High Tech Trash

Here at PC Magazine, we spend a lot of time testing out the great new technologies and explaining how to make the most of them both at home and at work. And there is lots to cover. But there is another side to this technological abundance: what happens when those old PCs just won't run the apps you need anymore? What happens when that third-generation iPod battery finally gives out? As Elizabeth Grossman points out in her book, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health, bad things happen to high-tech gadgets when they reach the end of their life. Very bad things. Senior Editor Dan Costa traded e-mails with her to get her take on the current situation and some practical advice on e-cycling.

Q: What are the dangers of just throwing old tech in landfills?
A: High-tech electronics, particularly the equipment now becoming obsolete and entering the waste stream, contains numerous hazardous and toxic materials. Among these are metals—including lead, mercury, cadmium, copper, and barium—and numerous synthetic chemicals used in plastics among them brominated flame retardants. If electronics are left to degrade in landfills, these toxics can leach into soil and groundwater and release harmful airborne particulates. If dumped in landfills in developing countries as it has been in Nigeria and China, this equipment may well be burned (a common way of reducing landfill volume) and thus quickly release dioxins and additional toxics in particularly hazardous and mobile forms.

Q: What is the most toxic element in our old PCs?
A: I'd say the part of the monitor known as a cathode ray tube or CRT for short. The glass contains lead, cadmium, barium, and phosphorus and the funnel shaped part in the back also contains lead. The CRT in a typical desktop monitor (or TV screen) may contain as much as four to eight pounds of lead. While equipment is intact these materials are not harmful, but if broken, smashed or otherwise damaged, these toxics are released. A truckload of CRTs is considered hazardous waste.

Q: How much of the electronics we buy today in the U.S. gets recycled?
A: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, only about 10 percent of obsolete electronics are currently being recycled in the U.S.

Q: You point out that the average computer has a fair amount of gold and silver in it, why is it so hard to get these precious elements back out?
A: The amount of gold or silver in a PC is actually a very small in weight—well under an ounce. But its value is significant so precious metals recovery along with recovery of copper, which electronic use quite a lot of, are among the primary financial incentives for recycling electronics. Both copper and gold, those industries told me, are virtually 100 percent recyclable. Mining companies were among the first electronics recyclers and have said that it's a lot easier and more efficient to mine a pile of old circuit boards than it is to prospect for and process the equivalent amount of ore. The mining industry knows very well how to recover both the precious and other metals in electronics. That's the comparatively easy part. The hard part is collecting the equipment for materials recovery.

Q: You talk about exporting tech trash to other countries in your book. Is it really cheaper to send tech trash to China than recycle it here?
A: E-waste is now being exported not only to China, but also to India, Thailand among other countries in Southeast Asia, and other developing countries. I was told that even with the costs of shipping, it's still less expensive—and therefore more profitable—for the recyclers who are really speculative scrap dealers (they've been called "waste cowboys") to send equipment where labor is cheapest, environmental regulations most lax and to where there's an eager, growing market for scrap metal. Large amounts of non-working equipment are also being sent to Africa, particularly Nigeria, under the guise of reuse, where it's simply being dumped without any materials recovery. If done under safe conditions and with state-of-the-art processes, disassembling electronics and separating materials for recycling is not inexpensive.

Q: What do you think about the idea of a "bottling fee" for tech. Many states charge a $.05 recycling fee for plastic bottles. Should tech gadgets have a similar tax so that consumers can share the burden?
A: What you're talking about is what's called in recycling circles an advanced recovery fee—a charge added to the purchase price that goes to fund recycling that item. It's one way to do things, but for electronics, I personally prefer the idea of a system that involves the manufacturer in the recycling process, both financially and physically—even if part of the cost is passed along to the consumer and buried into the initial price tag. If manufacturers are compelled to consider and deal with a product when it becomes obsolete, that provides an incentive for them to design products that are easier to recycle and presumably contain fewer toxic and hazardous materials. Without such improvements we'll all continue to pay for improper e-waste disposal in the form of harmful pollutants traveling the global environment, working their way into our food and our bodies.

Q: Europe requires e-waste recycling right now. How long before the U.S. follows suit?
A: It may be some time before the U.S. has a comprehensive national system for electronics recycling. But in the absence of action at the federal level states and local governments have begun to act. In the past several years dozens of state e-waste bills have been introduced, and a handful of states have now passed substantive bills—either banning CRTs and other electronics from local landfills or establishing statewide recycling programs. More are on the way, and state bills will increase pressure for national legislation as right now manufacturers face the prospect of dealing with 50 different e-waste laws.

Q: What can consumers to make sure our old electronics are safely disposed of?
A: First, do not put any old electronics in the trash—even small things like cell phones, MP3 players, or PDAs. They all contain some hazardous materials, particularly if they are trashed with their batteries. If the equipment is working and truly usable, donate it to a reputable reuse organization or non-profit that will actually use or refurbish the equipment. There are lots of good online resources for reuse.

If the equipment is obsolete, and your state or community does not have an electronics recycling program, you can use a manufacturer's take-back and recycling program (find it by typing the manufacturer's name and "recycling" into a search engine) or get it to a responsible recycler. A good resource for recyclers who do not to export or use prison labor for recycling is the list of those who've signed the Basel Action Network's "Pledge of True Stewardship"—at http://www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html.

Find out what your workplace does with its used tech equipment and if there's no system for recycling, urge your company or organization to establish one that's environmentally and socially responsible and that meets data security needs.

For more on e-trash recycling and a list of vendors that offer recycling programs check out the High Tech Trash Web site.