We will end our discussion about hazardous/toxic/nuclear disasters and public health by looking at the FAKE GREEN CORPORATION policies this time the RECYCLED PRODUCT industry. First, let's remember, the articles from Silicon Valley highlighting the degree of toxic waste---the soaring cancer vectors-----was followed by that news agency stating very firmly---BUT SILICON VALLEY REGION'S FRESH WATER SUPPLY IS NOT COMPROMISED. OH, REALLY???? If the tech industry toxic waste didn't get the water supply the fracking like heck has. Where does irrigation water used for all that CA agriculture come? The city public water system---watch as soon we will hear Sacramento, Oakland maybe San Fran will be the next DETROIT.
Global Wall Street is moving global corporate campuses and global factories out of Asia because Foreign Economic Zone agreements in those nations came with a time window AND because these zones became too toxic for human capital to live and work. This is why we have seen these several years of Obama the movement of Foreign Economic Zones to Eastern Europe and Africa-------MOVING FORWARD in the US. We showed Eastern Europe being used as a toxic waste dump for Western Europe and those global factories -----below we see African Foreign Economic Zone in GHANA turning into what were the images in China and other Asian nations. The policies around RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY is as hazardous or more so than the actual manufacturing of these products. Because this side of the industry is driven by even smaller profit-margins it is left for the most desperate of citizens risking life and health for a way to earn money. This has already moved to US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones out west---coming to East Coast cities like Baltimore.
WE COULD HAVE A WELL REGULATED, MANAGED SYSTEM OF RECYCLING WITH OVERSIGHT, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND PUBLIC HEALTH FOR WORKERS----BUT GLOBAL WALL STREET CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA MAXIMIZES PROFITS BY EXPOSING WORKERS TO THE MAX.
Where your computer goes to die: Shocking pictures of the toxic 'electronic graveyards' in Africa where the West dumps its old PCs, laptops, microwaves, fridges and phones
By Jay Akbar For Mailonline
Published: 05:33 EDT, 23 April 2015 | Updated: 13:01 EDT, 23 April 2015
Harrowing images reveal one of west-Africa's vast electronic graveyards where 'millions of tonnes' of discarded appliances from all over the world - including the UK - are being dumped every year.
Thousands of broken televisions, computers, microwaves and refrigerators are being illegally exported to African countries and dumped gigantic landfills like Agbogbloshie in Ghana because it costs less than recycling them in their countries of origin, campaigners claim.
41 million tonnes of 'e-waste' worth over £34billion were discarded globally in 2014, according to a shocking report by United Nations University who claim only 6 million tonnes of that was recycled properly.
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Polluted: 'Millions of tonnes' of the world's e-waste ends up in Africa where it is dumped in landfills like Agbogbloshie (pictured) in Ghana's capital Accra
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Damaging: The mountains of 'e-waste' that builds up in landfill sites such as Agbogbloshie (pictured) pollutes the local water and harms the health of the scavengers whose livelihoods depend on these broken goods
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Broken: Defunct televisions, computers and keyboards (pictured) are transported to west-African countries like Ghana because 'it is cheaper than recycling it properly in European Union nations'
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Relic: The whole of the African continent produced only 1.9 metric tonnes of waste and yet 'millions of tonnes' of broken products (pictured) end up there
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Dangerous: Young men sift through the mountains of scraps in landfills like Agbogbloshie (pictured), hoping to find something worth selling in local markets
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Defunct: Shipping broken or unusable equipment (pictured) to Africa is illegal under the Basel convention, according to the Head of United Nations University (UNU)
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Pollution: Brokers manage to ship containers of illegal e-waste (pictured) to the continent by fraudulently categorising it as 'reusable'
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Toxic: Old fridges (pictured) that now reside in filthy landfill sites such as Agbogbloshie contain chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which damage the ozone layer
The UK contributed 1.5 million tonnes of waste to the staggering 11.6 Europe generated last year - putting it behind only Germany as the continent's greatest contributor.
That dwarfs the 1.9 million tonnes produced by the whole of Africa and yet the continent's western nations have become a dumping ground for the world's defunct products.
Some of the appliances even leak toxic elements such as lead and mercury which harms the environment and the young men who trawl through the broken goods hoping to find something worth selling.
The shocking images taken by e-waste campaigners QAMP reveal how countless household appliances have contaminated what was once the 'pastoral landscape' of Agbogbloshie in Accra.
'Developed countries export millions of tonnes of electronic waste annually into developing countries such as Ghana,' the group based in the country claims on its website.
Photographs show young boys trawling through the western world's scraps, dismantling old stereos and burning components to recover scrap metal - which they will sell for small amounts of money.
Transporting broken or expired electronics to Africa is illegal but brokers exploit a loophole by fraudulently labelling the items as reusable, according to the Head of United Nations University who believes Africa is becoming 'a graveyard for e-waste'.
When massive containers arrive in Ghana and Nigeria, they are trucked to remote locations where the locals can buy the products directly without testing them to later sell in markets, Dr Ruediger Kuehr told MailOnline
He believes legal shipments can help close the digital divide between Africa and the west but said: 'If it turns out that this equipment arriving in Africa is no longer of use, there is no longer a market existing or that they are getting real waste… then we are having a real issue.'
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Clinton era 1990s started the pipeline to prison AND it started privatized prison corporations. CA, TX, et al ground zero for Foreign Economic Zone installation at that time brought not only hazardous waste, toxic chemicals tied to technology and GREEN ENERGY products----but of course all that nuclear waste recycled to bomb-making. This is what floating solar platforms----batteries for vehicles and ONE GRID-----expanding APPS ON SMART PHONES create.
THE TECHNOLOGY RECYCLING INDUSTRY-----GLOBAL GREEN CORPORATION HARMS AS MUCH AND MORE OF OUR ENVIRONMENT AND WORKERS/CITIZENS' PUBLIC HEALTH.
Again, all of this used to occur overseas ====these few decades and especially these several years expanding across US.
When we shout against this super-sized global technology industry being created by global online education and global online health care with telemedicine----this is what we are talking about as regards to how much a disaster these ONE WORLD ONE GRID TECHNOLOGY will be for WE THE PEOPLE THE 99%. The amount of technology infrastructure being built under Obama is staggering. Obama calls for GREEN JOBS----well, below we see what will be a major industry in a decade or two and it will not only be our prisoners----our disabled------our vocationally-tracked K-career children sent to apprenticeships after 6th grade---after 8th grade----
As this article states the communities around these kinds of facilities suffer as well-----it is one main source of toxic waste dumps and Maryland and Baltimore pols just several years ago passed laws allowing prison labor for just this.
Here we see the early tech industry Foreign Economic Zones in TX---CA---OH being ground zero coming soon to all US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones. This is a long article we posted only the first part. We want to warn again how groups POSE LEFT ENVIRONMENTAL when they are far-right neo-liberal. We see this article call UNICOR a GOVERNMENT SWEAT SHOP. When our US or state prisons are outsourced to private prison operations these are no longer GOVERNMENT PRISONS----they are privatized corporate entities. Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition may be good left environment but please watch for posers--they always focus on policies TOO LATE TO ADDRESS PROACTIVELY.
TOXIC SWEATSHOPS:
How UNICOR Prison Recycling Harms Workers,
Communities, the Environment, and the
Recycling Industry
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In the past few years, the storm of com-
plaints about UNICOR’s recycling pro-
gram from prisoners, prison guards, and
others has brought these hidden sweat-
shops into public view. Since 1994, UNI-
COR has built a lucrative business that
employs prisoners to recycle electronic
waste (e-waste). A massive array of e-
waste is largely hidden from view, as are
the workers who handle the waste. Over
100,000 computers become obsolete in
the U.S. every day.
And that’s only the computers. E-waste includes computers,
personal digital assistants, TVs, and other
electronic devices. E-waste is a double-edged sword: it is rich in precious materials that can be recycled, but it also contains a cocktail of hazardous chemicals such as lead, mercury, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and cadmium.
