Comments on: Following The Trail Of Toxic E-Waste

60 Minutes Follows America's Toxic Electronic Waste As It Is Illegally Shipped To Become China's Dirty Secret

[baselaction]

Dear Skipperlange and others:

The Basel Action Network has indeed created a list of recyclers that DO NOT export hazardous electronic waste to developing countries. That group of good recyclers is known as e-Stewards. Find them at: E-STEWARDS.ORG

Reward those choosing to be responsible with your business.

Sincerely yours,

Jim Puckett

[surangw]

this is old news:

al jazeera did a good story on the same subject months ago

also, your team got its soil sample taken away?

did you bother to scrape your boots once you got to safety?

[planitroi]

Stories like this are so disturbing because there ARE companies that promote IT Asset repair and re-use, which keeps equipment like this OUT of landfills. Returning equipment back to it''s original functionality while providing proper reporting in accordance with international, federal, state, and local regulations bridges the digital divide responsibly.

[skipperlange]

Maybe one thing consumers can do is insist that computers and other electronics collected by communities be sent only to recyclers that do this safely and responsibly. Maybe the organization that is fighting this situation can publish a list of those businesses on its website. Likewise, maybe it will publish a list of where NOT to send used electronics. It may be a way those of us outraged by this show can help. Further, I''d be willing to pay to have my computer disassembled properly if that''s what it takes. And I think electronics manufacturers should be required to pay for this too -- after all it''s their planned obsolescence that is largely causing all this. Perhaps that might slow the pace of newer and newer models every few months. How about a big surcharge on the manufacturers every time they come out with new model/product/software....?

[skipperlange]

I wonder if this boils down to two problems that together make a perfect storm -- a storm that breeds this kind of public health and environmental catastrophe. The first is planned obsolescence America''s willingness to go along with it like sheep. And the second is the apathy and ignorance expressed here by poster Queenmodine Nov. 10 at 7:38 pm. The third part of this triangle may be greed.

By the way, if you haven''t read The Waste Makers by Vance Packard, I think many who have posted here would find it very interesting. And he wrote it I think in 1963! This has been going along a long time and consequences are staggering.

[ecyclerson]

As someone who has worked in this industry for over 20 years. I have a few comments:
1. Manufacturers Need to stand up & help build the infrastructure for a US based recycling system
a. including Money
b. knowledge...telling us where toxins are and how to get them out, they could also tell us about precious metal levels.
2. US Federal Government should pass a landfill ban & legislation regulating how this material is managed
3. Jim is being honest about most things, but caught in a 30 second-12.5min story line, Jim...we need the rest of the story..even 60 min story was not 100 % clear
4. Companies and End users must be willing to help pay for proper disposal and landfill operators & Trash haulers must be willing to reject electronics when possible.
5. The employees of these companies want to do right, but the owners are struggling to keep the lights on
6. Help us recyclers understand what does the model look like, how does it pay for itself $ what companies do further processing properly?

REUSE! REUSE! REUSE! more people need to buy used/refurbished, they could buy used computers used printers used notebooks & more
more more more more the story is so much bigger tell us more

[ecyclerson]

As someone who has worked in this industry for over 20 years. I have a few comments:
1. Manufacturers Need to stand up & help build the infrastructure for a US based recycling system
a. including Money
b. knowledge...telling us where toxins are and how to get them out, they could also tell us about precious metal levels.
2. US Federal Government should pass a landfill ban & legislation regulating how this material is managed
3. Jim is being honest about most things, but caught in a 30 second-12.5min story line, Jim...we need the rest of the story..even 60 min story was not 100 % clear
4. Companies and End users must be willing to help pay for proper disposal and landfill operators & Trash haulers must be willing to reject electronics when possible.
5. The employees of these companies want to do right, but the owners are struggling to keep the lights on
6. Help us recyclers understand what does the model look like, how does it pay for itself $ what companies do further processing properly?

more more more more the story is so much bigger tell us more

[tmittelstaed]

"...In response to the Consumer Electronics Association''s response below BAN has the following remarks..."

Jim, I work in the computer biz and the fact of the matter is that there is NO WAY that an e-recycler can make money by taking freely donated computers and breaking them down for scrap. The idea that they can is pure fiction. We have a local e-cycler in the city here - freegeek.org - which runs ENTIRELY on volunteer labor and they CHARGE MONEY for every CRT they take in, and they STRONGLY pressure anyone giving them an old computer to donate money - and on top of that they have a little thrift store that they re-sell the few decent computers that they get in. And they are -barely- breaking even, even with donations. And they send tons of steel off to a local steel mill every week.

The ONLY way that e-cyclers that don''t run on volunteer labor can exist is by bidding on palletized business discards that come from forklift-upgrades that large corps make. They break down the pallets and can usually find enough resalable stuff in them to pay for the labor and what is left over goes overseas.

