Electronics production uses “thousands of toxic chemicals.” A single computer can contain hundreds of chemicals, including lead, mercury, cadmium, brominated flame-retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Many of these chemicals cause cancer, respiratory illness and reproductive problems. These chemicals are even more dangerous in that they travel long distances through air and water and accumulate in the environment and in the human body.
Workers and communities whose water or air is directly contaminated by electronic manufacturing facilities are most severely exposed. These workers and communities most often “are low-income people of color, prisoners, and impoverished areas of developing countries.”
The United States exports “up to 80 percent of e-waste to impoverished countries.” Most of the e-waste consumers, institutions and businesses take to recycling centers is shipped oversees (e.g., to Ghana, China, India) where toxic components are either openly burned, soaked in acid baths and dumped into rivers, or piled into mountains of e-waste for scrap recovery.
“Impoverished workers, including children, smash leaded glass tubes, breathe lead solder fumes and melt plastics with toxic flame-retardants.”
500 million obsolete computers exist in the U.S“E-waste is the fastest growing part of the waste stream.” Like batteries, electronics seem safe to use but if we throw them out, they can leak toxic chemicals like lead, mercury and cadmium into the water and air. One computer monitor can contain 4-8 pounds of lead. If released, it can hurt an entire community. The volume of electronic waste created every day around the world has caused a problem of crisis magnitude.
130 million cell phones are disposed annually
Twenty to 24 million televisions and computers are stored annually in homes and offices
Ten percent of unwanted and obsolete computers are recycled
Electronics companies say customer demand is the single most compelling driver for them to make changes in their products.
The ultimate solution to the e-waste crisis is to design cleaner products that are less toxic, that are easily recycled, and that allow for repairs and upgrades.
Sources and notes
In 1982, groundwater contamination was discovered throughout Silicon Valley near high-tech manufacturing facilities. Comprised of high-tech workers, community members, law enforcement, emergency workers and environmentalists, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition emerged. The Coalition pushed for and won legislation to inform the community and monitor further contamination. SVTC also led the effort to bring in the EPA to identify 29 Superfund sites for immediate clean up. Today, SVTC continues its work to hold the industry accountable and shift it towards greater sustainability.
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is a diverse non-profit organization engaged in research, advocacy and grassroots organizing to promote human health and environmental justice in response to the rapid growth of the high-tech industry. SVTC has worked with other organizations around the world in researching and exposing the worldwide destinations of our electronic waste.
http://www.svtc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=svtc_toxics_in_electronics
http://www.svtc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=svtc_about_us
http://www.svtc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=svtc_global_ewaste_crisis
Also on Radio Netherlands’ Earth Beat: technology and our environment: “Shopping for an environmentally-friendly TV ─ When Marnie’s TV finally died she knew it was time to let it go, so she consigned it to the attic and started looking at replacements. Six months on, and she still hasn’t found one – partly because of the scary chemicals used in flat screen production. So she took Kim Schoppink, from Greenpeace TV, shopping, to try to find a green telly” [http://www.rnw.nl/english/radioshow/technology-and-our-environment].
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