This report examines the e-waste recycling programs run by Federal Prison
Industries (FPI), a government-owned corporation that does business under the
trade name UNICOR. Founded in 1934 as a work program to keep prisoners occupied, FPI has become a large government contractor, generating over $765 million in sales in 2005. UNICOR’s connections gave it access to lucrative government contracts and easily made it a force in the
e-waste recycling industry. As journalist Elizabeth Grossman states, “With revenue of ten million dollars in 2004, seven locations ... and roughly one thousand inmate employees who in 2004 processed nearly 44 million pounds of electronic equipment, UNICOR is one of the country’s largest electronics recyclers, and its prices are tough to beat.”
Unfortunately, UNICOR’s low prices come at the expense of its captive labor force.
Some types of discarded electronics are considered hazardous waste by the EPA and other regulatory agencies, researchers, industries, and advocates across the globe. As states become aware that these hazards may leach into and contaminate soil and groundwater, more are banning televisions, monitors, and sometimes other electronics from landfills.
Quoted in sidebars throughout this report, you will hear directly from prisoners, the frontline workers recycling e-waste for UNICOR. The conditions prisoners describe are dire. UNICOR’s captive laborers work in conditions similar to
those in sweatshops across the world. Prisoners have few of the labor rights and protections other U.S. workers enjoy. Prisoners are excluded from the Fair
Labor Standards Act and insufficiently protected by regulatory agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which cannot conduct
surprise inspections. The quotations presented in this report are drawn from letters and affidavits received by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Identifying characteristics have been stripped due to reports of firings and retaliation against prisoners. While this report is grounded in prisoners’ experiences, you also will meet responsible recyclers, contractors, and prison staff who recognize the problems of exploitation in e-waste.
Government hearings and investigations confirm that serious problems exist. As U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch stated:
Federal employees and prisoners inhaling poisons due to the neglect
of their superiors, and federal agencies whitewashing the investigation. It sounds like a Hollywood dramatization like Shawshank Redemption, or a John Grisham novel with wild conspiracy theories. In this case, however, workers
and inmates were exposed to hazardous materials without protection... and the Bureau of Prisons and Federal Prison Industries did nothing to stop it, and indeed frustrated attempts to investigate the matter... Now some people might
say, prisoners getting poisoned?
What’s the big deal? Who cares?
We do.
This report’s principal findings are outlined below.
KEY FINDINGS
UNICOR has failed to adequately protect prisoners and staff
from exposure to toxics. When dismantling electronics, prisoners
handling toxic components need ventilation, proper tools, and adequate protective gear, as do prison staff working in the area. UNICOR facilities repeatedly failed to provide proper recycling procedures to
captive laborers and staff supervisors. UNICOR’s policy of measured modernization— limiting automation in order to maximize the number of prisoners who work—increases the risk of workplace injuries to prisoners and guards. The adverse health effects of long-term exposure to the toxic materials in e-waste are costs that families and/or public health services will bear— not UNICOR.
UNICOR has failed to protect communities from hazardous materials.
Poor workplace safety practices affect communities as well. Leroy Smith, a prison health and safety manager, has expressed concerns about prison guards who go home to their families with dust on their clothes. Smith’s attorney Mary Dryovage and Jeff Ruch, director of Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility, have noted that Smith’s claims “were not
fully investigated,” including charges that UNICOR disposed of “hazardous metals” and “contaminated mopheads...at county land-fills” and that “mop water would be disposed down sewage drains, which would be released into the
city waste water treatment plant.”
Concern about the community health and safety effects of prisons is in keeping with the findings of the recently concluded national, bi-partisan Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, which open, “What happens inside jails
and prisons does not stay inside jails and prisons. It comes home with prisoners when they are released and with corrections officers at the end of each day’s shift ....
It influences the safety, health, and prosperity of us all.”
UNICOR undercuts responsible recycling businesses. Not all electronics recyclers are the same. Much of what passes as “electronics recycling” is exporting harm — dumping e-waste on poor communities in China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and other countries.
However, a growing segment of the U.S. electronics recycling industry is tak-
ing concrete steps to educate and to protect workers, communities, and the environment. These recyclers are being undermined by UNICOR’s government
sweatshop model. UNICOR’s low wages, limited worker protections, and use of
outdated equipment allow UNICOR to underbid conscientious commercial recy-
cling operations. In the past few years, a barrage of complaints about UNICOR’s recycling program from prisoners and prison guards has forced the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to investigate workplace conditions. BOP admitted in a 2005 report that prisoners and staff in at least three UNICOR
Recycling factories—Elkton, Ohio;
Texarkana, Texas; and Atwater,
California—were exposed to toxics.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel later declared BOP’s inquiry “cursory at best” and recommended an independent investigation.
In September 2006, Special Counsel Scott Bloch named BOP employee Leroy Smith Public Servant of the Year for blowing the whistle on UNICOR’s failure to protect workers. Smith served as a health and safety manager at the Atwater federal prison. In his prepared comments for the award ceremony, Smith contended that conditions at UNICOR Recycling have not been remedied:
I receive calls from my colleagues working in computer recycling operations at other correctional institutions who describe coming home coated in dust. They had been assured that there was no danger. Now, many have health problems and others are scared about what lies in store for them.... [B]oth staff and inmates do not know what they have been exposed to or in what quantities. I am at a loss as to what to tell them. I do not know what resources are available to them or who will be able to answer their questions.
Despite media coverage of problems with UNICOR Recycling, prisoners and
impacted communities continue to face major barriers in pursuing their rights to
be free of exposure to toxics. In recent years, some of UNICOR’s larger clients,
including Dell Inc. and the state of California, have pulled their contracts due to public pressure. Additionally, recyclers have successfully challenged UNICOR’s
effort to compete for EPA recycling contracts set aside for small businesses.
By publishing this report, the Center for Environmental Health, Silicon Valley
Toxics Coalition, Prison Activist Resource Center, and the Computer TakeBack
Campaign aim to uncover and stop the environmental health abuse and exploitation of workers in prisons; expose UNICOR as an unacceptable choice for electronics recycling; and educate institutions, corporations, and individuals seeking responsible electronics recycling options that promote high labor, environmental, and human rights standards.
I.
INTRODUCTION
A new form of electronic waste (e-waste) recycling has emerged in the U.S.: the
prison recycling program. These government sweatshops are competing successfully with the dismally low wages and dire working conditions found in poor communities in countries such as China, India, the Philippines, and Nigeria.
Prison recycling programs—specifically those run by Federal Prison Industries
(FPI, or UNICOR)—externalize many operational costs onto taxpayers and place most of the risks onto the expanding pool of captive prison labor, overwhelmingly poor people of color. UNICOR’s prison recycling program creates environmental injustices, violates prisoners’ rights, and
undermines responsible commercial e-waste recycling businesses.
E-waste includes computers, TVs, monitors, stereos, cell phones, and other electronic equipment. E-waste contains a mixture of hazardous chemicals, precious metals, and plastics. During the recycling process, electronics must be carefully dismantled because the hazardous materials within—carcinogenic, mutagenic, reproductive, and developmental toxins—can have profoundly deleterious effects on workers.
For example, lead comprises roughly 20% of the glass in a traditional TV or computer monitor.
Lead can damage the nervous system, cardiovascular system, and the kidneys.
Other toxic materials that can be found in electronics include mercury, cadmium, and halogenated organics such as brominated flame retardants. Prisoners describe being forced to break open some computer monitors because prisoners were denied the proper tips to unscrew housing shells
from the Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs), and report using hammers to break the CRTs’ leaded glass.
These kinds of practices put prisoners and prison staff at risk. This report uses prisoners’ letters and affidavits, information revealed by prison staff, published
reports, and public hearings and investigations to bring UNICOR’s toxic sweatshops into public view.
