•    80% of e-waste sent to be recycled is not recycled. It is shipped to other countries²

•    50–80% of U.S. E-waste is sent to China³

•    E-waste often contains such toxic chemicals as mercury, beryllium, and chromium⁴

•    Adults in Guiyu, China, the world’s largest e-waste disposal site, are exposed to toxin inhalation 56 times higher than the World Health Organization recommended maximum⁴

•    69% of children in Guiyu suffer from lead poisoning⁵

•    It is estimated that between 1997 and 2007 500 million computers became obsolete⁷

Electronic waste has been accumulating rapidly since the onset of the high tech boom of the early 1990s. While definitions of e-waste vary, the term typically refers to any electrically wired device that is no longer of use to the consumer.  Whether its energy source is depleted, it has become outdated, or it is simply broken beyond repair, an electronic waste item cannot be reused in any way and must be recycled or disposed.  Examples of e-waste might include the following discarded items: batteries, mobile phones, microchips, monitors, televisions, computer components, motherboards, circuit boards, refrigerators, or industrial electronic waste.

Why is it a problem?

Few countries have adequate, safe, or appropriate means of processing e-waste in place. Electronic waste products typically end up in scrap heaps in private homes, buried in waste collection sites, processed in waste plants, or exported to developing nations for recycling and disposal.

Since the production of electronic equipment often involves the use of toxic chemicals and hazardous substances, anyone who handles its waste faces serious health and environmental risks. Formal e-waste processing usually involves the dismantling of equipment into smaller parts; afterwards, material is shredded and sorted for sale.  In developing countries, dumped e-waste often ends up in the hands of migrant scavengers or factory workers who must deal with the toxicity of e-waste firsthand.  Recycling in this case begins with workers stripping equipment for precious metals and reusable parts by hand.  Following this, some methods have included swirling parts around in industrial acids in order to extract precious metals like gold, silver, or copper existing in trace amounts.  Many developing nations even burn their waste as a means of disposal, generating toxic air particles sure to cause respiratory irritation.

Sadly, it is developing and often rural countries like China, India and Nigeria that receive the bulk of e-waste exports.  Already poor and often without means of challenging the environmental burdens placed upon them, these people and their local environments bear the load of much of the world’s e-waste.  In these instances, entire communities can suffer the consequences of water and soil contamination.

What can be done?

Engineering and design teams, for starters, can innovate to create more eco-friendly electronics.  Smart, clean design can lead to less toxic, more easily recyclable electronics.  Also, recycling used equipment back to companies can require companies to be more conscious about their production and lessen the problem of stray e-waste in households and landfills.  On a policy level, governments are increasingly invested in evening out the slippery economic slope that encourages the export of e-waste to developing nations.  In 1992, over 160 countries ratified the Basel Convention, a global environmental agreement regulating the shipment and disposal of waste.  The European Union has adopted stringent policies on electronic waste, while Canada and states like California in the United States have taken the lead in facing e-waste head on through drop-off events and strict regulations on manufacturers of electronics.

What is PEPY doing?

E-waste is currently not an issue we are focusing on, but what we are working to do is educate about the issue.   We are also trying to be better about what we purchase in the office and how sustainable it is.  Many of us who have come from outside of Cambodia have learned how wasteful our old practices in our home country were.  Here in Cambodia you can get computers and phones fixed or recycled cheaply, so it becomes more cost effective to continue to use older products rather than continually buying new electronics year after year. 

PEPY’s latest acquisitions have been OLPC XO laptops for the Chanleas Dai School.  XO computers are exceptionally sustainable.  The XO is not just visually green, it’s the most eco-green laptop ever made.  The XO has received the first “gold” award that has ever been given to a laptop by EPEAT , an organization that assesses the environmental impact of laptops.   The XO is also non-toxic and fully recyclable; even then XOs have a lifetime of 5 years which is 2.5 times longer than the average laptop.  OLPC claims that if all computer users switched from their desktops and laptops to the XO laptop, $9B US dollars could be saved in world-wide electricity bills.

What can we do?

All of us can commit to being more responsible consumers of electronics.  We can more thoughtfully approach whether we really need to upgrade to new electronic gadgets, and we can be especially conscious about the eco-friendliness of other electronic purchases like appliances.  Consumers also have the option and the obligation to demonstrate responsible patronage.  When recycling, make sure to support recyclers who don’t export e-waste and who maintain high environmental and health standards in treating electronic waste.  Avoid purchasing electronics with toxic components and invest in responsible, clean designs.  Support legislation in your state or country making companies responsible for managing electronic recycling programs.

If you would like to recycle your E-waste PEPY suggests that you investigate the following websites:

PC4Peace (www.pc4peace.org )

PC4Peace is a non-profit organization founded in November 2003 (Kyoto, Japan) with the express interest of giving decommissioned technologies (mainly used computers) a new life in developing countries.

EnviroCellular (www.envirocellular.com )

EnviroCellular is a company in Fulton, Ohio that collects unwanted cellular phones.  After collection, EnviroCellular tests, resets and resells phones that are still useable, and properly recycles the phones that are not.

EcoPhones (www.ecophones.com )

Founded in 2001, EcoPhones is a leader in recycling cellular phones, ink jet printer cartridges, DVD movies, DVD video games, portable DVD playesr, laptops / notebook computers, MP3 players, digital cameras, digital video recorders, GPS devices and video game consoles.

Recycling For Charities (www.recyclingforcharities.com )

Recycling for Charities is a non-profit organization that is committed to protecting the environment while simultaneously raising funds for charity organizations.  By ensuring proper wireless phone disposal, RFC helps individuals avoid polluting the environment as well as donate the phone’s value to other non-profit organizations.

1- http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2006/2006-12-04-04.asp

2- http://www.helium.com/items/788516-evaluating-the-environmental-impact-of-e-waste

3- http://www.ban.org/E-waste/technotrashfinalcomp.pdf

4- http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2006/2006-12-04-04.asp

5- http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/july/science/rc_ewaste.html

6- http://gizmodo.com/376201/chinas-e+waste-problem-poisons-children-destroys-cities

7- http://www.ban.org/E-waste/technotrashfinalcomp.pdf

8- http://www.ban.org/E-waste/technotrashfinalcomp.pdf