Nov. 9, 2008
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
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The Electronic Wasteland
Where do the millions of computer monitors, cell phones and other electronic refuse our society generates end up? Scott Pelley reports.
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E-Stewards: Ethical Recyclers
Only On The Web: Not all companies ship the electronic waste to China and other countries. The Basel Action Network certifies ethical recyclers right here in the U.S.
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Working for barely a dollar a day with little more than their hands, the ship breakers of Bangladesh strip old ships in one of the world's most dangerous jobs. Bob Simon reports.
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Seven out of 10 children in Guiyu, China, have too much lead in their blood. (CBS)
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How To Find An Ethical Recycler
The Basel Action Network (BAN) has qualified e-Steward recyclers that will not export your toxic electronic waste to developing countries. To find these recyclers please visit click here.
The Basel Action Network (BAN) has qualified e-Steward recyclers that will not export your toxic electronic waste to developing countries. To find these recyclers please visit click here.
It's worth risking a visit because much of the poison is coming out of the homes, schools and offices of America. This is a story about recycling - about how your best intentions to be green can be channeled into an underground sewer that flows from the United States and into the wasteland.
That wasteland is piled with the burning remains of some of the most expensive, sophisticated stuff that consumers crave. And 60 Minutes and correspondent Scott Pelley discovered that the gangs who run this place wanted to keep it a secret.
What are they hiding? The answer lies in the first law of the digital age: newer is better. In with the next thing, and out with the old TV, phone or computer. All of this becomes obsolete, electronic garbage called "e-waste."
Computers may seem like sleek, high-tech marvels. But what’s inside them?
"Lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, polyvinyl chlorides. All of these materials have known toxicological effects that range from brain damage to kidney disease to mutations, cancers," Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist and authority on waste management at the Natural Resources Defense Council, explained.
"The problem with e-waste is that it is the fastest-growing component of the municipal waste stream worldwide," he said.
Asked what he meant by "fastest-growing," Hershkowitz said. "Well, we throw out about 130,000 computers every day in the United States."
And he said over 100 million cell phones are thrown out annually.
At a recycling event in Denver, 60 Minutes found cars bumper-to-bumper for blocks, in a line that lasted for hours. They were there to drop off their computers, PDAs, TVs and other electronic waste.
Asked what he thought happens once his e-waste goes into recycling, one man told Pelley, "Well my assumption is they break it apart and take all the heavy metals and out and then try to recycle some of the stuff that's bad."
Most folks in line were hoping to do the right thing, expecting that their waste would be recycled in state-of-the-art facilities that exist here in America. But really, there's no way for them to know where all of this is going. The recycling industry is exploding and, as it turns out, some so-called recyclers are shipping the waste overseas, where it's broken down for the precious metals inside.
Executive Recycling, of Englewood, Colo., which ran the Denver event, promised the public on its Web site: "Your e-waste is recycled properly, right here in the U.S. - not simply dumped on somebody else."
That policy helped Brandon Richter, the CEO of Executive Recycling, win a contract with the city of Denver and expand operations into three western states.
Asked what the problem is with shipping this waste overseas, Richter told Pelley, "Well, you know, they've got low-income labor over there. So obviously they don't have all of the right materials, the safety equipment to handle some of this material."
Executive does recycling in-house, but 60 Minutes was curious about shipping containers that were leaving its Colorado yard. 60 Minutes found one container filled with monitors. They're especially hazardous because each picture tube, called a cathode ray tube or CRT, contains several pounds of lead. It's against U.S. law to ship them overseas without special permission. 60 Minutes took down the container's number and followed it to Tacoma, Wash., where it was loaded on a ship.
When the container left Tacoma, 60 Minutes followed it for 7,459 miles to Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong.
It turns out the container that started in Denver was just one of thousands of containers on an underground, often illegal smuggling route, taking America's electronic trash to the Far East.
Our guide to that route was Jim Puckett, founder of the Basel Action Network, a watchdog group named for the treaty that is supposed to stop rich countries from dumping toxic waste on poor ones. Puckett runs a program to certify ethical recyclers. And he showed 60 Minutes what's piling up in Hong Kong.
"It's literally acres of computer monitors," Pelley commented. "Is it legal to import all of these computer monitors into Hong Kong?"
"No way. It is absolutely illegal, both from the standpoint of Hong Kong law but also U.S. law and Chinese law. But it's happening," Puckett said.
Produced by Solly Granatstein
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 302 CommentsCAN''T WAIT ! ! ! !
If you don''t believe it... watch the stock market for the next 30 days!!! Investors will be selling their stocks ASAP to avoid the confiscatory Obama Cap Gains rates!
"I feel a bad moon rising" J Fogerty
communicationtopics.com
CAN''T WAIT ! ! ! !
If you don''t believe it... watch the stock market for the next 30 days!!! Investors will be selling their stocks ASAP to avoid the confiscatory Obama Cap Gains rates!
"I feel a bad moon rising" J Fogerty
EXACTLY.
Some odd enviormental group has convinced us all that recyling is good. In fact this is the type of horror that it leads to. Do any us us really believe that we have the resources to process all the trash we pick up in those colored bins outside our houses. After those oil eating trucks take it away they bundle and ship it overseas to the detriment of the enviorment.