Featured in sidebars throughout this report are quotations from prisoners, the
front-line workers in UNICOR factories.
Identifying characteristics have been removed to protect prisoners from retalia-
tion. UNICOR is a government-owned corporation, operating in the name of justice and the people, with significant resources from taxpayer dollars through direct and indirect subsidies. Despite UNICOR’s claims about environmental stewardship in e-waste recycling, its practices fall short in comparison with responsible commercial domestic recyclers. UNICOR has periodically drawn opposition from business and labor groups concerned about its effect on the U.S. economy. The history of UNICOR’s expansion and the resistance against it provide both concern and hope for the future of electronic waste recycling. We begin by describing how UNICOR’s prison recycling program first received public scrutiny.
II.
HOW UNICOR RAN INTO TROUBLE WITH THE LAW
UNICOR began its electronics recycling business in 1994 in a federal prison in
Marianna, Florida. Over the next few years, UNICOR’s electronics recycling
operation spread to several federal prisons, including Elkton, Ohio and Fort Dix,New Jersey.
As of September 2005, UNICOR had electronics recycling facilities in seven prisons.
When it opened in April 2002, the electronics recycling facility in Atwater, California was hailed as UNICOR’s “largest to date.”
At that time, Leroy Smith was the health and safety manager at the Atwater federal prison. As a four- teen-year veteran of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Smith consistently received outstanding job evaluations.
_______________________________________________
We cannot shout loudly enough that this recycled plastics/technology in the hands of global corporations will be a total disaster in public health and our US city environments. US Counties are targeted as much.
This is why we say CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY is NOT GREEN. Yet, that is who candidates running as GREEN-----as FEELING THE BERN FAKE left social progressives are working. This is why we say all third and fourth parties being formed are all captured by the same global Wall Street Clinton neo-liberals. The only way to stop this is to stop MOVING FORWARD SMART CITIES ONE WORLD ONE GRID.
WE THE PEOPLE must imagine---not just what toxic waste is created in building these global online structures and the super-sized energy grids they need but think how all these components are going to need replacing. Don't believe these LIFESPAN data----global Wall Street makes products that deliberately need replacing OFTEN.
No doubt ELON MUSK will be telling us he will ship all this waste to MARS----TO CERES---with his planetary mining slaves----
LET'S JUST GET RID OF GLOBAL WALL STREET CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA ---NOW TRUMP AND THEIR 5% PLAYERS.
When Republican states in south say they are going GREEN-------this is what they mean----GLOBAL GREEN CORPORATION. Van Jones-----Ben Jealous------Stein and Elizabeth Warren-----O'Malley---all these national leaders we see in media rushing to SAVE NATIVE LANDS FROM XL PIPELINE----are tied to global GREEN CORPORATION
Below we see SUSTAINABLE BRANDS-----acting as that LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE environmental group ---know what? The only sustainable stance in all this is STOP MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE GRID---you will not hear these 'green groups' say that!
'Launched in 2006, Sustainable Brands has become a global learning, collaboration, and commerce community of forward-thinking business and brand strategy, marketing, innovation and sustainability professionals who are leading the way to a better future. We recognize that brands today have… [Read more about Sustainable Brands]'
Toxic Chemicals in Recycled Plastic Electronics Threaten Circular Economy
April 17, 2017
by Sustainable Brands
A recent report by UK-based charity CHEMTrust has linked the recycling of plastic components of electrical and electronic products to dangerous human health risks, creating obstacles for the recycling industry and the widespread adoption of a circular economy.
Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs) are largely to blame. The chemicals are commonly found in furniture and building materials and are increasingly popping up in electronics as metal components are replaced by plastic. Both acute and chronic exposure to BFRs with developmental neurotoxic (DNT) properties, such as those in the polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) group, can lead to such health problems as lower mental, psychomotor and physical development and IQ, as well as decreased fine motor coordination and cognition, poor working memory and decreased processing speed.
BFRs are already banned or nearly banned in the European Union, yet their presence persists. Not only are BFRs increasingly found in dust, but they often appear in products imported from countries such as China, where e-waste is on the rise and recycling regulations and policies are less stringent. Plastics recovered from electronics contain PBDEs, but often they are not disposed of properly and find their way into children’s toys, as pointed out by Joseph DiGangi and Jitka Strakova in their 2015 Toxic Toy or Toxic Waste: Recycling POPs Into New Products report.
“The brain development of future generations is at stake,” said Dr. Michael Warhurst, director of CHEMTrust. “We need EU regulators to phase out groups of chemicals of concern, rather than slowly restricting one chemical at a time. We cannot continue to gamble with our children’s health.”
The EU is slowly but surely restricting the use of DNT chemicals and plastics containing persistent organic chemicals (POPs) can efficiently and safely be incinerated, yet a lack of transparency and communication along the product lifecycle often leads to improper handling at the end-of-life stage. Additionally, imported products may contain dangerous substances, having been recycled outside of the EU.
While non-action is not an option, the introduction of stricter regulations poses a number of difficulties for businesses. It is likely that costs will rise for companies who use recycling as a means to generate additional revenue, as well as for those who rely on recycled plastic materials to manufacture new products.
“Whereas steel is just steel, plastic is not just plastic,” Philip Morton, former CEO of UK e-waste producer compliance scheme Repic told The Guardian. “There are a number of different grades and additives that should be on everyone’s radar. More things will soon start appearing on the ‘POP list’ and that has the potential to become very difficult [for industry].”
“Going forward, there will have to be stronger connections between manufacturing and the designers of their products as it’s a closed loop and producers putting these products on the market will ultimately pay for recycling at the end of a product’s life.”
__________________________________________
These are the GREEN INDUSTRY jobs, jobs, jobs global Wall Street Clinton/Obama neo-liberals and FAKE GREEN PARTY candidates and pols are promoting. At the same time they are the ones pushing the AFFORDABLE HOUSING policies in US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones that will become these toxic industrial sites with factory dormitory housing.
Just as DuPont was allowed several decades ago to install leaded water pipes in our US city water systems----into paint KNOWING lead harmed brain development---we are seeing the same policies MOVING FORWARD that will make all this public health crises look pale.
No one escapes this---if you are not that global factory sweat shop worker fresh out of the 6th grade----you will be that community filled with the fumes-----the community whose ground water is contaminated-----the US city whose soil is too contaminated for COMMUNITY GARDENS.
“The brain development of future generations is at stake,” said Dr. Michael Warhurst, director of CHEMTrust. “We need EU regulators to phase out groups of chemicals of concern, rather than slowly restricting one chemical at a time. We cannot continue to gamble with our children’s health.”
When a global Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provide media saying its executives ARE EXCEPTIONAL-----are the best at creating systems of protection-----that these doctors are looking out for citizens not only in Baltimore but globally-----AS THEY ARE THE ONES PUSHING ONE WORLD ONE GRID SMART CITIES-----AS THEY ARE PUSHING GLOBAL PORTS WITH FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE INDUSTRY-----simply to patent more products----
Let's get these global IVY LEAGUE hedge fund universities out of our government.
'Though 22 states currently have laws that declare electronic manufacturers financially responsible for recycling their own products, Urbina reports that the rampant fraud in the tracking of electronic waste and shockingly little oversight in the disposal chains has rendered the legislation virtually useless'.
If WE THE PEOPLE THE 99% do not STOP MOVING FORWARD NOW-----these environmental disasters----workplace and community toxicity will soar. This is what our Baltimore City Council pols----Maryland Assembly pols-----our Mayor PUGH and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan-----this is what global Wall Street Baltimore Development/Greater Baltimore 'labor and justice' organizations are PROMOTING. Race to the Top with online K-UNIVERSITY------Affordable Care Act with global telemedicine------massive ALTERNATIVE energy platforms called green-----SMART CITIES policies all create these conditions in our US cities/counties.