The ONLY way to handle this is by charging consumers the disposal fee -at-the-point-of-purchase- when the item is brand new.

[nothappyatall]

lists most of these same companies as viable environmentally sound destinations for consumers. "
Jim Puckett,Executive Director
Basel Action Network"

Take a flying leap Jimbo, who cares! you "recycling"co''s are just ripping suckers off- having them do all your sorting, carting to recycling centers and giving you the machines for free, y''all turn around and RESELL the scrap silver, gold, lead etc at a nice profit on other people''s work sorting the trash they paid for originally.

I''d sooner toss the thing in the trash than do the work for YOU to make a profit off.

[nothappyatall]

Newster1 is right. Companies keep obsoleting the computers and other electornics faster than they wear out!
The casings alone from computers could be recycled into recycled metal for new machines. Whats the problem here?

Posted by panacam"

Whats wrong with designing machines that DONT "need" upgrading every year to begin with???

I ONLY buy used MACs on Ebay, and I get models just a couple or so years old about every 18 months- buying faster models each time. This one Im on now is in perfect working condition bought on EBay for about $200, they originally cost around $2800 new. The G4/1.42 does everything I need it to do. When I have a slower model to get rid of like my 533 it goes on Ebay for parts and the case, goes for usually $35 to someone who wants the tower case.

I NEVER buy a new computer, only idiots pay $2800 for something that gets outdated in a year.

[baselaction]

Dear Readers:

In response to the Consumer Electronics Association''s response below BAN has the following remarks. First CEA makes it sound as if only a few bad actors exist in the universe of recyclers. Unfortunately according to industry insiders about 90% of the companies calling themselves recyclers are involved in illegal or immoral export of hazardous electronic waste to developing countries.

Further CEA''s own website www.mygreenelectronics.org lists most of these same companies as viable environmentally sound destinations for consumers. As of yesterday if one went to this website and entered the area code for Denver one could very quickly find, Executive Recycling implicated in the 60 Minutes story. ER is one of hundreds of recyclers in North America listed by CEA as good recyclers that are involved in this ugly trade. It now appears that CEA has hastily removed Executive Recycling from their list. However they currently list many other easily identified exporters. Further they list prison operations of Unicor Federal Prisons Industries which has been implicated in endangering the health of inmates in several federal facilities. We find therefore find CEA''s statement disingenuous. Shouldn''t CEA remove all recyclers from its list involved in these irresponsible practices before issuing such statements?

Sincerely,

Jim Puckett,Executive Director
Basel Action Network

[nothappyatall]

bad thing to put it in the garbage where it will ultimately get buried in a landfill. In a landfill, however, the toxic heavy metals more or less stay put. Isnt that a better solution than supposedly doing the right thing but in reality be giving it to lowest bidders who facilitate the ecological disaster you document?"

Why? and put those 35,000 ship breaker workers out of work? they don''t look like they are complaining and were cheering when the ship arrived to tear apart for the scrap.
The scrap guy in Bangladesh paid $14 million for a junk ship, thats not DUMPING toxic waste on them- the guy BOUGHT IT for the steel. It''s no diff than someone from Hong Kong offering you $1,000 for your old car to get parts off it, you gonna take the $1,000 or take it to an auto recycler here and get maybe $35 for it?


"The man stood there and lied to your face. He knew full well that he was selling to lawbreakers and had full knowledge where the stuff was going!"

So? someone was willing to PAY for the junk, who cares what they wind up doing with the stuff that''s their problem not the seller''s.

"whereas when paper is either recycled or when it breaks down in a landfill "
Posted by bigdaddyhuah


Paper doesnt break down in landfills, test bores done in a NYC landfill found 30 to 40+ year old newspapers perfectly readable as well as diapers all basically intact, the compression of the garbage above drives the oxygen out of the pile and with no oxygen there''s little break down.

[panacam]

Newster1 is right. Companies keep obsoleting the computers and other electornics faster than they wear out! However, why can''t the local recycling centers and the manufactures of computer and other electronics use much more recycled material in the manufacture of electronics when they know the products have such a short lifespan? The casings alone from computers could be recycled into recycled metal for new machines. What''s the problem here? The same thing with the plastics in electronic products. They can be recycled too! Is it that much more work to recycle the plastics and metals from outdated electronics and use it than it is to use new material?

[panacam]

Newster1 is right. Companies keep obsoleting the computers and other electornics faster than they wear out! However, why can''t the local recycling centers and the manufactures of computer and other electronics use much more recycled material in the manufacture of electronics when they know the products have such a short lifespan? The casings alone from computers could be recycled into recycled metal for new machines. What''s the problem here? The same thing with the plastics in electronic products. They can be recycled too! Is it that much more work to recycle the plastics and metals from outdated electronics and use it than it is to use new material?

