Electronic waste nightmare

Last September, Hong Kong customs was informed by environmentalists of Basel Action Network (USA) about two containers of goods imported from the United States. When opened, they discovered hundreds of used computer and television screens.

These are just two of the 20 " electronic garbage " containers imported from the US that Hong Kong customs found in nine months of the year. The AP news agency cited environmentalists to estimate that every year, more than 200,000 tons of recovered electronics for recycling in the US are exported to foreign countries.

The path of garbage

Approximately 70% of the 20-50 million tons of electronic waste annually worldwide are brought to China, the rest mainly to India and African countries.Guiyang Town in Shantou City, Guangdong Province, China is considered the world's largest electronic landfill, receiving 1 million tons of electronic waste each year.

There are about 100,000 workers collecting scrap metal at Quyet with an average income of 1.5 USD / day.The environment in this town is seriously polluted, strangers come here often have headaches, feel strange metallic taste in the mouth.Heavy contaminated groundwater circuits cannot be drunk, and lead levels in rivers and streams are twice as high as European standards.

Informed people in the United States said that most "premium junk" are collected at free recycling sites held annually on Earth Day (April 22). Also companies, schools, local agencies . often hire the cheapest agents to "handle" waste electronic goods without caring about where they will go.

Going back to the two container events in Hong Kong, the investigation showed that they were exported by Fortune Sky USA. This is a subsidiary of a Chinese company that set up an office in Cordova, Tennessee, specializing in exporting old computers and components to some Asian countries, mainly China, Malaysia and Vietnam. Fortune Sky general manager Vincent Yu said nonchalantly: "In those countries, the old computer market is very big. I think they won't pollute! If the devices are still in use, that's a good thing. for everyone! ".

However, environmentalists do not believe in the arguments of companies like Fortune Sky. They accused these companies of almost no way to check whether they were still usable before exporting."Reuse is just an excuse. It's a new passport to export, " said Jim Puckett, representative of Seattle-based Basel Action Network.

In fact, when coming to the place, " reused " products will be used by workers, even hands to "discharge" materials such as metal, glass . despite the risk of health and environment. These products contain toxic chemicals such as mercury, cadmium, lead . Puckett pressing: "It is true that these devices are recycled, but in the most terrible way you can imagine. We ( Americans) are protecting their environment, but polluting other countries. "

Export because . recycling fee is too high

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), every year the people of the country emit 2 million tons of electronic waste, most of them are dumped in landfills. However, more and more states have ordered the ban on electronic garbage in these yards. In addition, the cost of removing electronic waste is quite high, which contributes to pushing these rubbish into the way . abroad. EPA said the cost of exporting electronic garbage is 10 times cheaper than domestic processing costs.

Scrap handling in China.
(Photo: Publicresearchworks.org)

Perhaps for that reason, the US does not encourage it, but it does not prohibit the export of electronic garbage. The US only prohibits the export of computer monitors and cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs without the permission of the importing country. However, many of these products are still "safe". The reason given by the federal government is that there is not enough manpower to check all export bales.

Matt Hale, director of EPA's solid waste division, said the department is well aware of the problem but banning exports is not a good solution. He argued that because most of the electronic goods produced abroad should be re-exported abroad, it is a reasonable affair (!)."What we need to do is to cooperate internationally to improve standards in recycling places" - he analyzed.

Many environmentalists believe that the solution lies in forcing electronics manufacturers to reclaim and recycle their own products. Such a regulation would encourage manufacturers to study technology to make products that are more recyclable, containing less toxic chemicals. Currently only eight states in the United States adopt this rule. A number of manufacturers, such as Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Sony, have begun to adopt a free genuine recall policy.

THANH TRUC