E-Waste Exports: An Inconvenient Truth?

A recently published report in the U.S. has challenged the widely held view that the developed world has been exporting much of its waste electronics to developing nations, with claims that 79% reported that their output was traded, sold and/or transferred within the U.S. WMW takes a closer look at the report and the controversy surrounding its findings. Spurred on by images of poverty stricken children dressed in rags and 'cooking' electric cables and broken circuit boards over open fires, the developed world seems to finally be making meaningful efforts to curtail the export of end-of-life electronics to the developing world. In October last year the long standing opposition to an amendment of the Basel Convention banning the export of hazardous wastes, including electronics, crumbled and it will now become law in some 178 countries within the next two or three years. Further to this, national governments in the U.S. and Europe are enacting a range of measures aimed at stemming the tide of potentially toxic electronic waste to the developing world. Following numerous government reports, documentary films and even investigations by law enforcement agencies in a number of countries, including the U.S., it's become widely accepted that the trade in broken, non-functional electronic waste is widespread and damaging both to the environment and to human health. However, a recent survey of the U.S. electronic waste industry has caused controversy by challenging the extent to which such trade trade is a problem. According to the survey just a quarter of respondents see the export of non-repairable equipment as reusable goods being a challenge for the industry over the next year, and nearly 79% reported that their output was traded, sold and/or transferred within the U.S. A controversial new survey conducted on behalf of ISRI has called into question the extent to which the end-of-life electronics are exported from the U.S. - Credit: Vibek Raj Maurya The survey - Inside the U.S. Electronics Recycling Industry - has been conducted by market research provider International Data Corporation (IDC) on behalf of the U.S. Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), and collated data from 182 U.S. electronics recyclers to build a profile of the industry's 'addressable market', labour, revenue and other metrics. According to IDC the purpose of the survey was to assess the state of the U.S. electronics recycling industry, and to provide both a fresh set of metrics and a demographic profile of industry players. Findings In terms of the national U.S. electronics recycling market, the survey reinforces the findings of numerous studies and reports that have shown tremendous growth in the industry over the past 10 years. Hundreds of organisations and tens of thousands of workers are active in the sector, figures that have been growing over the years as the use of electronics equipment becomes ever more entrenched both in business and society as a whole. According to IDC, in the U.S. there are 600 to 1000 companies active in electronics recycling. However, because a substantial percentage of organisations involved in the industry are small scale they tend to remain outside the scope of the various industry listings and directories, including associations and government sources. ISRI argues that the survey supports its views that new legislation is not needed - Credit: EPA With regard to the ultimate destination of recycled end-of-life electronics, the survey finds that of the 3.5 million tons (3.2 million tonnes) being collected and recycled in the U.S., 70% by weight is processed in the country and sold either domestically, or on the global marketplace as commodity grade scrap. The researchers also claim that 10% of the total quantity collected is resold as functioning equipment and components and less than 18% is resold as equipment and components for further repair and refurbishment. According to the survey's respondents, the U.S. remains the biggest market for direct output in both weight and value, with nearly 79% of respondents reporting that their output was traded, sold and/or transferred within the U.S. Controversially, ISRI is arguing that these findings reinforce its claims that congressional proposals to ban the legitimate trade of used and end-of-life electronics to U.S. trading partners is unnecessary, and would in fact be counter-productive. Outlining the case against export controls to the Washington Council of Governments, Eric Harris, ISRI associate counsel and director of international and government relations argues that the legislation would put an end to the free, fair and legal trade of commodity grade scrap, such as steel, aluminium, copper, precious metals recovered from circuit boards, glass and plastics, while doing nothing to improve the recyclability of electronic products so they can be safely recycled anywhere in the world. "U.S. electronics recyclers want to process and sell commodities and used electronics products, not see it in landfill because of misguided policies," the institute explains in a statement. Controversy The survey's claim that the U.S. does not export a significant portion of its electronic waste is contrary to much of what we have been led to believe by countless media and NGO reports. "The ISRI-sponsored report doesn't pass the smell test," says Jim Puckett, executive director at global environmental campaign and accreditation group, the Basel Action Network (BAN) "Basic analysis reveals it to be even worse than a case of garbage in, garbage out. ISRI puts its fingers on the scale of even the flawed data. The resulting conclusions are both inaccurate and irresponsible." Challenging the view that the West, in this case specifically the U.S., wantonly exports toxic electronic waste to the developing world was always going to be controversial, and so it has proved. But ISRI claims that its own goals are not so different to those of BAN. "Illegal polluters anywhere in the world â in developed and developing countries â should be put out of business," says Harris. "What some policymakers fail to understand is that most of the used electronics being generated and recycled in developing countries originate in that country, not from U.S. exports. For that very reason, stopping the export of end-of-life electronics from the United States will do nothing to solve the underlying problem of bad actors polluting the environment and instead will block positive efforts currently being undertaken by the U.S. recycling industry to promote and support developing countries in their efforts to build environmentally responsible and sustainable economies," he adds. To counter this BAN argues that most exporting recyclers either use brokers with a U.S. address, or they sell to another U.S. company which then uses a broker. When a US recycler resells e-waste to a US broker, it does not mean the e-waste is 'recycled in America' because the broker simply turns around and ships the e-waste to a developing country, the organisation claims. Harris meanwhile notes that the electronics recycling industry has seen a dramatic increase in the use of third-party certifications, which play a critical role in ensuring used and end-of-life electronics are handled safely and in an environmentally responsible way. The marketplace is pushing electronics recyclers to become certified to programs like ISRI's R2/RIOS Certified Electronics Recycler program, says Harris. However, according to BAN, which runs it's own 'e-Stewards' accreditation program, any voluntary survey asking respondents to report illegal activity will not produce reliable data. "It's like asking people if they cheat on their taxes and then expecting an accurate result," comments Puckett. "If it were that easy, the EPA would not be spending more than a million dollars right now to try to quantify volumes and waste flows from the U.S." To reinforce its argument, BAN highlights the case of Intercon Solutions, a large midwest recycler that it exposed as using brokers and other 'cloaking agents' to export material to Hong Kong. The organisation says that it alerted the authorities to the Intercon export, and the shipments were turned back. Unperturbed, ISRI is sticking to its guns. "The bottom line is that used and end-of-life electronics are being recycled right here in America, not 'dumped' overseas as we've been led to believe," concludes the institute. More Waste Management World ArticlesWaste Management World Issue Archives Free MagazineSubscription Free Email Newsletter