[WSIS CS-Plenary] Poor Nations Are Littered With Old PC's, Report Says

[Thomas Ruddy]

Ralf,

Thank you for posting this. As you remember, our Civil Society Working Group
on ICT and the Environment at WSIS has been pointing out abuses like these
that you mention below since the time before the first Geneva phase in 2003.
We showed videos from the Basel Action Network mentioned in your article at
an early PrepCom at the ILO.

We are gratified that such phrases as those below are included in the Tunis
document, but at the same time we are sure that they are not enough, and we
will continue to point this out.  I will be in Tunis speaking on these
topics at two events:

November 13-15, 2005: The Past, Present and Future of Research in the
Information Society, a satellite event preceding Phase II of the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis. Participating
organizations include the International Council for Science (ICSU), the
International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP), the Committee on
Data (CODATA) for Science and Technology, the National Science Foundation
(United States), the World Federation of Engineering Organisations, etc.,
http://worldsci.net 
 

November 16, 2005: "A joint initiative of the Club of Rome and WorldSpace
will have extensive broadcasting possibilities during the 3 days of the
Summit. Together CoR and WorldSpace are now planning each day a workshop of
1-2 hours. Each workshop has its own topic: the 1st on low cost
infrastructure; the 2nd on capacity building and the 3rd on ICT and
Sustainability and environment. Extracts of the workshops will be broadcast
live as well as specific interviews with the participants also to be aired,"
http://www.onevillagefoundation.org/ovf2/newsletter.html 
And
http://esc.clubofrome.org/news/


Best,
Thomas

Thomas Ruddy, Switzerland, convener of www.wsis.ethz.ch 

Currently the revised text of the WSIS Tunis operational document
(implementation and follow-up: WSIS-II/PC-3/DT-26 (Rev. 1,
http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/pc3/working/dt26rev1.doc) contains the
following paragraph with relevance to us as a follow-up to the Geneva Phase:

 

Paragraph 11 - o

"strongly encouraging ICT enterprises and entrepreneurs to develop and use
environment-friendly production processes in order to minimise the negative
impacts of the use and manufacture of ICTs and disposal of ICT waste on
people and the environment. In this context, it is important to give
particular attention to the specific needs of the developing countries; "

 

It also contains a new paragraph 12 as a .

Further commitments           12.           We recognize the intrinsic
relationship between disaster reduction, sustainable development and the
eradication of poverty and that disasters seriously undermine investment in
a very short time and remain a major impediment to sustainable development
and poverty eradication. We are clear as to the important enabling role of
ICT at the national, regional and international levels including:

                a)             Enhancing the capacity of developing
countries in utilizing ICT tools for national disaster early warning,
management and emergency communications, including their integration in the
global network;


