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Some 20 million to 50 million tonnes of e-waste are produced each year, most of which ends up in the developing world. Many technology firms are eliminating certain chemicals and offering recycling schemes to help customers dispose of obsolete equipment. Yet, there is a wide variation in just how green different firms are, according to environmental lobby group Greenpeace. A status report. Are you still using a Pentium IV? Can you access the web with your cell phone? Are you being left behind in the brave, new, wired world? The pressure to upgrade is intense but before you rush out and buy the latest electronic gadget there is a more serious question you need to ask. Do you know what happens to the obsolete electronic products you send for recycling or to the dump? Increasing rates of technological change
has rendered electronic products virtually disposable due to rapid product
obsolescence. For example, the lifespan of a computer has shrunk from four
to five years to about two years. The amount of electronic products
discarded globally has skyrocketed recently, with 20-50 million tonnes
generated every year. It is estimated that up to 50 per cent of computers
turned in for recycling in the US are in good, working order. The
electronics industry vigorously promotes this fad of increased
consumption. According to the European Union, e-waste is now the fastest-growing category and is the fastest growing stream of waste in industrialised countries. However, neither the industry nor the consumers of electronics products bear the downstream costs of the enormous quantities of wastes produced. Every year, hundreds of thousands of old computers and mobile phones are dumped in landfills or burned in smelters. Thousands more are exported, often illegally, from the Europe, US, Japan and other industrialised countries. Fifty to eighty percent of the e-waste collected for recycling in the developed countries is exported to developing countries, most of it to Asia. E-wastes contain over one thousand different substances, many of which are highly toxic and the burden of e-waste is borne by people who live in developing countries. It now makes up five per cent of all solid waste worldwide; nearly the same amount as all plastic packaging, but it is much more hazardous. Mobile phones and computers are causing the biggest problem because they are replaced most often. In Europe, e-waste is increasing at three to five per cent a year, almost three times faster than the total waste stream. Not only developed countries generate e-waste; developing countries are also expected to triple their e-waste production over the next five years. Asia alone discards an estimated 12 million tonnes each year. Many developed countries have not taken responsibility for their e-wastes because they have been able to dump it in poor countries. The electronics companies refuse to use less hazardous materials or to design for disassembly. The US government refuses to hold electronics companies accountable for end-of-life management of their products. However, in July, new rules came into force in both Europe and California to oblige the industry to take responsibility for it. In Europe the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive limits the use of many toxic materials in new electronic products sold in the European Union. In California mobile-phone retailers must now take back and recycle old phones. The RoHS rules ban products containing any more than trace amounts of lead, mercury, cadmium and other hazardous substances, including some nasty materials called brominated flame-retardants (BFRs). To do well in Greenpeace's rankings, firms must make sure both products and production processes are free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and some BFRs that are not on the RoHS list. Greenpeace also wants companies to adopt a "precautionary principle" and avoid chemicals if their environmental impact is uncertain. Although not everyone will agree with Greenpeace's methodology, its ranking still has some merit.
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