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Throwing an object in a recycling bin usually makes us feel responsible and environmentally conscious. The cell phone recycling program at Lowell, sponsored by LG Mobile, seems like nothing more than a good-intentioned effort to help the environment, but throwing an old cell phone in a bin is more than a simple, environmentally-friendly act. Students should remember to reduce and reuse before recycling.
The motto of the electronics age is that newer is better. Companies constantly update their products, rendering new products obsolete only months after they are released. The pace at which electronics are updated produces tons of e-waste, which contains toxic chemicals and presents a threat to the environment. In a 60 Minutes episode called “The Wasteland,” which first aired on November 9, 2008, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Allen Hershkowitz, said “e-waste is the fastest growing component of the municipal waste stream worldwide.” 130,000 computers are thrown out each day in the United States alone, while around 100 million cell phones are disposed of yearly, according to Hershkowitz.
Although the United States boasts state-of-the-art facilities that can properly recycle electronics, electronic garbage is sometimes illegally shipped abroad to be processed, according to 60 Minutes.
One such recipient of American e-waste is a village in Southern China called Guiyu. Although the businessmen who profit from the recycling process in Guiyu keep the recycling process confidential, reporter Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes managed to smuggle in a camera crew. “The Wasteland” revealed women heating circuit boards over coal fires to remove computer chips and lead while men used primitive acid techniques to obtain gold. The water is so polluted that drinking water must be trucked in. Guiyu has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world, and 70 percent of the children have too much lead in their blood. Materials like lead, as well as mercury, cadmium and chromium that are contained in electronics can cause brain damage, kidney disease and cancer, according to Hershkowitz.
Despite the health effects, workers gravitate towards the recycling jobs because of the relatively high pay. As one source on the 60 Minutes episode pointed out, “It’s a hell of a choice between poverty and poison. We should never make people make that choice.”
Unfortunately, the Government Accountability Office estimated that 42 American companies are willing to illegally ship their electronic waste to China. Some of these companies even advertise that they recycle products domestically. Executive Recycling of Englewood, Colorado promised on its website, “Your e-waste is recycled properly, right here in the U.S. — not simply dumped on somebody else.” However, Pelley’s camera crew tracked an Executive Recycling box full of lead-laden Cathode ray tube screens to Washington state, where they were shipped to Hong Kong.
I commend companies for promoting “green practices,” a marketing scheme which has become attractive in our increasingly environmentally-conscious world. In no way do I wish to criticize LG for sponsoring an electronics recycling program. In fact, on LG’s website, they state that Waste Management, a waste and environmental services company, “will collect LG-brand products, transport them to one of their U.S. regional recycling centers and break the product down into saleable commodities such as plastics, metals and glass.”
However, the fact that a major cell-phone manufacturer is sponsoring the program raises the question of whether LG’s primary concern is to promote conservation. LG’s website states that “recycling programs … provide incentives to manufacturers … to design their products to be more easily recycled.” Of course, this is a commendable act on the part of an electronics manufacturer. However, as products become increasingly glorified for their “disposability,” it undermines the purpose of creating recyclable products because it encourages their disposal rather than their longevity.
Even if electronics are being recycled correctly, we can do better by reducing the need to recycle. Haven’t we been taught that reducing our waste and reusing products take precedence over recycling them? A fully functioning electronic device is not worth recycling while still in good condition, especially when the recycling process can have a harmful effect on foreign workers if shipped abroad. When your cell phone starts to smoke or sizzle, then go ahead and throw it in it that recycling bin.
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