Exporting Harm

photo courtesy of BAN.

Our carefree and easy culture in regards to the replacement and disposability of all of our current electronic has-beens is astounding. As of the date of the summary findings on the Basel Action Network, 50%-80% of the current E-waste is being exported to other developing countries such as India and China, who can little afford to ensure good methods to properly dispose of e-waste in manner that is not harmful to its own citizenry and their environs.

'Exporting Harm' and 'Digital Dump' are two documentaries highlighting the 'horrors of the high-tech revolution'. It illustrates that our current methods of consumption have horrendous repercussions all over the world due to various corporate mentalities and our own ignorance. Combine corporate machinations to maximize profits by encouraging and making it easy for consumers of new products to buy and replace instead of fixing, add our own desires to constantly have the new and latest products (do I really NEED an iphone if I have a sufficiently workable celly?), and we have the existence of various reasons that converge and lead to ill effects. The daily absence of the consequences of what we do only serve to not put these issues at the forefronts of our current collective consciousness.

It is significant but not all that surprising that the US is on the list of countries who have failed to ratify any of the four international toxic treaty agreements, along with Russia.

The Basel Action Network has compiled a list of e-waste recyclers who have passed their rigorous standards and criteria for being responsible e-stewards. You can check out who qualifies here, and also see if your local e-waste recycler is part of the program. If they are not, ask them why.