• Electronic Waste Recycling
• Beverage Container Recycling

Electronic Waste recycling

Electronic waste is the fastest growing component of our waste stream, growing nearly three times faster than municipal waste. Although computers and televisions contain significant levels of toxic compounds including lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium, most computers are currently not recycled or even disposed of properly. This is creating a growing hazard as toxic elements can seep into groundwater or expose workers. Studies have stated that between 315 to 600 million desk tops and laptops will be obsolete in the United States in the next few years. One report estimates that a pile of these obsolete computers would reach a mile high and cover six acres. That's the same as a 22-story pile of e-waste covering the entire 472 square miles of the City of Los Angeles.

EU Directive on Electronics Disposal

US companies are playing catchup to recycling rules already being implemented in Europe. A Waste from Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) directive adopted by the European Parliament establishes that equipment producers are responsible for financing the collection, treatment, recovery and disposal of all electronic waste. Under a complementary new Restriction on Hazardous Substance (RoHS) law, manufacturers will have to phase out using lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, and some brominated flame retardants PBDE and PBB beginning in 2006. More information on WEEE and ROHS is available from Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

Dumping Toxic Trash in Developing Countries

Concern about the fate of old computers was heightened in 2002 when Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Basel Action Network released a report entitled "Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia." The report confirms what environmentalists have long suspected. "Recycling" of old computers can often mean dumping the discarded components in developing countries such as China, India and Pakistan where valuable materials are extracted by poor people using primitive methods that pose a threat to their health.

A new investigation in 2005 by Basel Action Network revealed that large quantities of obsolete computers and other used electronic equipment exported from USA and Europe to Lagos, Nigeria for "re-use and repair" are ending up gathering dust in warehouses or being dumped and burned near residences in empty lots, roadsides and in swamps, creating serious health and environmental contamination from the toxic leachate and smoke.

Beverage Container Recycling

Every day, on average, American consumers purchase more than 500 million beverage bottles and cans. Nearly two thirds of these containers are incinerated or land-filled; more become debris ending up in oceans where plastic is the principal cause of the deaths of more than a million seabirds and 100,000 mammals and sea turtles per year, according to the United Nations Environment Program. Beverage container recycling rates have been declining nationally - from 54% in 1992 to less than 35% in 2003.

Industry beverage leaders like Coca-Cola and Pepsi must take more responsibility for the solid waste caused by their discarded beverage containers, and move to increase the level of recycled content in their plastic bottles. While Coke and Pepsi talk about "shared responsibility" for recycling, they oppose development of new container deposit ("bottle bill") legislation, the best apparent tools available for capturing large amounts of post-consumer bottles and cans. They have not proposed any alternative methods to reverse declining recycling rates and to significantly increase levels of container recovery. As a result, the public continues to pay for most of this vast waste of resources by subsidizing the cost of landfilling, incineration, litter cleanup and recycling.