In recent weeks I’ve used this soapbox to question the validity of recycling figures, basing my concern on often-unsubstantiated data on the ultimate fate of materials shipped to offshore markets. Now, it seems, people elsewhere share a similar concern, as reported in the March 18, 2010, Waste Management World’s E-Newsletter:
A new study commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) in Germany has shown that more than 155,000 tonnes of WEEE are exported to non-European destinations every year. This figure includes 50,000 tonnes of PC and television monitors which include metals such as the hazardous polybrominated diphenyl ether (PentaBDE). Quite often broken or faulty equipment is being classified as “functional” before being shipped to Asia or Africa.
Federal Minister for Environment Dr. Norbert Röttgen said, “The study illustrates the scale of illegal export of WEEE while also pointing out that further measures to solve the problem are necessary. The Federal government is calling for a decisive regulation at the European level by which exporters must provide proof that exported devices are in working order and not in fact waste, and for exporters to bear the costs of periodic checks.”
“Not only do many hazardous materials leave the country in used electronic equipment, but valuable raw materials such as gold, copper, platinum or indium are also exiting the raw materials cycle here at home,” said UBA President Jochen Flasbarth. “As long as ecological recycling is technically and satisfactorily possible in Europe or similar regions only, equipment and its components should be reused here. It makes economic sense to recycle valuable raw materials appropriately, especially many metals, considering the rise in global market prices.”
The UBA also appealed for the continued improvement of recycling standards in Asia and Africa, and the ecological design of new electric and electronic products by manufacturers. The 18-month study by experts from the Hamburg Institute for Environmental Strategies has produced the most information on the origin and volume of exported devices to date. The findings will be forwarded to affected stakeholders, municipal organizations, environmental and economic associations and the European Commission.
What makes this all the more pertinent to the overall discussion is that the materials under discussion represent a fraction of the whole, despite the fact that Germany, as many European nations, converts a large percentage of its wastes to energy through a variety of processes.
The underlying message in the report—the rise in global market prices—offers an even greater incentive to increase onshore processing capabilities for a broad range of materials as an antidote to unsustainability.