Episode 9: In which we confront some nasty truths about our technology habit

We can hide it, pretend it will go away, throw a tablecloth over it and pretend it’s not an elephant, but we can’t escape the fact that our technology habit is trashing the planet.

That gaming system that was so hot last year but is now just so last year? The mobile phone now superseded by a brand new smart phone? The 3-year old flat screen TV that had to go to make way for the new plasma HD? Computers, monitors, MP3s, PDAs, netbooks, notebooks, digital cameras, printers, copiers, digital photo frames – all consumer electronics, in fact, up to and including large household appliances. E-waste is the most pressing waste management challenge we face.

E-waste is classified as hazardous waste. It contains numerous heavy metals and toxic materials including lead, mercury, cadmium, cobalt, arsenic, lithium, chromium VI, chlorofluorocarbons, nickel and asbestos. It also contains valuable and recoverable metals such as gold, silver and copper, as well as a lot of plastics. It will never break down in landfill and only slightly more than 50% of a computer is recyclable.

Australia generates 1.17million tonnes of e-waste a year, according to the 2010 National Waste Report. It is estimated that around half of this ends up in landfills. It is too easy for small pieces of electronic equipment to be simply dumped in bins for collection and disposal in landfills. Once in landfill, this equipment forms a toxic cocktail of leachate that contaminates soil and groundwater and runs off into surface water. Once in soil and water, these toxins enter the human system through our food and water consumption.

Sixty-one percent of lead in Australian landfills comes from consumer electronics – largely from the glass in monitors and TV screens. The negative effects of lead have been well documented for many years and the risks associated with lead poisoning are both established and recognised. Lead causes damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, blood systems, kidney and reproductive system in humans. We are not only trashing the planet, but ourselves.

First world e-waste being 'recycled' in China

Of the 50% of electronic waste that does not end up in landfills around the country, much is exported to developing countries under the guise of providing economic opportunities in recycling. This is code for: ‘we don’t want to trash our own country so we’ll send it somewhere else.’ Once exported to places like China, Nigeria, the Philippines, India or South Africa, the computers are broken down in unsafe conditions, often by women and children, who remove the valuable components and dump the rest – often in local waterways or by open air burning. This is what the developed world calls ‘providing economic opportunities’ and ‘recycling’.

The uncomfortable fact of the matter is that we are consuming electronics far faster than we can deal with the waste.

E-waste at Kimbriki awaiting collection by PGM Refiners*

 

 

Part of the problem here is that ‘planned obsolescence’ is built into everything we buy. Every piece of electronic equipment is designed to be superseded by the next model within a continually decreasing period of time. Even if a consumer intends to keep a computer or phone for, say, five years or more, rapid changes in software usually mean that the new programs won’t run on the ‘old’ equipment, so an upgrade to new hardware becomes necessary. To operate in the 21^st Century technological environment means being a slave to planned obsolescence. The management of Kimbriki tip in Sydney estimate that around 95% of the TVs dumped at their e-waste disposal point are still workable.

A further factor is that we are increasingly living in a society where personal worth is measured according to ownership of certain brands and status is indicated by the type of mobile phone, netbook computer or personal audio equipment one carries. Consumerism as status is not new, but coupled with the rapid changes in technology, high disposable incomes and social reliance on technology, the end result – mountains of toxic waste – is a recipe for disaster.

Shipping our toxic waste to developing countries is not the solution – either environmentally or socially. While it is cheap and convenient to do so (out of sight, out of mind), we are simply shifting an environmental problem around a finite planet and causing social and health problems for which, ultimately, our responsibility will be called to account.

There are companies in Australia where computers and other electronics are recycled safely. Yes, it is more expensive to deal with our e-waste locally, but If we are prepared to pay thousands of dollars on new equipment, we should be prepared to pay $20 or $30 to dispose of the old equipment. It’s also worth doing some homework on companies that claim to be recycling or that have green-sounding names – frequently the claims do not match the practices and it’s too easy to apply the greenwash and put ‘eco’ or ‘green’ or ‘earth’ in a company name in order to create an impression of certain standards or practices. Programs such as extended producer responsibility (EPR) where manufacturers take back some or all of the equipment at the end of its life goes part of the way. Dell, Kyocera and Ricoh in particular are making very positive steps in this direction. But really, the buck comes down to the consumer.

There’s no free lunch when it comes to e-waste. If we want the new stuff, we need to take responsibility for the old stuff. This is our problem – not the manufacturers, not the people in Chinese or Nigerian villages, not the retailers. Ours. Deal with it.

*PGM Refiners guarantee that 95% of computers they collect are recycled in Australia and the remaining 5% (mostly circuit boards) are sent to Belgium for recycling and reclaiming of gold and other metals.