inkbluesky

zanskar river India

The Zanskar is a tributary of the Indus river. I don’t want to get into the arcane debates over territory in India, but technically speaking, for today anyway, Zanskar in actually in the Indian administered area of Kashmir.

How First-World Garbage Makes Africans Sick

Investigators are still trying to identify the source of the petrochemical waste that was dumped in Abidjan. The chances are that it will be traced to Europe. But each year, the United States exports hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous waste to other countries—and it is possible that much more is exported illicitly. (Spot inspections at European ports in 2005 found that 47 percent of all waste being exported was being done so illegally.) The United States also exports between 50 percent and 80 percent of its so-called e-waste—used computers, televisions, cell phones, and other electronics. Most of these discarded electronic items—amounting to millions of tons per year—end up in developing countries in Asia and Africa, where they are supposed to be refurbished or recycled. Instead, more often than not, they are simply dumped or burned, releasing potentially dangerous amounts of lead, cadmium, mercury, and other dangerous elements into the air or the ground. Pollution from e-waste originating in the United States and other rich nations has been linked to unsafe conditions in cities in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nigeria.

Most of us have heard about the recycling programs. Some third world countries would supposedly take our trash, recycle it, create jobs while doing the rest of the world a big favor. Still it might be a over reaction to ban the export of that waste completely. If stronger safeguards were in place, the stuff that was being shipped was actually recyclable, and then at the end of the chain was actually recycled it would create jobs and take some burden off the domestic waste industry which can’t seem to keep up anyway. It seems to be one of those fairly good ideas that isn’t working because of corruption and laziness.

Finally, Washington could support innovative solutions to the problems posed by hazardous waste, such as forcing computer and electronics manufacturers to incorporate the cost of recycling into the price they charge consumers (essentially a recycling tax), similar to the fees some states charge for recycling cans and bottles. Currently, some manufacturers and retailers encourage consumers to ship obsolete products back to them for recycling, but the consumer usually must pay at least $30 for the service, as well as shipping costs.

Until Washington is willing to take a leadership role on the international trade in hazardous waste, it’s likely that many more people in the developing world, like those in Ivory Coast, will end up sickened by our exported garbage. And some day, you might even read about it in the news.