Green Options

Researchers at the University of York have recently come up with a method of recycling that seems like it fell from the pages of a science fiction novel. They want to turn discarded television screens into components for biomedicine.

San Francisco created the “EcoFinder” iPhone App to help residents recycle and dispose of materials.  The open data philosophy behind the app is Government 2.0 at work.

With the release today of San Francisco’s first iPhone app based on a City data feed, recycling just got much easier for our residents.

San Franciscans already lead the nation in recycling – in May we announced a 72% diversion rate of all materials going to the landfill – but we want to do more. Last week we passed the nation’s first mandatory recycling and composting laws. We’ve pledged to recycle 75% of the materials that would otherwise go to the landfill by 2010 and zero waste by 2020.

We will only reach these lofty goals together — with the help of all our residents. That’s why the City’s environment department (@SFEnvironment) has launched an iPhone version of the popular web-based EcoFinder tool.

The theme of China’s annual National People’s Congress taking place this week – the proceedings of which remain highly secretive beforehand – has been largely an economic one.

Although the environment is hardly the priority issue du jour, China has not entirely changed its course with regard to the environment, despite the economic turmoil, as a “worst case scenario” might have suggested. Legislation on the management of electronic waste, signed into effect this week by China’s cabinet, the State Council, is a key example of China’s continued commitment to making progress on environmental protection.

The new law mandates the establishment of centralized funding for enlargement and improvement of safe electronic recycling facilities in China. It also places responsibility on manufacturers, retailers, repair and customer service providers and recycling companies to collect and responsibly handle electronic waste; though the wording of the scope of their responsibility as well as punitive measures for noncompliance is vague.

These regulations aim to reduce a stream of pollution that builds each year. The problem of industrialized countries’ illegal exportation of e-waste on China and other developing countries has generated significant attention and debate in recent years, both inside and outside China. While advocacy groups like Greenpeace point fingers at the corporations for not taking efforts to control the disposal of their products or designing them with fewer toxic components, insufficient legislation and monitoring by both sending and receiving countries has exacerbated the problem.

Greenpeace planted a tracking device in an old TV, dropped it off at a recycling center, and tracked where it went. The results were disturbing, but sadly predicable.

The television ended up being shipped from the UK to Nigeria before being dismantled, a complete violation of European Union laws which require that potentially hazardous e-waste be disposed of within Europe.

It’s easy to think that solar panels can do no wrong— after all, they will help lead us out of our energy crisis, right? Unfortunately, these shining beacons of hope produce toxic e-waste just like cell phones, TVs, and computers. A report released today by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition admonishes the solar industry to face its e-waste problem head on or risk “repeating the mistakes made by the microelectronics industry.”

If Dell’s VP of Communications is so critical of Apple’s green policies, a month after Apple bragged about their new recyclable, energy-efficient MacBooks, why didn’t he just say that Dell is greener? Is it because he’s humble, or becaus his job is to confuse people? Ha, sorry, that’s too mean. A PR man’s job is to lie. But sometimes he accidentally tells the truth.

While Dell still beats Apple in Greenpeace’s annual electronics report, Apple will catch up if they meet their targets over the next few years. Here’s how the two computer makers compare (according to Greenpeace) on energy efficiency, packaging, materials, and recycling.

[Image credit: Jason Penner at Flickr under a Creative Commons license]

Americans produce millions of tons of e-waste each year. Our old computers, cameras, VCRs and so on are full of toxic substances that, if disposed of improperly, are terrible for our ecosystem. Sony is teaming up with Waste Management to help consumers responsibly dispose of e-waste. They’re hosting events across the U.S. and accepting TVs, computer monitors, computer systems, VCRs, DVDs, cameras, phones and other consumer electronics.

I often have email exchanges with ecopreneurs, non-profits, NGOs and various business folks that don’t necessarily end up as a blog post. Sometimes I start in one direction and end up in another. That’s what happened here when I received an email from Rob Wallace at Keep America Beautiful.

