Posted on Fri, Mar. 08, 2002
San Jose Mercury News
MY VIEW: By Chad Raphael

CHINESE villagers busting up our computers' lead-laden monitors for $1.50 a day, contaminating the town's drinking water. Their children playing in heaps of toxic ash from burned circuit boards. These disturbing images, from a report on trade in electronic waste issued by environmentalists last week, make it all the more urgent to take action here at home. Our response should be guided by five principles.

Plug the toilet. The 1989 Basel Convention bans exports of hazardous waste from rich to poor nations. We're the only developed country that hasn't taken responsibility for its own mess by ratifying the treaty. The world's poorest, who have enjoyed the least of the information age's fruits, shouldn't have to swallow the bulk of its waste.

Plugging the toilet spurs government and industry to act. When California banned the cathode ray tubes in TVs and PCs from its landfills, State Senator Byron Sher quickly introduced a bill to charge upfront fees on products that contain the tubes, which will pay for recycling this especially hazardous waste. The Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group offered qualified support for the bill.

Build our recycling base. Our recycling infrastructure is woefully underdeveloped. We hurled 3.2 million tons of e-waste into our own landfills in 1997, a figure that could quadruple in a few years, says the Environmental Protection Agency.

Until recently, manufacturers and consumers haven't had economic incentives to recycle. That's because the full social and environmental costs of handling old electronics haven't been borne by their makers or reflected in sticker prices. Costs have been shifted to poor countries that get our exports and local taxpayers, who could be responsible for an estimated $1 billion in hazardous waste charges in California alone over the next five years.

Voluntary recycling plans that would allow companies to decide whether to take back their old stuff from consumers won't do the job. You can mail your PC back to IBM, one of the more enlightened manufacturers, and they'll recycle it for $30. But IBM only gets about 200 computers per month, a minuscule percentage of the millions it sells to Americans annually.

Having all manufacturers offer or support recycling and setting specific goals for how much e-waste to keep out of the landfill are the best options. State Senator Gloria Romero's bill would require both. Universal recycling by manufacturers will also ensure a level playing field for industry so responsible companies don't suffer competitive disadvantages.

Foster Producer Responsibility. Europe will soon require electronics makers to take back their products when consumers are done with them. When companies know their products will return like boomerangs they will want to design components that rely on fewer dangerous materials and are easily disassembled for reuse or recycling. Producers will invest in research and development and marketing toward these socially valuable ends.

Manufacturers can demand that suppliers provide greener hardware and less bloated software that needs less memory and processor power. Best of all, manufacturers could pursue lower-waste business models such as upgrading and refurbishing equipment, or boosting network computing, in which software and processor power reside on a central server that can be accessed by older terminals.

Reward the good players. Take-back laws should offer incentives to companies to compete on grounds of environmental quality. Companies that are redesigning their products and building reputable recycling programs should be rewarded. Perhaps advance disposal charges should be part flat fee, to generate money to build the recycling base, and part sliding scale, based on factors such as the amount of toxics in the product and the amount of reusable material.

Make change from the bottom up. Some in industry say wait until a national e-waste dialogue solves the problem. But national talks have gone slowly, and local taxpayers and Asian villagers can't wait. It's up to the states to build momentum for federal action. California is known for technological innovation and environmental leadership. Let's innovate together.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chad Raphael, Assistant Professor of Communication, Santa Clara University, leads stakeholder meetings on e-waste and is a board member of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.