hardboiled

today's technology, tomorrow's toxics

by gene kim

As the holiday season begins, consumers are being bombarded with advertisements for the newest gadgets and appliances. The new KRZR cell phone is even thinner than its previous RAZR models and features Bluetooth compatibility, web browsing, an internal mp3 player and video capabilities. Other cell phone models on the market allow streaming media from sites like YouTube, online communication through popular services such as Skype, and can even provide driving directions through built in GPS navigation systems. During times like these, it seems hard to believe that only a decade ago most Americans still relied on their landlines and pay phones to keep in touch. In the short period of time that mobile phones have been available, technological advances have completely revolutionized the way that people use their phones.

Of course, none of this is very surprising to us. As college students, we are immersed in technology and electronics everyday. Most of us learned to use computers at a young age, and some of us can type on a keyboard faster than we can write with a pen. Almost all of us carry a cell phone with us on campus, and a majority of us also carry mp3 players, laptops, flash drives, and digital cameras. Some of us may still claim to be “computer illiterate,” but as a whole our generation is very tech savvy. To us, it seems that technology is fulfilling its promise to bring us the convenience and utility of the world of tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the benefits of tomorrow come at a steep cost, and the true price of progress extends far beyond one’s credit card bill. The grim reality of the situation is something that most consumers are fully aware of but never actually stop to consider. We all know that our products are temporary. Sooner or later we head out to buy a higher resolution camera, a more powerful computer, a more compact mp3 player, and a new phone with a dozen additional functions. We replace all of our electronics on a regular basis, sometimes after only a few months of use. Occasionally it happens because the product we had is broken or unusable, but in most cases the device is still fully functional when it becomes obsolete. It may still work as well as the day you bought it, but technology is moving fast, and suddenly that amazing new laptop is no longer good enough.

We all understand the system, and we grow to accept it. Most of us get a new cell phone at least once a year, sometimes only because a free one came with our new contract. According to some estimations, worldwide mobile phone sales in 2005 came out to about 750 million units. When new electronics are affordable and available, there seems to be no valid reason for us to limit our consumption.

That is, unless of course there happened to be a big blind spot to this logic. The problem in this case is the part we so often forget about: what happens to all those “obsolete” products? A couple old monitors pile up in your garage, your old mp3 player is sitting in a drawer, and you kept one of your old cell phones in case you drop your new one too many times. The rest become electronic waste, or e-waste, the fastest growing contributor to our municipal waste stream.

E-waste has more than just a unique label. It also has to be handled in a special way. Many states have already passed laws that prevent the dumping of certain kinds of e-waste in landfills. Cathode ray tubes in old monitors and TVs are an environmental hazard because they contain dangerous amounts of lead. Our old cell phones can contain several toxic agents including arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, and brominated flame retardants. Other electronics contain mercury, chromium, and a long list of ecologically threatening and potentially carcinogenic components. The same devices that we carry and use everyday are considered hazardous waste once we discard them.

If this is the case, then the sensible solution seems to be recycling. After all, e-waste is a valuable source of reusable parts and raw materials. Several recycling centers already exist in the United States, but they only handle a limited range of products and pale in comparison to some of the facilities operating in other nations such as Switzerland. Even worse, the truth is that most of these self proclaimed recycling centers do not actually recycle anything.

As the Basel Action Network (BAN) discovered when producing their film Exporting Harm, a vast majority of e-waste recyclers in the United States are actually just tech waste “brokers.” When responsible consumers drops off their old electronics, these companies simply take the products, sort them out, then package them to be shipped overseas. Our garbage is then sold for profit to developing areas in Asia such as China, Pakistan, and India.

The BAN documentary focuses on the Guiyu area of southern China, a place that was once known for its rice farming and agriculture. In recent years, the village has been transformed into an e-waste processing operation that involves over 100,000 poor and migrant workers. Men, women, and children work together for little pay as they attempt to process obsolete equipment imported from North America.

The images from Guiyu are unsettling for a number of reasons. First off, the entire operation is very primitive. Women sit in circles and use hammers to break open monitors and remove cathode ray tubes. Others use their fingers to pry the chips off of old circuit boards. There are no buildings or machines. Everything is out in the open or sectioned off by makeshift booths.

It also appears that most of the workers are unaware of just how dangerous their jobs are. Men use paintbrushes to dust the toner out of old printer cartridges, inhaling the black soot that fills the air. Large mountains of wires are set on fire to melt the rubber casings and retrieve precious metals. Clouds of toxic smoke are sent throughout the village as young children play nearby. The health risks presented by the operation are only made worse by the environmental degradation that results.

Acid baths are used to process old circuit boards, and afterwards the used liquids are disposed in the river. Drinking water must be shipped in from neighboring areas because of the extreme pH level of the local supply. The river itself is completely blackened due to pollution from chemicals and the large piles of unusable scrap discarded along the river bank. Plastic cases and other useless fragments are burned to save space, resulting in more poisonous smoke. The parts that cannot be burned simply pile up in ditches or waterways.

The people of Guiyu spend every day of their lives surrounded by hazardous waste that was deemed unfit for our own landfills. While other nations develop comprehensive programs for dealing with their discarded electronics, the United States neglects its responsibility and instead uses Asia as a dumping ground for its toxic trash. As we continue to consume more electronics, this stream is rapidly growing and affecting new areas like Nigeria and Mexico. If left unchecked, our nation’s e-waste will continue to pollute the planet and devastate communities around the globe.

According to members of the Students for Sustainable Technology, the U.C. Berkeley division of the Toxic Free U.C. campaign, the real solution lies in manufacturer accountability. As one representative from the group points out, “It’s unreasonable to ask every consumer to stop buying electronics. That’s not the best way to address the problem. The problem in the United States is that there is no effective way of handling these electronics at their end of life stage.”

“If manufacturers were required to recycle their own products, the industry could be transformed in a positive way. Once the proper infrastructure is developed, companies would be able to use their own e-waste as sources of new materials. They would also have a greater incentive to design products that contained more reusable parts and were easier to breakdown. Instead of focusing solely on how to sell their creations, they would need to consider all stages of the electronic lifecycle.”

These ideas have already been adopted by the European Union and developed nations such as South Korea and Japan. In order for such changes to take place in the U.S., electronics manufacturers will need a strong push in the right direction. This can come in many forms, including consumer demand or a federal mandate. As informed consumers, it is up to us to make sure our concerns are heard and adequately addressed.

In the end, technology may serve as the solution to the very problem it helped create. Innovations in the electronics industry are focused on producing devices that are compact, fast, eye-catching, and convenient. These same minds could also work to design electronics that are cleaner, less toxic, easier to recycle, and more efficient to upgrade. In order to achieve sustainability, we must be able to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Unless drastic measures are taken, future generations will be left with nothing but the toxic consequences of our high tech lifestyle.