Electronic waste -- more meaningful than you think.

For most of us, when we think of environmental protection we think of saving trees, cleaning up oceans and the very air we breathe. But what about basic human rights when it comes to the environment?

I'm not referring to the right to vote or right to free speech, but rather the right to steer clear of environmental harm regardless of race, age, economic status or geographical location. And while "environmental harm" is rarely a description attached to a television set or computer monitor, it is fast becoming a known fact that violations run rampant in the world of electronic waste recycling.

Currently, up to 80% of the electronic waste meant for recycling is quietly exported to countries where products such as computers, radios, and television sets are dismantled in a crude fashion that causes severe environmental and public health risks. This means big business not only for the United States but recipient countries such as India, Pakistan and, especially, China--where environmental restrictions are lax and the economies poor. Despite concerted efforts to curtail this egregious activity, the electronic waste trade runs rampant affecting child and adult laborers as they dismantle computer, television sets, and radios, likely unaware of the hazardous toxins they are working with.

How is it that items such as our computers and TVs--so harmless to the touch while in use--can become so toxic when dismantled?

Television and computer monitors use cathode ray tubes (CRTs), which have a significant amount of lead. Printed circuit boards contain plastic and copper and most have small amounts of chromium, lead solder, nickel and zinc. Batteries contain nickel, cadmium and other heavy metals. Relays and switches in electronics may also contain mercury. Direct contact with all of these metals has proven to result in skin and bone diseases, respiratory illnesses, and damage to the nervous system. Under the best recycling conditions, this is frightening not to mention when performed in a country with little to no environmental guidelines and regulations.

Perhaps even more sobering than the toxins lying dormant in electronic items is the enormous quantity of items needing to be disposed of. Studies estimate that more than 350 million desktop and laptop computers in the U.S. will soon become obsolete. In fact, discarded computers and other consumer electronics are the fastest growing portion of our waste stream--growing almost 3 times faster than all elements of the municipal waste stream combined. One report estimates that a pile of obsolete computers would reach a mile high and cover six acres. That's the same as a 22-story pile of e-waste covering the entire 472 square miles of the city of Los Angeles.

The 350 million or more computers that have or will become obsolete contain a total of more than 1.2 billion pounds of lead. About 40% of the heavy metals, including lead, mercury and cadmium in landfills come from electronic equipment discards. The health effects of lead are well known; Mercury is even more severe--just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury can contaminate 20 water acres of a lake, making the fish unfit to eat.

Unfortunately, less than 10% of discarded computers are currently recycled at all. What happens to the rest? Many older computers are either stored (in basements, garages, offices, closets and homes awaiting a decision) or increasingly tossed out with the trash out of the lack of understanding about the hazards involved.

As for the 10% that are recycled, some discarded equipment is handled by firms that operate under strict environmental controls and high worker safety protections. Many firms, however, do not operate under strict controls, removing the valuable metals from the equipment and sending the remaining scrap to landfills or incinerators. Without adequate protections, workers dismantling discarded electronic equipment are exposed to many chemical compounds with known and suspected negative health effects. Considerably more equipment !as mentioned above, up to 80% of collected e-waste)is shipped overseas for dismantling under horrific conditions, poisoning the people, land, air, and water in China, India, other Asian nations, and possibly Mexico as well.

Electronic recycling operations are also increasingly active within America's prison systems. Inmate laborers are not automatically afforded the same degree of worker health and safety protections as are people employed on the outside, nor are they paid comparable wages. Moreover, reliance on high tech chain gangs may frustrate development of the free market infrastructure necessary to safely manage our mountains of e-waste. Prisons are also taxpayer-supported institutions.

Corporate practice and public policy have failed to address these problems. At present, the cost of managing discarded computers and electronics falls on taxpayers and local governments. Local governments, private agencies, and individual consumers have been handed the most responsibility for responding to the e-waste crisis, but have the least power to compel manufacturers to do anything about it. Brand owners and manufacturers in the U.S. have dodged their responsibility for management of products at the end of their useful life, while public policy has failed to promote producer take back, clean design, and clean production. Taxpayers are paying dearly for the consequences of manufacturing choices they did not make and over which they have little control.

Most reading this editorial are likely to have at least one obsolete electronic item gathering dust in a garage, basement or in some storage room at the back of the office. That's likely because of the common, and somewhat understandable, misconception that used electronics have substantial residual value. In fact, the older the equipment, the less value it has--especially as we spend more to hold onto it and sacrifice needed storage space. If you are not one of the many who currently have an old television you don't know what to do with--odds are that you will soon become one. As a result of the wildly increasing popularity of HDTV technologies and plasma screens, an estimated 400 million televisions will become technically obsolete in this decade.

So what to do with those old, unwanted electronics? Despite the fact that it is illegal in California to throw a television or computer monitor in the trash, many still do so. Though there are no hard facts due to the covert nature of the practice, it is estimated that the majority of households and small businesses that dispose rather than store their obsolete electronic components send their material to landfills or incinerators rather than take them to recyclers. Quite simply, throwing it away has been easier and cheaper.

What needs to be said is that landfills are not a sensible (let alone legal) option. All waste landfills leak. Even the best state of the art landfills are not completely secure and a certain amount of chemical and metal leaching will occur. The situation is far worse for the older or less stringently maintained dump sites. When disposed of in a landfill, e-waste becomes a conglomeration of plastic and steel casings, circuit boards, glass tubes, wires, resistors, capacitors, and other assorted parts and materials. About 70% of heavy metals found in landfills (including mercury and cadmium) come from electronic discards. These heavy metals and other hazardous substances found in electronics can contaminate groundwater. In 2001, cathode ray tubes (CRTs) were banned from municipal landfills in California, Massachusetts and Maine because of this documented contamination. CRT's can contain as much as 27 percent lead and are considered hazardous when discarded.

There is definitely light at the end of this tunnel. Although electronic waste still remains highly unregulated in the United States, concerted efforts are being made to curtail the current the level of electronic or hazardous waste that is being disposed of incorrectly. Some ethical recycling companies are leading the way guaranteeing their customers in writing that the items dropped off will not be sent abroad for dismantling.

Fortunately, responsible recycling companies are not alone in their efforts to stop the globalization of the electronic waste trade and its effect on human rights. Organizations such as The Basel Action Network, based in Seattle run programs to help eliminate this trade as well as The Human Rights Watch and several other organizations all over the country and the world advocating on behalf of these poorer recipient nations.

Please do your part and eRecycle- simply by locating a local, qualified e-waste organization and disposing of your electronic junk in a way that will preserve the environment as well as human rights. Whether you do this to save a domestic landfill from toxic waste or to save a life half way around the world, you will be contributing to the solution of a problem that has gone on for far too long. Together we can pick up the slack where government and manufacturers have fallen short.

John S. Shegerian is President and CEO of Electronic Recyclers of America. Based out of Vista and Fresno, ERA is the largest electronic waste recycling organization in California and the first and only facility in the state to de-manufacture, recycle and crush cathode ray tubes found in computer monitors, televisions and other types of video equipment. For more information, visit http://www.electronicrecyclersofamerica.com.