VATIS UPDATE Article

A two-year investigation of electronics recycling using GPS tracking devices, done by the Basel Action Network (BAN), the United States, has revealed that policies aimed at curtailing the trade in toxic e-waste have been unsuccessful, with nearly one-third of the devices being exported to developing countries, where equipment is often dismantled in low-tech workshops – often by children – endangering workers, their families, and contaminating the surrounding environment. BAN devoted to ending the trade in toxic waste, decided to physically track devices sent for recycling.

“In our view those reports underestimated the export flows. So we decided if the government is not going to use tracking devices, we will,” said BAN’s executive director, Jim Puckett. BAN installed 200 GPS tracking devices into “used, non-functional computer equipment that its research team delivered to publicly accessible e-waste recycling drop-off sites around the U.S.” This equipment was left for recycling in more than a dozen states across the country between July 1, 2014, and December 31, 2015; 149 devices went to recyclers, 49 to thrift stores (mainly Goodwill) and two to retailers.

BAN has found that 65 of those devices (or 32.5 percent of the equipment tracked) have been exported. Of that equipment, BAN estimates that 62 devices (or 31 percent of the tracked equipment) were likely to be illegal shipments based on the laws in the countries or regions where the electronics ended up. Of the equipment left with commercial recyclers, 39 percent of the tracked equipment was exported. Of the 46 tracked devices sent to Goodwill stores, seven (or 15 percent) were exported. This includes six (or 21 percent) of the 28 delivered to Dell Reconnect stores.