WASHINGTON, DC, September 18, 2008 (ENS) – U.S. hazardous waste regulations have not stopped exports of toxic used electronics to developing countries, partly because they are not being enforced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, finds a new report issued Wednesday by the investigative branch of Congress.

In the report commissioned by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Government Accountability Office says that in addition to the EPA’s poor enforcement performance, the regulations themselves are too limited to deal with the problem.

Obsolete CRT monitors awaiting export
from the United States. (Photo credit unknown)

The rules address only one type of electronics – the old-fashioned rectangular type of monitors called cathode ray tubes. CRTs are particularly harmful because they can contain as much as four pounds of lead, a known toxin.

But exports of other used electronics flow virtually unrestricted, even to countries where unsafe recycling practices can cause health and environmental problems. This happens, the GAO reports, because the existing hazardous waste regulations assess only how products will react in unlined U.S. landfills.

While more Americans are recycling old computers and more companies are taking them back for recycling, there is a “tsunami of CRTs coming that will end up in developing countries contaminating their land and waters,” said Jim Puckett of the nonprofit Basel Action Network, who first documented computer breaking in China in 2001.

“Thousands of laborers, former farmers were making $1 a day smashing, melting, cooking our old computers,” Puckett told reporters on a teleconference call about the GAO report on Wednesday.

“Whole villages were making their living burning little wires, cooking computer chips, beathing toxic fumes,” he said. “Vats of chips were soaked in acid to extract the gold and all the residues were flushed into the river.”

Woman cooking circuit boards over pool of
molten solder. Taizhou, China 2007. (Photo
© Stuart Isett courtesy Basel
Action Network)

When he returned to the same area last year, Puckett said the scene had expanded with many more workers breaking many more electronic devices.

He says that some of the lead recovered from these scrapped computers is returned to the United States in the form of toys and jewelry that can poison kids.

“We are hopeful that the GAO report will help us achieve a full ban on exporting toxic electronic waste to developing countries,” he said. “Then we can starting taking back and doing recycling.”

Federal legislation is needed, said Puckett, because the current patchwork of state laws and regulations is not effective, and under the Constitution states cannot regulate foreign trade. “They must punt on that and now they’re punting into a black hole,” he told reporters.

The average useful life of a computer is about two years. Americans dispose of at least 50 million computers a year or 3,000 tons each day, and millions more are stored in homes and corporate warehouses awaiting disposal. Each computer contains toxics such as lead, cadmium and mercury, which if disposed of improperly can harm people and the environment.

In January 2007, the EPA began regulating the export of CRTs under a rule that requires companies to notify the agency before exporting CRTs.

But companies easily circumvent this rule, GAO investigators found when they posed as foreign buyers of broken CRTs in Hong Kong, India and Pakistan, among other countries.

They identified 43 U.S. companies that expressed willingness to export these items. “Some of the companies, including ones that publicly tout their exemplary environmental practices, were willing to export CRTs in apparent violation of the CRT rule,” the report states.

Recent surveys made on behalf of the United Nations found that used electronics exported from the United States to many Asian countries are dismantled under unsafe conditions, using methods like open-air incineration and acid baths to extract metals such as copper and gold.

This boy was scavenging on a pile of broken
electronics at the Alaba market, Lagos, Nigeria.
2006. (Photo © Basel Action Network)

GAO observed thousands of requests for these items on e-commerce websites during a three month period, mostly from Asian countries such as China and India, but also from some in Africa.

“Some exported used electronics are handled responsibly in countries with effective regulatory controls and by companies with advanced technologies, but a substantial quantity ends up in countries where disposal practices are unsafe to workers and dangerous to the environment,” the GAO report states.

EPA officials acknowledged compliance problems with its CRT rule but said that because the rule is new, their focus was on educating the regulated community.

The GAO called this reasoning “misplaced” because investigators found so many exporters willing to engage in apparent violations of the CRT rule, even some who are aware of the rule.

The report faults the EPA for not assessing the extent of noncompliance. EPA officials told investigators they have neither plans nor a timetable to develop an enforcement program.

The GAO says hazardous waste regulations should be enforced and also expanded to include computers, printers, and cell phones.

To help make U.S. export controls more consistent with those of other industrialized countries, the GAO recommends that the United States ratify the Basel Convention, an international treaty governing the import and export of hazardous wastes.

Customs and other agencies need to improve identification and tracking of exported used electronics, the GAO recommends.

Congressman Gene Green, a Texas Democrat who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Environment and Hazardous Materials, told reporters on the teleconference that he considers the current EPA administration intransigent.

“The EPA is not as interested in doing what statutorily they should be on this and lots of other issues,” he said.

After the elections in November, said Green, “Whatever happens, we’re going to get ourselves a new EPA administrator.”

Congressman Mike Thompson, a California Democrat and founding member of the congressional E-Waste Working Group in 2005, said that when Congress reconvenes after the elections, “We’ll give a resonable time for a reconstituted working group to put something together, but if nothing emerges, then we’ll have to start from scratch.”

