A new week begins in trade2save’s new office! We start this chilly Monday with exciting news announced from recycling website “letsrecycle.com” regarding the global fight against ewaste crimes. As a major step forward in this battle, Interpol has begun international action to face illegal e waste exportation/dumping. While this new initiative involves many countries’ agencies and commitments, the UK’s Environmental Agency (EA) will be in charge of the operation.
Chairman of the EA, Chris Smith, already has quite a track record in the fight against e-waste, as the EA is currently involved in 8 investigations regarding illegal e waste exporters and has made 12 arrests, making him a more than qualified leader for this international effort.At the moment the new Interpol e waste force will focus on countries already subject to much dumping such as Ghana, Nigeria, China, etc. in order to prevent further illegal waste.
This is great news, and trade2save is excited to hear that this major international problem is getting an appropriate major international response. Trade2save has faith in the EA to lead this new task force as it’s previous endeavors have received recognition and praise even from out own Environmental Protection Agency (which is also to be included in the Interpol force). Hopefully with more investigation, pressure, and legal action, e waste criminals will punished for their hazardous, toxic crimes against the environment and humanity.
While this may seem like our daily plug, trade2save encourages our readers not to wait idly for government agencies to fight our battles for us! Make sure you do you part and recycle your ewaste at reputable recyclers (do your research and pay the fee!) Furthermore, if your electronics are still usable, give them to somebody who can use them or sell them! By lowering electronic product demand we can all do our part in this e waste fight by lowering the amount of waste produced. While we clean up our wasteful habits, Interpol can clean up the criminals who take advantage of our old gadgets.
Happy Friday from trade2save!
It has been a chaotic but rewarding week as our new office is pretty much up and running albeit a few tweaks to be made here and there. Furthermore, with the rampant spreading of flu, colds, and general sickness our staff has taken it’s fair share of casualties so make sure all you out there are taking your vitamins and getting your 8 hours of sleep!
Reported last night, news website examiner.com posted a great article summarizing our nation’s major e waste issues, referencing great back links to our current national (or lack of) policy, state’s attempts to enforce local legislation, and even frontline video reports, a must see. Focusing specifically on the Bay Area and San Francisco, the author continues to follow through where most consumers stop caring (out of sight out of mind), calling out recycling companies’ shady exportation of electronic waste.
Trade2save is happy to see that bigger name news companies such as the examiner are directing their focus on e waste. This is a great summary article that highlights the e waste issue quickly and to the point but lacks further depth. We believe this is still not enough coverage but at least is a start that is approachable by most average readers. The article does do a good job of emphasizing the need to start focusing on creating electronics that are easier to reuse, refurbish and recycle. Naturally trade2save is with this argument for extended life span as with longer use comes less waste. Regardless of future products, just make sure to think twice this holiday season before you buy that new 24″ monitor to replace your 19″. Enjoy the weekend!!
Following our own nation’s (The USA, for our international readers) first signs of progress in implementing a national policy towards e waste (see previous article), Australia has decided to up the ante and fully pass e waste legislation to be implemented! Way to go Australia!Just announced today by gmagazine.com.au, the Australian environmental ministers have proposed a new recycling program focusing on old computers and televisions. Much like the US and other developed nations, Australia shared an abysmal track record of e waste production with little to no recycling facilities or policies, leaving much to be tossed or exported. In 2007-2008 alone only 1 out of 10 tossed computers/televisions was recycled in Australia, a country that produced almost 44 million tonnes the year before.However with this new policy, planned for 2011, Australia’s goal is to have up to 80% of all scrapped televisions/computers by 2021.While this may seem a long way off, just the fact that such progress is being made to slow the e-waste tide is already a fantastic start. We here at trade2save applaud the Australian government to take responsibility and step in to face a problem before it get’s completely out of control. Consumers can rejoice as e waste drop offs are planned to be free of charge, with government and manufacturers taking the costs. In the mean time manufacturers plan to implement higher costs in better quality, longer lived electronics, emphasizing refurbishing and reselling. Hopefully we too in the states will see our current e-waste bill be passed, leading to such ambitious e waste policies. Until then, keep buying/selling/trading nt!
Today a fantastic article was published by Trib Total Media reporting on the shady dealings of many so called “electronics recycling” companies.
The report essentially detailed the fact that for e-waste to be properly handled and recycled there almost always will be a fee for those dropping off old computers, monitors, tvs, etc. While this is definitely not news that the average consumer wants to hear, the unfortunate reality of the situation is that our ewaste is incredibly toxic and difficult to safely dispose of, making a costly and time consuming procedure.
After following the trail of claimed recycling company EarthEcycle which offered to accept ewaste for free and even partnered with other philanthropic organizations to obtain ewaste, experts discovered a large amount of evidence pointing to EarthEcycle’s illegal outsourcing of ewaste to developing nations. The ewaste sent to developing nations is taken apart by hand, burned, and dumped, polluting the environment to the point of toxicity and killing many of the workers.
As much as trade2save can sympathize with the desire to save money, we beg our readers to either trade or sell your older electronics to avoid these malicious “recycling” schemes. If you decide to toss your old gear, make sure it’s with a reputable company. Yes, there will often be a charge, but by understanding where this money goes we here at trade2save hope that customers will make well educated, morally conscious decisions, so spread the word!
Posted just today, www.businessdailyafrica.com reported on the major warning signs of improper e waste dumping and handling in Nairobi, Kenya.
This is both a major concern reflecting the negligence and ambivalent attitudes of countries which export large amounts of ewaste, and a major failure on the part of the Kenyan government to allow such toxic material into heavily populated areas. According to this article Nairobi’s largest dumping site, Dandora, is accepting huge amounts of e waste in which the most popular disposal method (burning) is leading to already noticeable increases in lead poisoning in children.
It seems each day here at trade2save we stumble upon another “developing” nation which is exported our own potentially lethal garbage. While the commonly known ewaste dumping grounds in the world such as rural China and India are bad enough, it seems that the rapidly amassing quantities of ewaste are now happily being sent out to all over the world.
Happy Friday to all our readers from trade2save!
I will keep our blog short and sweet today. I found the following video on my daily search for recent ewaste news/legislation/events. While this video is from last year, it is shocking to see how hard people will try to keep the environmental and humanitarian implications of e waste hidden from consumers.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/60-minutes-reporter-attacked-in-chinese-ewaste-pit.php
