Electronics Make Lousy Landfill

E-Wasted: Episode 205

We visited with Elham Ebiza, owner of California Recycles, a company owned and operated by women. California Recycles, Inc. promotes the recycling, refurbishing, reuse and proper handling of electronic waste. They are committed to educating the public about the hazards of electronic waste and providing a convenient method for electronic waste disposal. Visit their website at www.californiarecycles.com.

The Problem of Outdated, Unwanted Electronics Is Huge

In the US, we scrap about 400 million units per year of consumer electronics, according to recycling industry experts. Discarded computers, monitors, televisions, and other consumer electronics (so called e-waste) are the fastest growing portion of our waste stream -- growing by almost 8% from 2004 to 2005, even though our overall municipal waste stream volume is declining, according to the EPA.

Rapid advances in technology mean that electronic products are becoming obsolete more quickly. This, coupled with explosive sales in consumer electronics, means that more products are being disposed of, finding their way into landfills and incinerators. To make matters worse, the FCC mandated transition to digital television (like HDTV) in February 2009, will only speed up the pace, as consumers will soon be dumping large numbers of old TVs that can't receive the new digital-only signals. (You don't have to toss your old TV, adapters will be available.)

Electronic Waste is Toxic Waste

Over 1,000 materials, including chlorinated solvents, brominated flame retardants, PVC, heavy metals, plastics and gases, are used to make electronic products and their components—semiconductor chips, circuit boards, and disk drives.

A CRT monitor can contains between four and eight pounds of lead alone. Big screen TVs contain even more than that. Flat panel TVs and monitors contain less lead, but use mercury. About 40% of the heavy metals, including lead, mercury and cadmium, in landfills come from electronic equipment discards.

What Are The Health Risks?

Lead
The health effects of lead are well known; lead exposure causes brain damage in children and has already been banned from many consumer products.

Mercury
Mercury is toxic in very low doses, and causes brain and kidney damage. It can be passed on through breast milk; just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury can contaminate 20 acres of a lake, making the fish unfit to eat.

Cadmium
Cadmium accumulates in the human body and poisons the kidneys. An exposure to significantly higher cadmium levels occurs when people smoke. Tobacco smoke transports cadmium into the lungs. When cadmium concentrations in soils are high they can influence soil processes of microorganisms and threaten the whole soil ecosystem. In aquatic ecosystems cadmium can bio-accumulate in mussels, oysters, shrimps, lobsters and fish.

BFRs
Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) may seriously affect hormonal functions critical for normal development. A recent study of dust on computers in workplaces and homes found BFRs in every sample taken. One group of BFRs, PBDEs, has been found in alarming rates in the breast milk of women in Sweden and the U.S.

Toxic Garbage Is One Of Our Top Exports

While there are no precise figures, activists estimate that 50 to 80 percent of the 300,000 to 400,000 tons (270,000 to 360,000 metric tons) of electronics collected for recycling in the U.S. each year ends up overseas. Workers in countries such as China, India and Nigeria then use hammers, gas burners and their bare hands to extract metals, glass and other recyclables, exposing themselves and the environment to a cocktail of toxic chemicals.

OK, let's play connect the dots. Last show, Episode 204, we talked about fish and fish product safety. The US imports 80% of its seafood, mostly from China. (There are very valid concerns about the safety of this food, due mostly to high levels of environmental toxins found in it.) We send our toxic electronic garbage to them, it pollutes their ecosystems and the food that we import back to our purple mountains majesties and amber fields of grain. So, we are, in essence, poisoning ourselves.

Not All Electronics Corporations Give A Crap

Our pals at Greenpeace gave Nintendo a failing grade on its effort to recycle game consoles and phase out the use of toxic chemicals. Greenpeace says that the Japanese video-game company – which has not yet issued a statement responding to the report – provides no information on the materials used in manufacturing its consoles nor on its plans to cut hazardous chemicals.


Also getting low marks were Philips, and Microsoft. Both companies, say Greenpeace, have been slow to phase out their use of PVCs and brominated flame retardants and fail to take sufficient responsibility for their products when consumers discard them.

Topping the list of 18 global electronics manufactures are Sony, Ericsson, and Samsung. Greenpeace praised these companies for eliminating the most harmful chemicals from their products and for transparency on their take-back and recycling programs.

Give the Earth A Break

You can make a difference by finding a recycler near you and bringing your electronic waste to them. And you can also hold these huge corporations accountable for their behavior by letting them know you don't think this is acceptable.

Here are some great links and numbers for doing all of the above:

www.earth911 : a great site for finding a recycling facility near you.

www.ban.org : a great site to find out about corporate malcontents and their EPA stooges who won't help deal with this problem

Plastic Loose Fill Council's Peanut Hotline - (800-828-2214) to find businesses that will take polystyrene peanuts off your hands.

Your Intrepid Host,

Marc