NYT: E-Waste Epidemic Creating a Toxic 'Glass Tsunami'
New York Times article highlights the growing stockpiles of toxic electronic waste and the lack of accountability behind them
by
Lauren McCauley, staff writer
The proliferation of toxic electronic waste is creating a "glass tsunami," according to New York Times writer Ian Urbina, whose new piece highlights the surging epidemic of e-waste stockpiles and the disturbing lack of oversight that has all-but absolved the consumer electronics industry behind the mess.
Despite widespread agreement from experts and environmentalists that the solution to the growing e-waste problem is for technology companies to "design products that last longer, use fewer toxic components and are more easily recycled," Urbina laments that the consumer electronics industry "seems to be heading in the opposite direction."
He continues:
In 2009, after television broadcasters turned off their analog signals nationwide in favor of digital, millions of people threw away their old televisions and replaced them with sleeker flat-screen models. Since then, thousands of pounds of old televisions and other electronic waste have been surreptitiously unloaded at landfills in Nevada and Ohio and on roadsides in California and Maine.
The amount of electronic waste has more than doubled in the past five years. And advancements such as flat-screen technology, which contain mercury-laden fluorescent bulbs, have significantly decreased the recycling value of most monitors creating a "glass tsunami" as stockpiles of the "useless material" accumulate in warehouses nationwide.
According to industry estimates, roughly 660 million pounds of monitor glass are currently being stockpiled—many of which belong to recycling companies who have been paid to collect and responsibly dispose of the machines. However, with an estimated cost of $85 million to $360 million to responsibly recycle it all, according to e-waste research firm Transparent Planet, many of these warehouses are at the risk of, or have already been, abandoned.
The article describes one warehouse "the size of a football field" abandoned by an electronics recycling company near Fresno, California:
The crumbling cardboard boxes, stacked in teetering rows, 9 feet high and 14 feet deep, were so sprawling that the inspectors needed cellphones to keep track of each other. The layer of broken glass on the floor and the lead-laden dust in the air was so thick that the inspectors soon left over safety concerns.
Though 22 states currently have laws that declare electronic manufacturers financially responsible for recycling their own products, Urbina reports that the rampant fraud in the tracking of electronic waste and shockingly little oversight in the disposal chains has rendered the legislation virtually useless.
**********************************************************
South Carolina Code of Laws
UnannotatedTitle 48 - Environmental Protection and Conservation
CHAPTER 60
South Carolina Manufacturer Responsibility and Consumer Convenience Information Technology Equipment Collection and Recovery Act
SECTION 48-60-05. Short title.
This chapter may be cited as the "South Carolina Manufacturer Responsibility and Consumer Convenience Information Technology Equipment Collection and Recovery Act".
HISTORY: 2010 Act No. 178, Section 1, eff July 1, 2011.
Editor's Note
2010 Act No. 178, Section 3, provides:
"This act takes effect July 1, 2011; provided, however, a retailer must be allowed an additional period of six months from the effective date to sell any inventory purchased prior to the effective date before having to comply with the applicable provisions of this act."
2014 Act No. 129, Section 14, provides as follows:
"Section 14. Section 48-60-50 of the 1976 Code, as amended by Section 3 of this act, is repealed December 31, 2014. The remaining provisions of Chapter 60, Title 48 of the 1976 Code, except Section 48-60-90, are repealed December 31, 2021."
SECTION 48-60-10. Legislative findings.
The General Assembly finds:
(1) Televisions, computing, and printing devices are critical to the development of this state's economy and the promotion of the quality of life of the citizens of this State.
(2) Many of these televisions, computing, and printing devices can be refurbished and reused, or recycled.
(3) Developing and implementing a system for recovering televisions, computing, and printing devices promotes resource conservation, public health, public safety, and economic prosperity.
(4) In order to carry out these purposes, the State must establish a comprehensive and convenient recovery program for televisions, computing, and printing devices based on individual manufacturer responsibility and shared responsibility among consumers, retailers, and government, and that the program must ensure that end-of-life televisions, computing, and printing devices are disposed of in a manner that promote resource conservation through the development of an effective and efficient system for collection and recycling, and to encourage manufacturers to offer convenient collection and recycling service to consumers at no charge.
_______________________________________
Each one of the states listed as doing something GREEN are the worst of offenders. It is the passing of these laws that have national media calling these pols GREEN-----that has FAKE GREEN organizations like LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS----and SIERRA CLUB----using this one vote to rank that state and or pols as GREEN. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS IS FAKE.
Here is global Wall Street CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA'S favorite global corporation-----and look---it's GREEN telling the 99% what they need to do to be GREEN. Here we see GLOBAL GREEN CORPORATION telling WE THE PEOPLE our elected global Wall Street pols have passed laws looking out for our public health----but wait----that last article stated these policies are worthless because they are filled with FRAUD AND CORRUPTION---NO ONE IS ENFORCING THESE LAWS!
***********************************************************************
HOME DEPOT Electronics Recycling Programs
HELP KEEP YOUR COMMUNITY CLEAN
By recycling your old electronics
Learn How To Best Dispose of Old Computers & Electrical Equipment
__________________________________________
Some electronic items contain parts and other chemical compounds that may be hazardous to the environment. Help keep these items out of landfills, dumps and other unauthorized abandonment sites by participating in a responsible electronic recycling program in your local area. Some materials used in the composition of electronics are recyclable and reusable, making them valuable commodities that help save our natural resources.
Electronic recycling requisitions enacted by states
California
California enacted its Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 and associated regulations to establish a ... More
Connecticut
In July of 2007, Connecticut adopted its Electronics Recycling Law which provides consumers convenient ... Ashley More
Hawaii
In 2008, Hawaii passed the Electronic Waste and Television Recycling Act which requires manufacturers ... More
Illinois
The Illinois Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act, effective since 2008, requires manufacturers to ... Ashley More
Indiana
In May of 2009, Indiana passed a statewide e-waste recycling law which establishes recycling programs ... Ashley More
Maine
In 2006, the State of Maine made it illegal to dispose of televisions and computer monitors and ... Ashley More
Maryland
In 2006, the State of Maryland passed an electronics recycling law requiring manufacturers to establish a ... Ashley More
Michigan
In 2008, the State of Michigan passed its electronics recycling law requiring that manufacturers establish More
Minnesota
In May of 2007 Minnesota passed the Electronics Recycling Act, targeting the collection and recycling of Ashley More
Missouri
In 2008, the State of Missouri passed the “Manufacturer Responsibility and Consumer Convenience ... More
New Jersey
In In 2008 the State of New Jersey passed the Electronic Waste Management Act requiring all original ... More
New York
In 2010 the State of New York passed the Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act requiring ... Ashley More
North Carolina
In 2007, the State of North Carolina passed a law that established the "Discarded Computer Equipment and Television ... More
Oklahoma
On May 12, 2008, the State of Oklahoma passed the Computer Equipment Recovery Act which Ashley More
Oregon
In 2007, Oregon enacted its Electronics Recycling Law which requires manufacturers of desktop Ashley More
Pennsylvania
In 2010, Pennsylvania passed the Covered Device Recycling Act which manufacturers of computers, ... More
Rhode Island
In June of 2008, the State of Rhode Island passed a comprehensive electronic waste recycling law ... Ashley More
South Carolina
In May of 2010, South Carolina passed the Manufacturer Responsibility and Consumer Convenience ... More
Texas
In 2008, Texas adopted a law which establishing the Computer Equipment Recycling Program, under ... More
Vermont
In 2010, the State of Vermont passed an electronic waste law that regulates the disposal of certain ... Ashley More
Virginia
In 2008 the state of Virginia passed a law requiring manufacturers of computer equipment to provide a ... Ashley More
Washington State
In 2007 Washington State adopted a law that requires manufacturers to provide electronic product ... Ashley More
West Virginia
In 2010, West Virginia passed a law banning certain electronics from West Virginia landfills, including ... Ashley More
Wisconsin
In 2009, Wisconsin passed a law that bans many consumer electronics from Wisconsin landfills and ... More
Global Wall Street is moving global corporate campuses and global factories out of Asia because Foreign Economic Zone agreements in those nations came with a time window AND because these zones became too toxic for human capital to live and work. This is why we have seen these several years of Obama the movement of Foreign Economic Zones to Eastern Europe and Africa-------MOVING FORWARD in the US. We showed Eastern Europe being used as a toxic waste dump for Western Europe and those global factories -----below we see African Foreign Economic Zone in GHANA turning into what were the images in China and other Asian nations. The policies around RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY is as hazardous or more so than the actual manufacturing of these products. Because this side of the industry is driven by even smaller profit-margins it is left for the most desperate of citizens risking life and health for a way to earn money. This has already moved to US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones out west---coming to East Coast cities like Baltimore.
