If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Recycle It

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A couple of months ago, I found myself in a seemingly endless line of cars snaking around the Earl Warren Showground parking lot. Like lots of others, I was taking advantage of one of the county’s periodic electronics collection events. I planned to dispose of my ancient VCR, which had finally given up the ghost. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one that day to appreciate the irony of all the air pollution caused by people trying to be responsible citizens of the earth. Still, that realization didn’t quell my virtuous feeling of having done something good for the planet.

So I was distressed to learn that some companies purporting to be electronic waste recyclers were doing nothing more than exporting all those old computer monitors, cell phones, and CD players to developing nations, where this digital detritus is smashed up, bathed in acid, and burned — with nary a thought for worker safety or environmental protections. A 2005 Greenpeace study of e-waste recycling facilities in China and India found dust samples from recycling workshops with lead concentrations hundreds of times higher than normal and elevated levels of mercury and other contaminants in rivers near these facilities, among other environmental horrors. Although the International Association of Electronics Recyclers estimates Americans will discard about 3 billion consumer electronics devices by 2010, the U.S. has refused to sign the Basel Ban, a 1994 international agreement that prevents wealthy countries from exporting their e-waste to poor countries.

Was my VCR sitting in a mountain of discards somewhere in Asia, waiting to get smashed up by a young child wearing no respiratory protection? I called Leslie Wells, a program manager in Santa Barbara County’s Resource Recovery and Waste Management Division, and she set my mind at ease — somewhat. She told me the county, not wanting to make Santa Barbara’s e-waste somebody else’s problem, had decided to use a collection contractor that handles items domestically. Wells’s staff has also carefully screened the companies bidding on electronics collection contracts to ensure they have appropriate worker safety and environmental controls in place. “You can’t just go with the lowest bidder,” Wells said, recalling a site visit to one rejected bidder whose employees weren’t wearing respirators.

Thanks to Wells’s assurances, I felt satisfied that I’d disposed of my VCR properly — and it was broken, after all. But does all this stuff really need to get thrown away? Wells recommended donating still-usable items to a favorite nonprofit, which will usually be glad to take them. And you might be surprised by what qualifies as “still-usable.” When I called a local thrift store to see whether they’d be interested in two old but functioning stereo CD players — “single-disc, not changers,” I warned — the manager laughingly informed me that she had customers who still bought 8-track players.

Interestingly, it may be consumers who have the greatest power to affect change in this arena. We can pressure electronics manufacturers to stop fighting laws regulating e-waste, and reward responsible companies with our business. In the meantime, we can fight the urge to buy the latest gadget-as-fashion accessory. And, if you really can’t live without that ultra-thin cell phone or flat-screen TV, try to find a good home for the old model — or dispose of it appropriately. If it’s got a plug or a battery, according to Leslie Wells, it’s going to need special handling.

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