Rob had one of those ironic moments. He sent out an email and press release to us asking:

How can recycling wireless phones support the new administration’s energy policy?  Our recycling partner, ReCellular, is a reuse-oriented recycler of cellular equipment, and we’re confident that their structure and operations support zero-waste wireless recycling.

Great email pitch. Bookmark this page for next time you send out a press release. However, this pitch landed on my screen the day after I wrote this post on 60 Minutes and Executive Recycling. I immediately asked Rob if he’d be interested in commenting on the whole issue of dumping of e-waste in China instead. And he was and here is what he had to say:

This is a bit of a chilling tale for any eco entrepreneur! Executive Recycling, a small Colorado based, e-waste recycling center, was founded by Brandon Richter in 2004 with high hopes to provide a green solution to a growing problem. As he put it:

You think that you are doing good sending your computers to a recycling company.. but that is not exactly the case..  “Your e-waste is recycled properly, right here in the U.S. - not simply dumped on somebody else.”

I’m going to give Richter the benefit of the doubt here. When the dreaded call from 60 minutes came (You all know the joke don’t’ you? “What are the 5 most dreaded words a CEO can hear? “This is 60 Minutes calling.”) Richter gladly agreed to help them and gave them access to his records.

Things obviously didn’t turn out so well, since 60 Minutes found that containers of used monitors left his facility and were shipped overseas, ending up contributing to the virtual destruction of a town in China that dismantles all kinds of e-waste. A snip from the broadcast transcript…

And Brandon Richter, CEO of Executive Recycling, was still warning of the dangers of shipping waste to China. “I just heard actually a child actually died over there breaking this material down, just getting all these toxins,” he said.

Then Pelley told him we’d tracked his container to Hong Kong.

“This is a photograph from your yard, the Executive Recycling yard,” Pelley told Richter, showing him a photo we’d taken of a shipping container in his yard. “We followed this container to Hong Kong.”

“Okay,” Richter replied.

“And I wonder why that would be?” Pelley asked.

“Hmm. I have no clue,” Richter said.

“The Hong Kong customs people opened the container…and found it full of CRT screens which, as you probably know, is illegal to export to Hong Kong,” Pelley said.

“Yeah, yep,” Richter replied. “I don’t know if that container was filled with glass. I doubt it was. We don’t fill glass, CRT glass in those containers.”

“This container was in your yard, filled with CRT screens, and exported to Hong Kong, which probably wouldn’t be legal,” Pelley said.

“No, absolutely not. Yeah,” Richter said.

“Can you explain that?” Pelley asked.

“Yeah, it’s not - it was not filled in our facility,” Richt

Following-up on my previous post, this part explores need for local action in tackling the “e-waste menace.”  Delhi being the world’s e-waste capital sure raises several interesting questions. This is especially the case as one discovers that no other Indian state – with the exception of forward-looking Kerala – has any legislation in place to deal with the issue.

I am not in favor of widespread governmental micromanagement of anything and everything. So, I was initially happy to see the southern Indian cities – Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad (all of which are closely associated with the development of the Indian silicon valley) – boast of having the private sector involved in e-waste disposal. This demonstrated that sufficient economic incentives exist to invite private disposal of electronics waste. But then I started having second thoughts.

A friend recently mentioned that until last week, she had no idea how important it was to properly dispose of computers, printers, TVs and other electronic or “e-waste”.

Seems like she’s not alone. According to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, e-waste is one of the fastest growing segments of our waste stream.

Like everything else, you should approach e-waste with the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle hierarchy in mind.

• Reduce: lessen the amount of equipment that you buy through proper maintenance. Consider updating computers instead of buying new ones.
• Reuse: refurbish equipment, or donate working items to schools or other charities to extend their life (make sure to ask if your donation is eligible for a tax deduction).
• Recycle: as a last resort, items that are no longer usable may be recycled.

It’s this last bit that many people don’t know how to handle: an estimated 75% of outdated electronics are being stored, in part because people don’t know what to do with them.