WE COULD HAVE A WELL REGULATED, MANAGED SYSTEM OF RECYCLING WITH OVERSIGHT, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND PUBLIC HEALTH FOR WORKERS----BUT GLOBAL WALL STREET CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA MAXIMIZES PROFITS BY EXPOSING WORKERS TO THE MAX.
Where your computer goes to die: Shocking pictures of the toxic 'electronic graveyards' in Africa where the West dumps its old PCs, laptops, microwaves, fridges and phones
- New report says 41 million metric tonnes of electronic waste worth a staggering £34billion was discarded in 2014
- Countries illegally export 'millions of tonnes' of e-waste annually to African nations like Ghana, campaigners say
- Shocking photographs from its capital Accra show thousands of discarded appliances in huge, filthy landfill sites
- Some contain toxic materials like lead and mercury which damage environment and people sifting through them
By Jay Akbar For Mailonline
Published: 05:33 EDT, 23 April 2015 | Updated: 13:01 EDT, 23 April 2015
Harrowing images reveal one of west-Africa's vast electronic graveyards where 'millions of tonnes' of discarded appliances from all over the world - including the UK - are being dumped every year.
Thousands of broken televisions, computers, microwaves and refrigerators are being illegally exported to African countries and dumped gigantic landfills like Agbogbloshie in Ghana because it costs less than recycling them in their countries of origin, campaigners claim.
41 million tonnes of 'e-waste' worth over £34billion were discarded globally in 2014, according to a shocking report by United Nations University who claim only 6 million tonnes of that was recycled properly.
Scroll down for video
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Polluted: 'Millions of tonnes' of the world's e-waste ends up in Africa where it is dumped in landfills like Agbogbloshie (pictured) in Ghana's capital Accra
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Damaging: The mountains of 'e-waste' that builds up in landfill sites such as Agbogbloshie (pictured) pollutes the local water and harms the health of the scavengers whose livelihoods depend on these broken goods
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Broken: Defunct televisions, computers and keyboards (pictured) are transported to west-African countries like Ghana because 'it is cheaper than recycling it properly in European Union nations'
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Relic: The whole of the African continent produced only 1.9 metric tonnes of waste and yet 'millions of tonnes' of broken products (pictured) end up there
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Dangerous: Young men sift through the mountains of scraps in landfills like Agbogbloshie (pictured), hoping to find something worth selling in local markets
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Defunct: Shipping broken or unusable equipment (pictured) to Africa is illegal under the Basel convention, according to the Head of United Nations University (UNU)
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Pollution: Brokers manage to ship containers of illegal e-waste (pictured) to the continent by fraudulently categorising it as 'reusable'
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Toxic: Old fridges (pictured) that now reside in filthy landfill sites such as Agbogbloshie contain chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which damage the ozone layer
The UK contributed 1.5 million tonnes of waste to the staggering 11.6 Europe generated last year - putting it behind only Germany as the continent's greatest contributor.
That dwarfs the 1.9 million tonnes produced by the whole of Africa and yet the continent's western nations have become a dumping ground for the world's defunct products.
Some of the appliances even leak toxic elements such as lead and mercury which harms the environment and the young men who trawl through the broken goods hoping to find something worth selling.
The shocking images taken by e-waste campaigners QAMP reveal how countless household appliances have contaminated what was once the 'pastoral landscape' of Agbogbloshie in Accra.
'Developed countries export millions of tonnes of electronic waste annually into developing countries such as Ghana,' the group based in the country claims on its website.
Photographs show young boys trawling through the western world's scraps, dismantling old stereos and burning components to recover scrap metal - which they will sell for small amounts of money.
Transporting broken or expired electronics to Africa is illegal but brokers exploit a loophole by fraudulently labelling the items as reusable, according to the Head of United Nations University who believes Africa is becoming 'a graveyard for e-waste'.
When massive containers arrive in Ghana and Nigeria, they are trucked to remote locations where the locals can buy the products directly without testing them to later sell in markets, Dr Ruediger Kuehr told MailOnline
He believes legal shipments can help close the digital divide between Africa and the west but said: 'If it turns out that this equipment arriving in Africa is no longer of use, there is no longer a market existing or that they are getting real waste… then we are having a real issue.'
__________________________________________
Clinton era 1990s started the pipeline to prison AND it started privatized prison corporations. CA, TX, et al ground zero for Foreign Economic Zone installation at that time brought not only hazardous waste, toxic chemicals tied to technology and GREEN ENERGY products----but of course all that nuclear waste recycled to bomb-making. This is what floating solar platforms----batteries for vehicles and ONE GRID-----expanding APPS ON SMART PHONES create.
THE TECHNOLOGY RECYCLING INDUSTRY-----GLOBAL GREEN CORPORATION HARMS AS MUCH AND MORE OF OUR ENVIRONMENT AND WORKERS/CITIZENS' PUBLIC HEALTH.
Again, all of this used to occur overseas ====these few decades and especially these several years expanding across US.
When we shout against this super-sized global technology industry being created by global online education and global online health care with telemedicine----this is what we are talking about as regards to how much a disaster these ONE WORLD ONE GRID TECHNOLOGY will be for WE THE PEOPLE THE 99%. The amount of technology infrastructure being built under Obama is staggering. Obama calls for GREEN JOBS----well, below we see what will be a major industry in a decade or two and it will not only be our prisoners----our disabled------our vocationally-tracked K-career children sent to apprenticeships after 6th grade---after 8th grade----
As this article states the communities around these kinds of facilities suffer as well-----it is one main source of toxic waste dumps and Maryland and Baltimore pols just several years ago passed laws allowing prison labor for just this.
Here we see the early tech industry Foreign Economic Zones in TX---CA---OH being ground zero coming soon to all US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones. This is a long article we posted only the first part. We want to warn again how groups POSE LEFT ENVIRONMENTAL when they are far-right neo-liberal. We see this article call UNICOR a GOVERNMENT SWEAT SHOP. When our US or state prisons are outsourced to private prison operations these are no longer GOVERNMENT PRISONS----they are privatized corporate entities. Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition may be good left environment but please watch for posers--they always focus on policies TOO LATE TO ADDRESS PROACTIVELY.
TOXIC SWEATSHOPS:
How UNICOR Prison Recycling Harms Workers,
Communities, the Environment, and the
Recycling Industry
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In the past few years, the storm of com-
plaints about UNICOR’s recycling pro-
gram from prisoners, prison guards, and
others has brought these hidden sweat-
shops into public view. Since 1994, UNI-
COR has built a lucrative business that
employs prisoners to recycle electronic
waste (e-waste). A massive array of e-
waste is largely hidden from view, as are
the workers who handle the waste. Over
100,000 computers become obsolete in
the U.S. every day.
And that’s only the computers. E-waste includes computers,
personal digital assistants, TVs, and other
electronic devices. E-waste is a double-edged sword: it is rich in precious materials that can be recycled, but it also contains a cocktail of hazardous chemicals such as lead, mercury, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and cadmium.
