Searching for solutions: designers, manufacturers and recyclers of electronic equipment gathered in San Francisco to examine the many facets of electronic scrap - Electronics Summit Wrap Up - California; International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment

Recycling Today, June, 2002 by Brian Taylor

The most established recycling markets exist without subsidies, most observers agree. The question facing those involved in the emerging electronic scrap recycling industry is to what extent can and should governments be involved in regulating or supporting this recycling sector.

Equipment designers and manufacturers as well as recyclers, government officials and environmental activists gathered in San Francisco in May for the 2002 International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment to discuss this and other issues. The event was organized by the International Association of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Piscataway, N.J., and co-sponsored by the International Association of Electronics Recyclers (IAER), Albany, N.Y.

While "design-for-environment" and energy-efficiency presentations were on the agenda, the end-of-life disposition of obsolete electronics captured much of the attention of those attending the annual event, which include(I an Electronics Recycling Summit on its final two days.

How to dispose of or recycle obsolete electronic equipment without causing environmental harm has been the topic of considerable research and debate, if the event's programming is any indication.

GUIYU: A GRIM RECYCLING LANDSCAPE

The tone of end-of-life computer recycling was set early at the conference with a presentation of footage shot by the Basel Action Network of working and living conditions in the city of Guiyu, China. Guiyu has become a hub for illegal and unsafe computer recycling operations in China.

During an undercover visit to Guiyu in December of 2001, representatives of the Basel Action Network, Seattle, saw and taped villagers manually cracking leaded-glass computer monitors to retrieve the copper yokes within. The men, women and children of Guiyu also conduct open burning of PVC-coated wire and cable: they "grill" circuit boards to melt the lead solder to remove chips; and they work with a 75 percent hydrochloric acid solution to separate precious metals from circuit boards.

The amounts of scrap computers, monitors and printers is staggering, overflowing in large piles in the front and back yards of villagers who work from their homes or other small locations.

The acid stripping operations, along with the open dumping of waste and ash residue into ditches and riverbeds, has rendered the well water and ground water of Guiyu undrinkable. For the past five years, water has been trucked in from distant villages.

One villager told the taping crew that in a span of five years, Guiyu had gone from a bucolic rice-growing village to "a bustling, sprawling junkyard." He noted that while water may be trucked in, some villagers still wash their vegetables in the contaminated water, and by breathing in the fumes generated by open burning, "many villagers have become weak."

The taping crew examined pieces of computer equipment hauled into the village and spotted identification labels from such entities as the City of Los Angeles, the State of California and the L.A. Unified School District. Such equipment and its components lay in heaps along the roadsides and in the ditches and creek beds of Guiyu.

The tape or the accompanying print report of conditions in Guiyu, called "Exporting Harm," can be obtained from the Basel Action Network at its Web site, www.ban.org.

Basel Action Network's Jim Puckett remarked, "In a bid to avoid landfills, a worse alternative may have been found. Nobody bothered to look at what goes on in China."

Lauren Roman of United Recycling Industries, West Chicago, Ill., noted that brokers in the U.S. shipping to China have been able to undercut domestic recyclers, resulting "in the export of between 50 percent and 80 percent of all electronic waste sent for recycling from U.S. sources."

According to both Puckett and Roman, many equipment manufacturers and generators of scrap computer equipment have already pledged to more carefully audit their recycling contractors and brokers to ensure they are not part of the Guiyu problem.

The reaction of the Chinese government to the findings in Guiyu has been swift: It immediately banned the import of electronic scrap into China. "On paper, China has banned the import of material such as cathode ray tubes, computers and circuit boards," said Puckett. "But there is a huge amount of corruption at the customs level," he added, noting that containers of material helped along with bribes may still be making their way to Guiyu.

A session later in the week on the export situation included a presentation by Jade Lee of System Service International, Lombard, Ill. According to Lee, the company offers an electronics recycling service that includes shipping some goods to China, but only to an enclosed facility with health and safety standards comparable to the ones found at the Chinese plants of U.S.-based equipment manufacturers.

When the Basel Action Network report was issued, Lee said she told her corporate clients, "This report underscores the importance of working with reputable firms with very good plants in China." The scenes of illegal dumping in Guiyu paint a picture of the "backyard, illegal operations" that SSI competes with, she remarked.