 2^nd or 3^rd grade!  

My uncle’s niece was our tour guide for our visit; she is attending college and will study abroad in Spain next semester working on a degree in Public Relations. I asked her what her feelings were regarding the Zapatista.  She honestly felt they no longer existed.  She explained that she felt the Mexican government used the Zapatistas as a scapegoat, blaming domestic issues on the Zapatistas, if the economy was bad it was because of the Zapatistas for example.  When they first came out she felt they were fighting for good things, workers’ rights and less government control but felt their existence had faded, along with their power. 

My grandparents (in their 80s) and I hiked to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun (The third largest in the world) which was built by the Aztecs.  We toured the National Museum of Anthropology within the Chapultepec Park in Mexico City. We also saw the basaltic prisms in Hidalgo.  It was an adventure to say the least!

Pyramid of the Sun

Basaltic Prisms in Hidalgo

The policy on how WSU handles battery recycling is not easy to find. At first glance on the Waste Wise Shared Responsibility page the only materials for office recycling include: 

·        Shredded Paper

·        White Paper

·        Newspaper

·        Plastic

·        Glass

·        Cardboard

·        Privacy Act Material

·        Purges 

In fact under the link for New Program Information batteries falls under the list of items that are not accepted. It is only after you do a search for electronic waste that at the bottom of the list of possible results do you find the Environmental Health and Safety services website which explains how departments on campus can recycle batteries.  I still haven’t found a place that explains the policy for WSU on electronic waste from computers and other electronic equipment. It seems that WSU is not interested in making it easy for departments on campus to be environmentally responsible.  The search continues.

Washington State 

By January 1, 2009 manufacturers of electronic products must make product recycling services available free of charge to businesses, residents and local governments in Washington State.  WAC 173-900 Washington’s electronic products recycling program requires a convenient, safe and economical system for recycling electronic products. The system encourages electronics to be designed using less toxic chemicals and that are more recyclable.   

States Which Have Passed E-Waste Producer Responsibility Laws according to the Electronice Take Bake Coalition:

• Connecticut
• Maine
• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Oregon
• New Jersey
• New York CITY
• North Carolina
• Texas
• Washington

My home state of Idaho has not passed any legislation and there is no legislation pending but Idaho is not alone.  Take a moment and make a difference, lets put democracy in action and contact our elected officials.

States without E-Waste Legislation either on the books or under consideration for 2008:

Alabama Arizona Arkansas Colorado Florida Georgia Iowa Idaho Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi

Montana Nevada New Mexico North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma South Dakota Tennessee Utah West Virginia Wyoming

Check out this great informational video which was posted on the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition website www.etoxics.org

New York City is the first city in the nation trying to be responsible about electronic waste.  Offering legislation that would require manufacturers of electronic products to offer a collection service and recycle their products at their own cost.  This bill is modeled after the European Union’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive which is designed to make the polluter pay.  The New York City Council voted 47-3 to approve the legislation but Mayor Michael Bloomberg has publicly stated he will veto the bill.   

The bill includes a timeframe for manufacturer responsibility:

 ·        2010 – $100 fine on residents for throwing out electronic equipment

·        2012 – Manufactures must collect 25% of their sales in discarded electronic equipment

·        With an estimated 25,000 tones of electronic trash annually in New York City alone that is only 6,250 tons!

·        2015 – Minimum collected for recycling increase to 45%

·        2018 – Minimum collected for recycling increase to 65%

·        Manufactures would be fined $50,000 for each percentage point they fall below standards 

A major point of argument against the bill is that these numbers and percentages are completely arbitrary, which may be the case.  According to City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn “We think it’s very important that the bill have specific goals and thresholds in it because that is what you need to make sure this actually happens.”  

On Bloomberg’s weekly radio show he compared the bill to going after newspaper publishers because their readers aren’t recycling old papers.  The problem with that comparison is that there are ample avenues for recycling paper and even if people refuse to recycle and simply trash newspapers, when they go into a landfill they will not leach toxic chemicals like lead, mercury or cadmium. If manufacturers are held responsible for the products they produce perhaps they will work toward making products that can be recycled or that will not leach harmful, toxic chemicals back into the earth.

Everyone knows about fair trade coffee, most of us have heard of fair trade chocolate but what about fair trade electronics?  That’s right United Pepper (http://www.unitedpepper.org) has developed webcams and USB hubs that not only respect the planet but are energy efficient and made of recyclable materials, even their packaging is environmentally friendly.  Lili – the 1.3 megapixil webcam with a built-in microphone, and Oscar – featuring four USB 2.0 hubs – were designed in Belgium and are manufactured in Vietnam.  United Pepper only uses partners who adhere to fair-trade criteria including:

• Quality working conditions where workers are safe and comfortable
• Workers are paid a fair price for their work to ensure development and growth of workshops
• Workers can improve their social and working conditions through social representation
• No child labor and equality between men and women
• Use a direct supply chain between producer and consumer, no middle man
• United Pepper focuses on local production by local people to improve their quality of life

Look for Lili and Oscar in the United States soon!