This report examines the e-waste recycling programs run by Federal Prison
Industries (FPI), a government-owned corporation that does business under the
trade name UNICOR. Founded in 1934 as a work program to keep prisoners occupied, FPI has become a large government contractor, generating over $765 million in sales in 2005. UNICOR’s connections gave it access to lucrative government contracts and easily made it a force in the
e-waste recycling industry. As journalist Elizabeth Grossman states, “With revenue of ten million dollars in 2004, seven locations ... and roughly one thousand inmate employees who in 2004 processed nearly 44 million pounds of electronic equipment, UNICOR is one of the country’s largest electronics recyclers, and its prices are tough to beat.”
Unfortunately, UNICOR’s low prices come at the expense of its captive labor force.
Some types of discarded electronics are considered hazardous waste by the EPA and other regulatory agencies, researchers, industries, and advocates across the globe. As states become aware that these hazards may leach into and contaminate soil and groundwater, more are banning televisions, monitors, and sometimes other electronics from landfills.
Quoted in sidebars throughout this report, you will hear directly from prisoners, the frontline workers recycling e-waste for UNICOR. The conditions prisoners describe are dire. UNICOR’s captive laborers work in conditions similar to
those in sweatshops across the world. Prisoners have few of the labor rights and protections other U.S. workers enjoy. Prisoners are excluded from the Fair
Labor Standards Act and insufficiently protected by regulatory agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which cannot conduct
surprise inspections. The quotations presented in this report are drawn from letters and affidavits received by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Identifying characteristics have been stripped due to reports of firings and retaliation against prisoners. While this report is grounded in prisoners’ experiences, you also will meet responsible recyclers, contractors, and prison staff who recognize the problems of exploitation in e-waste.
Government hearings and investigations confirm that serious problems exist. As U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch stated:
Federal employees and prisoners inhaling poisons due to the neglect
of their superiors, and federal agencies whitewashing the investigation. It sounds like a Hollywood dramatization like Shawshank Redemption, or a John Grisham novel with wild conspiracy theories. In this case, however, workers
and inmates were exposed to hazardous materials without protection... and the Bureau of Prisons and Federal Prison Industries did nothing to stop it, and indeed frustrated attempts to investigate the matter... Now some people might
say, prisoners getting poisoned?
What’s the big deal? Who cares?
We do.
This report’s principal findings are outlined below.
KEY FINDINGS
UNICOR has failed to adequately protect prisoners and staff
from exposure to toxics. When dismantling electronics, prisoners
handling toxic components need ventilation, proper tools, and adequate protective gear, as do prison staff working in the area. UNICOR facilities repeatedly failed to provide proper recycling procedures to
captive laborers and staff supervisors. UNICOR’s policy of measured modernization— limiting automation in order to maximize the number of prisoners who work—increases the risk of workplace injuries to prisoners and guards. The adverse health effects of long-term exposure to the toxic materials in e-waste are costs that families and/or public health services will bear— not UNICOR.
UNICOR has failed to protect communities from hazardous materials.
Poor workplace safety practices affect communities as well. Leroy Smith, a prison health and safety manager, has expressed concerns about prison guards who go home to their families with dust on their clothes. Smith’s attorney Mary Dryovage and Jeff Ruch, director of Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility, have noted that Smith’s claims “were not
fully investigated,” including charges that UNICOR disposed of “hazardous metals” and “contaminated mopheads...at county land-fills” and that “mop water would be disposed down sewage drains, which would be released into the
city waste water treatment plant.”
Concern about the community health and safety effects of prisons is in keeping with the findings of the recently concluded national, bi-partisan Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, which open, “What happens inside jails
and prisons does not stay inside jails and prisons. It comes home with prisoners when they are released and with corrections officers at the end of each day’s shift ....
It influences the safety, health, and prosperity of us all.”
UNICOR undercuts responsible recycling businesses. Not all electronics recyclers are the same. Much of what passes as “electronics recycling” is exporting harm — dumping e-waste on poor communities in China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and other countries.
However, a growing segment of the U.S. electronics recycling industry is tak-
ing concrete steps to educate and to protect workers, communities, and the environment. These recyclers are being undermined by UNICOR’s government
sweatshop model. UNICOR’s low wages, limited worker protections, and use of
outdated equipment allow UNICOR to underbid conscientious commercial recy-
cling operations. In the past few years, a barrage of complaints about UNICOR’s recycling program from prisoners and prison guards has forced the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to investigate workplace conditions. BOP admitted in a 2005 report that prisoners and staff in at least three UNICOR
Recycling factories—Elkton, Ohio;
Texarkana, Texas; and Atwater,
California—were exposed to toxics.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel later declared BOP’s inquiry “cursory at best” and recommended an independent investigation.
In September 2006, Special Counsel Scott Bloch named BOP employee Leroy Smith Public Servant of the Year for blowing the whistle on UNICOR’s failure to protect workers. Smith served as a health and safety manager at the Atwater federal prison. In his prepared comments for the award ceremony, Smith contended that conditions at UNICOR Recycling have not been remedied:
I receive calls from my colleagues working in computer recycling operations at other correctional institutions who describe coming home coated in dust. They had been assured that there was no danger. Now, many have health problems and others are scared about what lies in store for them.... [B]oth staff and inmates do not know what they have been exposed to or in what quantities. I am at a loss as to what to tell them. I do not know what resources are available to them or who will be able to answer their questions.
Despite media coverage of problems with UNICOR Recycling, prisoners and
impacted communities continue to face major barriers in pursuing their rights to
be free of exposure to toxics. In recent years, some of UNICOR’s larger clients,
including Dell Inc. and the state of California, have pulled their contracts due to public pressure. Additionally, recyclers have successfully challenged UNICOR’s
effort to compete for EPA recycling contracts set aside for small businesses.
By publishing this report, the Center for Environmental Health, Silicon Valley
Toxics Coalition, Prison Activist Resource Center, and the Computer TakeBack
Campaign aim to uncover and stop the environmental health abuse and exploitation of workers in prisons; expose UNICOR as an unacceptable choice for electronics recycling; and educate institutions, corporations, and individuals seeking responsible electronics recycling options that promote high labor, environmental, and human rights standards.
I.
INTRODUCTION
A new form of electronic waste (e-waste) recycling has emerged in the U.S.: the
prison recycling program. These government sweatshops are competing successfully with the dismally low wages and dire working conditions found in poor communities in countries such as China, India, the Philippines, and Nigeria.
Prison recycling programs—specifically those run by Federal Prison Industries
(FPI, or UNICOR)—externalize many operational costs onto taxpayers and place most of the risks onto the expanding pool of captive prison labor, overwhelmingly poor people of color. UNICOR’s prison recycling program creates environmental injustices, violates prisoners’ rights, and
undermines responsible commercial e-waste recycling businesses.
E-waste includes computers, TVs, monitors, stereos, cell phones, and other electronic equipment. E-waste contains a mixture of hazardous chemicals, precious metals, and plastics. During the recycling process, electronics must be carefully dismantled because the hazardous materials within—carcinogenic, mutagenic, reproductive, and developmental toxins—can have profoundly deleterious effects on workers.
For example, lead comprises roughly 20% of the glass in a traditional TV or computer monitor.
Lead can damage the nervous system, cardiovascular system, and the kidneys.
Other toxic materials that can be found in electronics include mercury, cadmium, and halogenated organics such as brominated flame retardants. Prisoners describe being forced to break open some computer monitors because prisoners were denied the proper tips to unscrew housing shells
from the Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs), and report using hammers to break the CRTs’ leaded glass.
These kinds of practices put prisoners and prison staff at risk. This report uses prisoners’ letters and affidavits, information revealed by prison staff, published
reports, and public hearings and investigations to bring UNICOR’s toxic sweatshops into public view.
Featured in sidebars throughout this report are quotations from prisoners, the
front-line workers in UNICOR factories.
