July 19, 2007

Computer parts need responsible recycling

CORINNE PURTILL, The Arizona Republic

Feeling that it's time to toss out that old computer for a newer, faster model? You're not alone.

Electronics waste, or "e-waste," is the fastest-growing sector of American trash, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But no one really knows exactly where all our e-waste goes because there isn't a national program to certify electronics recyclers. Some e-waste gets tossed in the trash and ends up in landfills. Some gets shipped to developing countries, where scavengers dismantle them in unsafe ways that expose workers and the environment to toxic metals and chemicals.

A group of Arizona State University graduate students and professors is seeking a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study where computers end up after Americans get rid of them. The team hopes its research will help channel used electronics away from landfills and scavengers to people who wouldn't otherwise have access to technology.

"Why not reuse the computers?" doctoral candidate Ramzy Kahhat asked. "Outside the USA, there are a lot of kids that don't have that chance."

The National Safety Council estimates almost 250 million computers will become obsolete in the next five years. Globally, the annual volume of e-waste is expected to soon reach roughly 44 million tons - enough to fill a line of dump trucks stretching halfway around the globe, according to the United Nations.

Between 2003 and 2005, 15 percent to 20 percent of all discarded electronics were recycled, according to an EPA estimate. The rest went to landfills.

This country has legitimate electronics recyclers. However, the electronics-recycling industry here is not well regulated, said Rick Goss, vice president of environmental affairs for the Electronic Industries Alliance trade group. As a result, materials left with a provider who claims to be a recycler could later be sold to a broker and sent overseas.

At least eight states have passed laws regulating disposal of electronics.

Electronics manufacturers, nervous at the prospect of a grab bag of state laws, are lobbying for a unified national policy that would require them to take back computers from consumers, said Goss of the Electronic Industries Alliance. The manufacturers then would decide whether to resell, refurbish or send the items to an environmentally responsible recycler.

Environmental advocates hope that manufacturers will start designing more sustainable products if they have to be responsible for them at the end of their life cycle.

Now, some environmentalists worry that if computers are dumped in landfills, common computer components, such as lead, mercury and cadmium, will leach into the soil and water.

A bigger concern is the danger to workers abroad exposed to toxic computer innards while collecting the valuable materials inside, said Eric Williams, an Arizona State engineering and sustainability professor.

It's illegal under international treaty for most developing countries to accept hazardous waste from the United States. But unknown tons of used electronics end up in places such as China, India and Nigeria through networks of unscrupulous brokers and smuggling, according to watchdog groups.

Workers will smash computer monitors with a hammer or against a rock to recover the copper coils inside, exposing themselves to lead dust, according to an investigation by the advocacy group Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Circuit boards are heated over open flames to reach the semiconductor chip, releasing toxic fumes, or dunked in acid to recover precious metals.