[nothappyatall]

Why can''''t they make computers and other electronics without heavy metals and other toxins? Is it possible?

Posted by skipperlange

Sure it is, you can replace lead with SILVER or gold bearing solder- if you don''t mind paying double what you do now for a new computer- it comes down to cost, and then some metals have no viable substitutes, you can''t substitute for gold.
What needs to happen is we need to stop this "upgrading" *** we are forced into by software and computer makers, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a computer you bought last year other than it might be slower than one made this year, and the software is updated.
The software makers are the ones responsible for a lot of this krap, so are the computer makers- they design the things to run on certain software then update the software, pretty soon the older software wont even RUN on the OS so you have to buy the upgrade, then before long that wont run on your particular machine or slows it down too much- wahlah- you need a NEW machine.

[queenmodine]

Sorry! I could care less. Two years ago they were poisoning our pets with tainted wheat gluten. We feed the world, why are we buying wheat gluten from China? The eat dogs and cats. They have been making toys for American children with lead paint. They have been selling cardboard and passing it off as meat, and Cadbury Candy recently said there has been a toxic in their candy, Melamine? They have no regard for the human element, what so ever. They let this toxic waste come to their shores. You want us to believe that this is without their knowledge. Wise up U.S. Quit propping up their economy at the expense of our health, safety, and economy. Let me re-phrase, I couldn''t care less! Did you see those thugs you filmed? They couldn''t care less either.

[vava69]

Hello 60 Minutes
I love your show and I''ve been watching it for many years, I was just wondering why the story (toxic E-waste( is basically the same story I seen on the(CBC The National(around 2 weeks ago. Thank-you for your time.
Donald

[txgrouch2007]

Those in a position to do something should be swooping in and doing something
Posted by skipperlange at 05:18 PM : Nov 10, 2008

They did. The Chinese have decided that the "not looking" policy is working so well, they allowed an illegal iron ore mine to build a pile of waste sludge three stories high that then collapsed and buried an entire village in China, killing over 150 people.

Does THAT answer your question?

[thomasv]

THIS IS THE WORST ONE SIDED STORY ABOUT E-SCRAP RECYCLING I HAVE SEEN SINCE THE PHONY VIDEO CREATED BY BAN IN 2002, THAT CAUSED WORLDWIDE OUTRAGE, TEED OFF THE CHINESE AND EVENTUALLY BACKFIRED ON THE US WHEN CHINA SHUT ITS DOORS ON US SCRAP AND CHOKED US ON ESCRAP FOR 2 YRS.WAKE UP PEOPLE, BAN IS A SUBVERSIVE ANTI-AMERICAN ORGANIZATION FROM EUROPE WHOSE GOAL IS TO DESTROY NATIONS BY HAVING THEM SIGN THE BAN TREATY WHICH CALLS OUR E-SCRAP TOXIC EWASTE AND PREFERS THAT WE DO NOT RETURN THE ESCRAP TO ITS COUNTRY OF ORIGIN WHERE IT CAN BE CHEAPLY RECYCLED, BUT WANTS US TO SHRED AND THAN BURY THE UNRECOVARABLE TOXIC MESH IN OUR TOXIC BURIAL SITES AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE.WE HAVE NO MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES IN THE US, SO WITHOUT THE EXPORTS WE WILL CHOKE ON ALL THE RECYCLED E-SCRAP AS IN FACT WE ARE NOW WITH THE LOWEST SCRAP PRICES IN OUR HISTORY. AND ALL THIS TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH OF SOME CHINESE WORKERS IN ONE AREA. THE ANSWER IS TO HAVE THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS AND GOVERNMENTS CONVINCE CHINA TO DO THE RIGHT THING, NOT DESTROY THE ECONOMIES OF NATIONS BY STOPPING FREE TRADE. CHINA NOW HAS ITS OWN ESCRAP TO DEAL WITH AND IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE WHETHER WE STOP SENDING THEM OURS OR NOT, THEY WILL STILL RECYCLE IT THE SAME PRIMITIVE WAY, SO WE ARE NOT SAVING NOTHING THERE, ONLY KILLING OFF OUR OWN ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY BY BECOMING THE TOXIC BURIAL CAPITAL OF THE WORLD.WRITE: [e-mail]

[mrkuren]

sorbs2001: I''m not 100% sure, but the last time I checked the EPA was just another GOP run lie-factory. Things might have changed, the door may have revolved again, but the chances are the EPA knows all about this and is just another well-fed blind eye. Heart breaking isn''t it, I think most of them mean well but have higher ups to answer to, who have less than impact capacity. Truly sad, I hope I''m dead wrong on this.