Identifying characteristics have been removed to protect prisoners from retalia-
tion. UNICOR is a government-owned corporation, operating in the name of justice and the people, with significant resources from taxpayer dollars through direct and indirect subsidies. Despite UNICOR’s claims about environmental stewardship in e-waste recycling, its practices fall short in comparison with responsible commercial domestic recyclers. UNICOR has periodically drawn opposition from business and labor groups concerned about its effect on the U.S. economy. The history of UNICOR’s expansion and the resistance against it provide both concern and hope for the future of electronic waste recycling. We begin by describing how UNICOR’s prison recycling program first received public scrutiny.
II.
HOW UNICOR RAN INTO TROUBLE WITH THE LAW
UNICOR began its electronics recycling business in 1994 in a federal prison in
Marianna, Florida. Over the next few years, UNICOR’s electronics recycling
operation spread to several federal prisons, including Elkton, Ohio and Fort Dix,New Jersey.
As of September 2005, UNICOR had electronics recycling facilities in seven prisons.
When it opened in April 2002, the electronics recycling facility in Atwater, California was hailed as UNICOR’s “largest to date.”
At that time, Leroy Smith was the health and safety manager at the Atwater federal prison. As a four- teen-year veteran of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Smith consistently received outstanding job evaluations.
_______________________________________________
We cannot shout loudly enough that this recycled plastics/technology in the hands of global corporations will be a total disaster in public health and our US city environments. US Counties are targeted as much.
This is why we say CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY is NOT GREEN. Yet, that is who candidates running as GREEN-----as FEELING THE BERN FAKE left social progressives are working. This is why we say all third and fourth parties being formed are all captured by the same global Wall Street Clinton neo-liberals. The only way to stop this is to stop MOVING FORWARD SMART CITIES ONE WORLD ONE GRID.
WE THE PEOPLE must imagine---not just what toxic waste is created in building these global online structures and the super-sized energy grids they need but think how all these components are going to need replacing. Don't believe these LIFESPAN data----global Wall Street makes products that deliberately need replacing OFTEN.
No doubt ELON MUSK will be telling us he will ship all this waste to MARS----TO CERES---with his planetary mining slaves----
LET'S JUST GET RID OF GLOBAL WALL STREET CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA ---NOW TRUMP AND THEIR 5% PLAYERS.
When Republican states in south say they are going GREEN-------this is what they mean----GLOBAL GREEN CORPORATION. Van Jones-----Ben Jealous------Stein and Elizabeth Warren-----O'Malley---all these national leaders we see in media rushing to SAVE NATIVE LANDS FROM XL PIPELINE----are tied to global GREEN CORPORATION
Below we see SUSTAINABLE BRANDS-----acting as that LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE environmental group ---know what? The only sustainable stance in all this is STOP MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE GRID---you will not hear these 'green groups' say that!
'Launched in 2006, Sustainable Brands has become a global learning, collaboration, and commerce community of forward-thinking business and brand strategy, marketing, innovation and sustainability professionals who are leading the way to a better future. We recognize that brands today have… [Read more about Sustainable Brands]'
Toxic Chemicals in Recycled Plastic Electronics Threaten Circular Economy
April 17, 2017
by Sustainable Brands
A recent report by UK-based charity CHEMTrust has linked the recycling of plastic components of electrical and electronic products to dangerous human health risks, creating obstacles for the recycling industry and the widespread adoption of a circular economy.
Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs) are largely to blame. The chemicals are commonly found in furniture and building materials and are increasingly popping up in electronics as metal components are replaced by plastic. Both acute and chronic exposure to BFRs with developmental neurotoxic (DNT) properties, such as those in the polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) group, can lead to such health problems as lower mental, psychomotor and physical development and IQ, as well as decreased fine motor coordination and cognition, poor working memory and decreased processing speed.
BFRs are already banned or nearly banned in the European Union, yet their presence persists. Not only are BFRs increasingly found in dust, but they often appear in products imported from countries such as China, where e-waste is on the rise and recycling regulations and policies are less stringent. Plastics recovered from electronics contain PBDEs, but often they are not disposed of properly and find their way into children’s toys, as pointed out by Joseph DiGangi and Jitka Strakova in their 2015 Toxic Toy or Toxic Waste: Recycling POPs Into New Products report.
“The brain development of future generations is at stake,” said Dr. Michael Warhurst, director of CHEMTrust. “We need EU regulators to phase out groups of chemicals of concern, rather than slowly restricting one chemical at a time. We cannot continue to gamble with our children’s health.”
The EU is slowly but surely restricting the use of DNT chemicals and plastics containing persistent organic chemicals (POPs) can efficiently and safely be incinerated, yet a lack of transparency and communication along the product lifecycle often leads to improper handling at the end-of-life stage. Additionally, imported products may contain dangerous substances, having been recycled outside of the EU.
While non-action is not an option, the introduction of stricter regulations poses a number of difficulties for businesses. It is likely that costs will rise for companies who use recycling as a means to generate additional revenue, as well as for those who rely on recycled plastic materials to manufacture new products.
“Whereas steel is just steel, plastic is not just plastic,” Philip Morton, former CEO of UK e-waste producer compliance scheme Repic told The Guardian. “There are a number of different grades and additives that should be on everyone’s radar. More things will soon start appearing on the ‘POP list’ and that has the potential to become very difficult [for industry].”
“Going forward, there will have to be stronger connections between manufacturing and the designers of their products as it’s a closed loop and producers putting these products on the market will ultimately pay for recycling at the end of a product’s life.”
__________________________________________
These are the GREEN INDUSTRY jobs, jobs, jobs global Wall Street Clinton/Obama neo-liberals and FAKE GREEN PARTY candidates and pols are promoting. At the same time they are the ones pushing the AFFORDABLE HOUSING policies in US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones that will become these toxic industrial sites with factory dormitory housing.
Just as DuPont was allowed several decades ago to install leaded water pipes in our US city water systems----into paint KNOWING lead harmed brain development---we are seeing the same policies MOVING FORWARD that will make all this public health crises look pale.
No one escapes this---if you are not that global factory sweat shop worker fresh out of the 6th grade----you will be that community filled with the fumes-----the community whose ground water is contaminated-----the US city whose soil is too contaminated for COMMUNITY GARDENS.
“The brain development of future generations is at stake,” said Dr. Michael Warhurst, director of CHEMTrust. “We need EU regulators to phase out groups of chemicals of concern, rather than slowly restricting one chemical at a time. We cannot continue to gamble with our children’s health.”
When a global Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provide media saying its executives ARE EXCEPTIONAL-----are the best at creating systems of protection-----that these doctors are looking out for citizens not only in Baltimore but globally-----AS THEY ARE THE ONES PUSHING ONE WORLD ONE GRID SMART CITIES-----AS THEY ARE PUSHING GLOBAL PORTS WITH FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE INDUSTRY-----simply to patent more products----
Let's get these global IVY LEAGUE hedge fund universities out of our government.
'Though 22 states currently have laws that declare electronic manufacturers financially responsible for recycling their own products, Urbina reports that the rampant fraud in the tracking of electronic waste and shockingly little oversight in the disposal chains has rendered the legislation virtually useless'.
If WE THE PEOPLE THE 99% do not STOP MOVING FORWARD NOW-----these environmental disasters----workplace and community toxicity will soar. This is what our Baltimore City Council pols----Maryland Assembly pols-----our Mayor PUGH and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan-----this is what global Wall Street Baltimore Development/Greater Baltimore 'labor and justice' organizations are PROMOTING. Race to the Top with online K-UNIVERSITY------Affordable Care Act with global telemedicine------massive ALTERNATIVE energy platforms called green-----SMART CITIES policies all create these conditions in our US cities/counties.