Environuts, IS IT WORTH IT???
Are we ready for TARIFFS to protect American workers from having to compete with these envoronmental terrorists???
Posted by MichaelStapp at 05:53 PM : Nov 06, 2008
LOL! Now you''re blaming Bush for CHINA???
Sorry, but that was Slick Willy so buddy-buddy with China, Vietnam, ALL or our Communist former enemies. Giving them Favored Nation status, EVEN THOUGH HE KNEW this was happening.
*** SLICK WILLY!!!
Posted by PJR888 at 05:50 PM : Nov 06, 2008
What happened is CHEAPER IS BETTER, AT MADE-IN-CHINA-MART!!!!
Wasn''t Hillary on the Board of Directors of WalMart, where most EVERYTHING is made in China?
And she said she DISAGREED with NAFTA. Yah, she wanted free trade with CHINA.
How about the e business making products that last and not for just a year. My hp printer was only 5 years old and I was told to throw it away because it would cost more to get it repaired than to buy a new one. Same with my phone. I say throw away CEOs.
CBS, why don''t you do stories on the *** that US companies have manufactured in China that just go from our dumps to theirs.
In the meantime, CBS, hope this beating is just the beginning after what you arrogant, lying trash do to good, decent people like Gov.Sarah Palin.
Posted by izzyeddy at 05:59 PM : Nov 06, 2008
What, have you been living under a rock?
This is NORMAL IN CHINA. They do it EVERYWHERE in EVERY INDISTRY.
Chinese workplace safety is AMONG THE WORST IN THE WORLD. Their lack of safety standards, and lack of enforcement, is ONE REASON WHY THEIR PRODUCTS ARE SO CHEAP.
And why we have NO HOPE OF COMPETING WITH THEM. Which is why WE ARE LOSING OUR MANUFACTURING JOBS TO THEM.
Stop pretending to be stupid like you didn''t know this.
How about the e business making products that last and not for just a year. My hp printer was only 5 years old and I was told to throw it away because it would cost more to get it repaired than to buy a new one. Same with my phone. I say throw away CEOs.
CBS, why don''t you do stories on the *** that US companies have manufactured in China that just go from our dumps to theirs.
In the meantime, CBS, hope this beating is just the beginning after what you arrogant, lying trash do to good, decent people like Gov.Sarah Palin.
Is the toxic practice bad - of course.
Unless everyone is going to play by the same rules the Kyoto agreement only stifles our business, yet our atmosphere is being poisoned by those who aren''t playing by the rules. So impose every restriction on American companies so they can''t stay in business or they can''t compete with goods developed in countries without restrictions. What has been accomplished? Has the dirty practice been eliminated? No, it''s just operating in a different zip code. And now another country has the benefit not the American company. If we are not careful, we will regulate ourselves to be dependent on not just foreign oil, but foreign food, foreign clothes, foreign goods.
If you knew that a foreign country was dumping toxic waste into your surroundings, and you knew that the toxicity caused birth defects, death, and made your environment such that you could not even drink water safely, would you care about the offending country''s false self image?
Conversely if you were the offender, do you claim right to protect a false self image by suppressing the information?
At least you show a modicum of sense to know that this is wrong, and it makes the perpetrators look bad, but this is almost nothing compared to the Austrailian-US operation at the Freeport mine in Indonesia.
These are the so-called "freedoms" that Bush says other countries hate us for.
Tex, there is a hope. You may not be getting this in the US, but countries around the world are banning Chinese foodstuffs, and animal feed because of a chemical called melamine, used to fake a high protein content, but causes severe kidney damage when consumed, hundreds of babies have dies, thousands are in hospitals, the official in charge of food safety inspection has been convicted and sentenced to death.
Meanwhile everything containing milk, eggs, egg powder, even potato flour is being pulled from store shelves around the world, even companies like Nestle are affected.
Countries are learning that cheap isn''t cheap when lawsuits and lost sales are destroying their profits, so I think that soon we will see a serious slowdown in business investment, even a repatriation of businesses, until China gets it together, which won''t happen overnight.
Publicizing such practices force companies to clean up their act, repatriate, or close, which helps more people than it harms.
Posted by brianbwb at 06:21 PM : Nov 06, 2008
Hello? Are you blaming the USA for what the CROOKS IN CHINA are doing with stuff WE THREW AWAY or EXPECTED IT TO BE RECYCLED???
You''re being pretty inconsistent with your attitude about China. When you''re buying cheap stuff from them, you look the other way about how it was made.
Then when someone SHOVES YOUR FACE IN IT, you blame Bush!!!
You need to get a grip on reality.
Posted by brianbwb at 06:30 PM : Nov 06, 2008
Yes, we heard. We also know that some Chinese drug makers are putting TABLE SALT in to some medicines to "fake" the standard potency test that gets thrown off by abnormal salt levels.
THIS IS HOW YOU''RE GETTING THESE CHEAP PRICES, folks.
IS IT WORTH IT???????
Or is it time to PUNISH CHINA WITH TARIFFS against their products???
If you won''t take action, DON''T COMPLAIN.
Posted by Ghostforce1 at 06:30 PM : Nov 06, 2008
The government is rich. The people are poor, dirt poor. Poor like you couldn''t understand how poor.
That''s socialism.
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