Electronic Recyclers International: Illegal e-waste exports a ‘Shame of America’

SPOKANE (Scrap Monster): The nation’s leading electronics waste recycler-Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) has condemned the practice of exporting hazardous electronic waste to other countries. John Shegerian, Chairman and CEO of ERI stated that illegal e-waste exports is a ‘Shame of America’ and noted that such practices would result in serious threat to national security, apart from leading to high levels of environmental pollution.

Shegerian was responding to the second report released by the Basel Action Network (BAN) that uncovered acts of unlawful exports of electronic waste to developing countries. The first BAN report had focused its attention on the 49 tracking devices deployed at Goodwill thrift stores and especially those involved in a recycling partnership program with Dell Inc.

According to ERI, necessary action has to be taken to curtail the illegal shipping of e-waste to unethical and primitive dismantling locations, mainly in developing countries. It requires a lot of investment to responsible recycling, ERI noted. However, the investment must be considered worthy enough, considering the threats caused by illegal exports to global environment and people of this planet. In addition, such acts also tend to risk the data security of individuals and corporations in the country, it added.

ERI applauded BAN for exposing the critical issue in real time. However, it noted that the revelations of the report are just tip of the iceberg. Many recyclers still continue to ship their e-waste to third world countries instead of responsibly recycling them domestically. ERI urged urgent intervention by the federal government to put a stop to this illegal practice.

In a bid to track the e-waste from recycling locations, BAN had placed cell-phone sized GPS tracker devices to almost 205 non-functioning printers and monitors and dropped them at various locations within the US during the second half of 2015. The organization has been tracking these devices since then. The agency had recently come out with the alarming information that majority of the tracked e-waste had landed up in recycling yards in Hong Kong which use primitive methods of destruction and recovery.

As per BAN’s new report, titled ‘Scam Recycling: e-Dumping on Asia by US Recyclers’, out of 205 tracked devices passed through the hands of 168 identifiable recyclers, over 45% were involved in a chain leading to exports to third world countries. Also, 87% of the exported devices went to Asia, 3% to Africa, 1% to the Middle East, 1% to Latin America and Caribbean region. The report notes that 53% of LCDs studied were exported, 30% of printers and 18% of CRTs. The majority of these exports went to informal electronic disassembly operations in Hong Kong’s New Territories area.

The BAN report recommends US federal government to prohibit via executive order, any export to non-OECD countries of any federal e-waste considered hazardous under the definitions of the BASEL Convention. It notes that despite being the world’s single largest generator of e-waste, the US continues to ignore internationally accepted trade law governing where and how this waste should be managed. The federal government should implement a rule to ensure that all e-waste is considered a Universal Waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). In addition, it urges manufacturer and state-mandated producer responsibility schemes to revise their price structure to promote domestic recycling of electronic waste. Further, the report also urges Hong Kong to properly enforce the Basel Convention.