NYT: E-Waste Epidemic Creating a Toxic 'Glass Tsunami'
New York Times article highlights the growing stockpiles of toxic electronic waste and the lack of accountability behind them
by
Lauren McCauley, staff writer
The proliferation of toxic electronic waste is creating a "glass tsunami," according to New York Times writer Ian Urbina, whose new piece highlights the surging epidemic of e-waste stockpiles and the disturbing lack of oversight that has all-but absolved the consumer electronics industry behind the mess.
Despite widespread agreement from experts and environmentalists that the solution to the growing e-waste problem is for technology companies to "design products that last longer, use fewer toxic components and are more easily recycled," Urbina laments that the consumer electronics industry "seems to be heading in the opposite direction."
He continues:
In 2009, after television broadcasters turned off their analog signals nationwide in favor of digital, millions of people threw away their old televisions and replaced them with sleeker flat-screen models. Since then, thousands of pounds of old televisions and other electronic waste have been surreptitiously unloaded at landfills in Nevada and Ohio and on roadsides in California and Maine.
The amount of electronic waste has more than doubled in the past five years. And advancements such as flat-screen technology, which contain mercury-laden fluorescent bulbs, have significantly decreased the recycling value of most monitors creating a "glass tsunami" as stockpiles of the "useless material" accumulate in warehouses nationwide.
According to industry estimates, roughly 660 million pounds of monitor glass are currently being stockpiled—many of which belong to recycling companies who have been paid to collect and responsibly dispose of the machines. However, with an estimated cost of $85 million to $360 million to responsibly recycle it all, according to e-waste research firm Transparent Planet, many of these warehouses are at the risk of, or have already been, abandoned.
The article describes one warehouse "the size of a football field" abandoned by an electronics recycling company near Fresno, California:
The crumbling cardboard boxes, stacked in teetering rows, 9 feet high and 14 feet deep, were so sprawling that the inspectors needed cellphones to keep track of each other. The layer of broken glass on the floor and the lead-laden dust in the air was so thick that the inspectors soon left over safety concerns.
Though 22 states currently have laws that declare electronic manufacturers financially responsible for recycling their own products, Urbina reports that the rampant fraud in the tracking of electronic waste and shockingly little oversight in the disposal chains has rendered the legislation virtually useless.
**********************************************************
South Carolina Code of Laws
UnannotatedTitle 48 - Environmental Protection and Conservation
CHAPTER 60
South Carolina Manufacturer Responsibility and Consumer Convenience Information Technology Equipment Collection and Recovery Act
SECTION 48-60-05. Short title.
This chapter may be cited as the "South Carolina Manufacturer Responsibility and Consumer Convenience Information Technology Equipment Collection and Recovery Act".
HISTORY: 2010 Act No. 178, Section 1, eff July 1, 2011.
Editor's Note
2010 Act No. 178, Section 3, provides:
"This act takes effect July 1, 2011; provided, however, a retailer must be allowed an additional period of six months from the effective date to sell any inventory purchased prior to the effective date before having to comply with the applicable provisions of this act."
2014 Act No. 129, Section 14, provides as follows:
"Section 14. Section 48-60-50 of the 1976 Code, as amended by Section 3 of this act, is repealed December 31, 2014. The remaining provisions of Chapter 60, Title 48 of the 1976 Code, except Section 48-60-90, are repealed December 31, 2021."
SECTION 48-60-10. Legislative findings.
The General Assembly finds:
(1) Televisions, computing, and printing devices are critical to the development of this state's economy and the promotion of the quality of life of the citizens of this State.
(2) Many of these televisions, computing, and printing devices can be refurbished and reused, or recycled.
(3) Developing and implementing a system for recovering televisions, computing, and printing devices promotes resource conservation, public health, public safety, and economic prosperity.
(4) In order to carry out these purposes, the State must establish a comprehensive and convenient recovery program for televisions, computing, and printing devices based on individual manufacturer responsibility and shared responsibility among consumers, retailers, and government, and that the program must ensure that end-of-life televisions, computing, and printing devices are disposed of in a manner that promote resource conservation through the development of an effective and efficient system for collection and recycling, and to encourage manufacturers to offer convenient collection and recycling service to consumers at no charge.
_______________________________________
Each one of the states listed as doing something GREEN are the worst of offenders. It is the passing of these laws that have national media calling these pols GREEN-----that has FAKE GREEN organizations like LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS----and SIERRA CLUB----using this one vote to rank that state and or pols as GREEN. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS IS FAKE.
Here is global Wall Street CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA'S favorite global corporation-----and look---it's GREEN telling the 99% what they need to do to be GREEN. Here we see GLOBAL GREEN CORPORATION telling WE THE PEOPLE our elected global Wall Street pols have passed laws looking out for our public health----but wait----that last article stated these policies are worthless because they are filled with FRAUD AND CORRUPTION---NO ONE IS ENFORCING THESE LAWS!
***********************************************************************
HOME DEPOT Electronics Recycling Programs
HELP KEEP YOUR COMMUNITY CLEAN
By recycling your old electronics
Learn How To Best Dispose of Old Computers & Electrical Equipment
__________________________________________
Some electronic items contain parts and other chemical compounds that may be hazardous to the environment. Help keep these items out of landfills, dumps and other unauthorized abandonment sites by participating in a responsible electronic recycling program in your local area. Some materials used in the composition of electronics are recyclable and reusable, making them valuable commodities that help save our natural resources.
Electronic recycling requisitions enacted by states
California
California enacted its Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 and associated regulations to establish a ... More
Connecticut
In July of 2007, Connecticut adopted its Electronics Recycling Law which provides consumers convenient ... Ashley More
Hawaii
In 2008, Hawaii passed the Electronic Waste and Television Recycling Act which requires manufacturers ... More
Illinois
The Illinois Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act, effective since 2008, requires manufacturers to ... Ashley More
Indiana
In May of 2009, Indiana passed a statewide e-waste recycling law which establishes recycling programs ... Ashley More
Maine
In 2006, the State of Maine made it illegal to dispose of televisions and computer monitors and ... Ashley More
Maryland
In 2006, the State of Maryland passed an electronics recycling law requiring manufacturers to establish a ... Ashley More
Michigan
In 2008, the State of Michigan passed its electronics recycling law requiring that manufacturers establish More
Minnesota
In May of 2007 Minnesota passed the Electronics Recycling Act, targeting the collection and recycling of Ashley More
Missouri
In 2008, the State of Missouri passed the “Manufacturer Responsibility and Consumer Convenience ... More
New Jersey
In In 2008 the State of New Jersey passed the Electronic Waste Management Act requiring all original ... More
New York
In 2010 the State of New York passed the Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act requiring ... Ashley More
North Carolina
In 2007, the State of North Carolina passed a law that established the "Discarded Computer Equipment and Television ... More
Oklahoma
On May 12, 2008, the State of Oklahoma passed the Computer Equipment Recovery Act which Ashley More
Oregon
In 2007, Oregon enacted its Electronics Recycling Law which requires manufacturers of desktop Ashley More
Pennsylvania
In 2010, Pennsylvania passed the Covered Device Recycling Act which manufacturers of computers, ... More
Rhode Island
In June of 2008, the State of Rhode Island passed a comprehensive electronic waste recycling law ... Ashley More
South Carolina
In May of 2010, South Carolina passed the Manufacturer Responsibility and Consumer Convenience ... More
Texas
In 2008, Texas adopted a law which establishing the Computer Equipment Recycling Program, under ... More
Vermont
In 2010, the State of Vermont passed an electronic waste law that regulates the disposal of certain ... Ashley More
Virginia
In 2008 the state of Virginia passed a law requiring manufacturers of computer equipment to provide a ... Ashley More
Washington State
In 2007 Washington State adopted a law that requires manufacturers to provide electronic product ... Ashley More
West Virginia
In 2010, West Virginia passed a law banning certain electronics from West Virginia landfills, including ... Ashley More
Wisconsin
In 2009, Wisconsin passed a law that bans many consumer electronics from Wisconsin landfills and ... More
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