According to the EPA, more than 4.6 million tons of e-waste ended up in U.S. landfills in 2000. Toxic chemicals in electronics products can leach into the land over time or are released into the atmosphere, impacting nearby communities and the environment. In many European countries, regulations have been introduced to prevent electronic waste being dumped in landfills due to its hazardous content. However, the practice still continues in many countries. In Hong Kong, for example, it is estimated that 10-20 percent of discarded computers go to landfill.
E-waste is routinely exported by developed countries to developing ones, often in violation of the international law. Inspections of 18 European seaports in 2005 found as much as 47 percent of waste destined for export, including e-waste, was illegal. In the United States, it is estimated that 50-80 percent of the waste collected for recycling is being exported in this way. This practice is legal because the United States has not ratified the
Basel Convention.
Mainland China tried to prevent this trade by banning the import of e-waste in 2000. However, we have discovered that the laws are not working; e-waste is still arriving in Guiya of Guangdong Province, the main center of e-waste scrapping in China.
We have also found a growing e-waste trade problem in India. Twenty-five thousand workers are employed at scrap yards in Delhi alone, where 10,00 - 20,000 tons of e-waste is handled each year, 25 percent of this being computers. Other e-waste scrap yards have been found in Meerut, Ferozabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai.
"A lot of these materials are being sent [to developing nations] under the guise of reuse—to bridge the digital divide," said Richard Gutierrez, a toxics policy analyst for the Seattle, Washington-based Basel Action Network.
Much of the waste ends up being discarded along rivers and roads. Often it's picked apart by destitute scavengers, who may face dangerous exposure to toxic chemicals in the broken equipment.
Most e-waste in India is dumped in landfills or incinerated, releasing toxins into the air and soil that can cause cancer, birth deformities and arrested brain development, health experts say.
"We're sitting on an e-waste time bomb," said Shetty Sreenath, who built Asia's first eco-friendly e-waste disposal facility in 1995 in Bangalore, a southern city known as India's Silicon Valley.
Basel Action Network, a global watchdog on toxic trade based in Seattle, estimates that 75 to 80 percent of older machines from the United States wind up in Asian countries such as India and China, where recycling costs are much lower. The number of electronic products discarded globally has skyrocketed in recent years -- 50 million tons annually -- and now makes up 5 percent of municipal solid waste worldwide, according to Greenpeace.
In New Delhi alone, some 25,000 workers -- including children -- boil, burn or crush between 10,000 tons and 20,000 tons of e-waste annually. Electronic scrap yards also exist in the cities of Meerut, Ferozabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, according to Toxic Link.
Much of stuff that is exported and turns up in India and China comes from local and state governments that are looking for the cheapest way to recycle.
What happens to old out-of-date phones? It's estimated that more than 100 million cell phones are thrown away, or stuffed in a drawer, each year. The Zoological Society of San Diego, along with Eco-Cell, a cellular phone recycling company, has a free-of-charge cell phone-recycling program at both the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park to encourage visitors to recycle.
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