> -----Original Message-----
> From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On
> Behalf Of Ralf Bendrath
> Sent: Donnerstag, 3. November 2005 18:38
> To: wsis-cs-plenary
> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Poor Nations Are Littered With Old PC's, Report
> Says
> 
> [Please note that by using 'REPLY', your response goes to the entire list.
> Kindly use individual addresses for responses intended for specific
> people]
> 
> Click http://wsis.funredes.org/plenary/ to access automatic translation of
> this message!
> _______________________________________
> 
> Something from the dark side of "bridging the digital divide"...
> The full report "The Digital Dump" is here:
> http://www.ban.org/BANreports/10-24-05/index.htm
> 
> Does anybody know if people from the Basel Action Network are coming to
> Tunis?
> 
> Ralf
> ------------------------------
> 
> Poor Nations Are Littered With Old PC's, Report Says
> 
> By LAURIE J. FLYNN
> New York Times, October 24, 2005
> 
> Much of the used computer equipment sent from the United States to
> developing countries for use in homes, schools and businesses is often
> neither usable nor repairable, creating enormous environmental problems in
> some of the world's poorest places, according to a report to be issued
> today by an environmental organization.
> 
> The report, titled "The Digital Dump: Exporting Reuse and Abuse to
> Africa," says that the unusable equipment is being donated or sold to
> developing nations by recycling businesses in the United States as a way
> to dodge the expense of having to recycle it properly. While the report,
> written by the Basel Action Network, based in Seattle, focuses on Nigeria,
> in western Africa, it says the situation is similar throughout much of the
> developing world.
> 
> "Too often, justifications of 'building bridges over the digital divide'
> are used as excuses to obscure and ignore the fact that these bridges
> double as toxic waste pipelines," says the report. As a result, Nigeria
> and other developing nations are carrying a disproportionate burden of the
> world's toxic waste from technology products, according to Jim Puckett,
> coordinator of the group.
> 
> According to the National Safety Council, more than 63 million computers
> in the United States will become obsolete in 2005. An average computer
> monitor can contain as much as eight pounds of lead, along with plastics
> laden with flame retardants and cadmium, all of which can be harmful to
> the environment and to humans.
> 
> In 2002, the Basel Action Network was co-author of a report that said 50
> percent to 80 percent of electronics waste collected for recycling in the
> United States was being disassembled and recycled under largely
> unregulated, unhealthy conditions in China, India, Pakistan and other
> developing countries. The new report contends that Americans may be lulled
> into thinking their old computers are being put to good use.
> 
> At the Nigerian port of Lagos, the new report says, an estimated 500
> containers of used electronic equipment enter the country each month, each
> one carrying about 800 computers, for a total of about 400,000 used
> computers a month. The majority of the equipment arriving in Lagos, the
> report says, is unusable and neither economically repairable or resalable.
> "Nigerians are telling us they are getting as much as 75 percent junk that
> is not repairable," Mr. Puckett said. He said that Nigeria, like most
> developing countries, could only accommodate functioning used equipment.
> 
> The environmental group visited Lagos, where it found that despite growing
> technology industries, the country lacked an infrastructure for
> electronics recycling. This means that the imported equipment often ends
> up in landfills, where toxins in the equipment can pollute the groundwater
> and create unhealthy conditions.
> 
> Mr. Puckett said the group had identified 30 recyclers in the United
> States who had agreed not to export electronic waste to developing
> countries. "We are trying to get it to be common practice that you have to
> test what you send and label it," he said.
> 
> Mr. Puckett also said his group was trying to enforce the Basel
> Convention, a United Nations treaty intended to limit the trade of
> hazardous waste. The United States is the only developed country that has
> not ratified the treaty.
> 
> Much of the equipment being shipped to Africa and other developing areas
> is from recyclers in the United States, who typically get the used
> equipment free from businesses, government agencies and communities and
> ship it abroad for repair, sale or to be dismantled using low-cost labor.
> 
> Scrap Computers, a recycler in Phoenix, has eight warehouses across the
> United States to store collected electronics before they are shipped to
> foreign destinations, and Graham Wollaston, the company's president, says
> he is opening new warehouses at the rate of one a month. Mr. Wollaston,
> who describes his company as a "giant sorting operation," said there was a
> reuse for virtually every component of old electronic devices: old
> televisions are turned into fish tanks for Malaysia, and a silicon glass
> shortage has created huge demand for old monitors, which are turned into
> new ones. "There's no such thing as a third-world landfill," Mr. Wollaston
> said. "If you were to put an old computer on the street, it would be taken
> apart for the parts."
> 
> Mr. Wollaston said the system was largely working, though he conceded that
> some recyclers dump useless equipment in various developing nations, most
> notably China. "One of the problems the industry faces is a lack of
> certification as to where it's all going," he said. He says his company
> tests all equipment destined for developing nations.
> 
> The Environmental Protection Agency concedes that "inappropriate
> practices" have occurred in the industry, but said it did not think the
> problem should be addressed by stopping all exports.
> 
> "E.P.A. has been working with the Organization for Economic Cooperation
> and Development countries for the last several years on development of a
> program that would provide much greater assurance that exports of
> recyclable materials will be environmentally sound," Tom Dunne, of the
> agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, wrote in an e-mail
> message.
> 
> 
> Related
> 
> Basel Action Network Web site: http://www.ban.org/
> _______________________________________________
> Plenary mailing list
> Plenary at wsis-cs.org
> http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/plenary