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SAN FRANCISCO, California, March 18, 2008 (ENS) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a federal complaint against Global Shipping and Global Marketing Systems, Inc. for distribution in commerce and export of materials containing PCBs on the old cruise liner MV Oceanic, formerly the SS Independence.

The ship is being sent by Global to be scrapped overseas, the EPA declared. The MV Pacific Hickory is towing the MV Oceanic to its final destination.

Fines against these two companies may be assessed up to $32,500 per violation per day.

“Federal law prohibits companies from exporting PCBs, including those in ships, that are sent overseas to be scrapped,” said Rich Vaille, associate director for waste program enforcement in the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “When companies illegally export PCB waste, they are circumventing U.S. requirements for proper disposal. PCB waste must be properly disposed to protect public health and the environment.”

A postcard shows the MV Oceanic
in her heyday as a cruise liner.
(Image courtesy BAN)

Global has 30 days to file an answer to the complaint to avoid a penalty assessment without a hearing.

“The EPA was not informed by Global of their intention to export the ship for disposal. The previous owners, Norwegian Cruise Lines, bought the ship through a wholly owned subsidiary with the intent to put it into service in the United States. The paperwork showing that Norwegian Cruise Lines had sold the vessel to Global was not submitted to the Maritime Administration until the ship had already sailed,” the EPA said.

The Basel Action Network, a global toxic trade watchdog organization based in the United States, in February alerted the EPA to the “quiet departure” of the Oceanic from San Francisco Bay on February 8 for the stated destination of Singapore.

“This sneaky export in Friday’s fog should never have happened as it is a blatant violation of the law,” said Jim Puckett, coordinator of the Basel Action Network. “Our laws prevent the export of PCBs either for commerce or disposal, and Singapore also is prohibited from importing this vessel from the U.S. under their international obligations. We demand that the U.S. government orders this renegade US flagged .hip returned to San Francisco at once,” he said.

Export of PCB materials from the United States is a violation of EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act, said Vaille. Vessels such as the MV Oceanic, which was built in the early 1950s, were commonly constructed with PCB-containing materials including cables, electrical equipment such as capacitors and transformers, watertight seal material, and painted surfaces.

More than 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs were manufactured in the United States before the EPA banned the production of this chemical class in 1978. EPA imposed the ban after tests showed that PCBs cause cancer in animals and adversely affect the nervous, immune, and endocrine systems in humans.

The Basel Action Network asserts that it is “almost a certainty” that the ship is headed for the ship-breaking beaches of Bangladesh or India. There, the environmental organization says, “massive profits can be made due to the high price of steel and because the ships will be dismantled by some of Asia’s poorest workers in horrific conditions without proper protective equipment and environmental safeguards being applied.”

“The motivation of gleaning gross profit from poisoning the poor is clear and the authorities in both the US and Singapore must cooperate to do everything possible to prevent this devastating and illegal outcome.” said Puckett. “This ship represents death and disease for unsuspecting Asian workers – it is a floating timebomb that must be returned at once and cleaned up.”

Meanwhile, preservation organizations say the rush to scrap vessels due to the recent high prices of metals is causing the rapid “extinction” of our last remaining classic liners. They are calling on the federal government to exercise the National Historic Preservation Act to save the the SS Independence, one of the last two such remaining vessels.

“This ship is a priceless historic monument that deserves to be preserved as a museum or hotel for the enjoyment and awe of generations to come,” said Erik James of Save the Classic Liners Campaign. “That should be her future, not one of death and destruction on the beaches of India.”

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SAN FRANCISCO, California, February 12, 2007 (ENS) – The global toxic trade watchdog organization, Basel Action Network, BAN, has contacted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Justice Department and the Government of Singapore to warn them that a breach of U.S. and international law is likely to have occurred with the towing on Friday of the ex-ocean liner, SS Independence from San Francisco toward Singapore.

According to BAN, a vessel of the type and vintage as the 68 year old SS Independence contains large quantities of hazardous materials such as polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, and asbestos. The export and import of these materials are prohibited under the laws of the United States and Singapore.

“This sneaky export in Friday’s fog should never have happened as it is a blatant violation of the law,” said Jim Puckett, coordinator of the Basel Action Network. “Our laws prevent the export of PCBs either for commerce or disposal, and Singapore also is prohibited from importing this vessel from the U.S. under their international obligations. We demand that the U.S. government orders this renegade U.S. flagged ship returned to San Francisco at once.”

The Toxics Substances Control Act forbids the export of PCB-contaminated material from the United States. Ships built in the 1950s contain large quantities of material with high concentrations of PCBs, Puckett says.

The Basel Convention, an international treaty controlling trade in toxic waste, prevents any country that is Party to the Convention such as Singapore, from trading in waste with any country that is not a Party to the Convention such as the United States. For this reason BAN is surprised that the US Coast Guard allowed the towing permits.

The SS Independence was launched on June 3, 1950 by American Export Lines. Designed by famous marine architect Henry Dreyfuss, in 1951 she began sailing on the company’s New York – Mediterranean itinerary.

In 1968, with the decline in transatlantic travel, the Independence was laid up at Baltimore. C.Y. Tung bought the idle liner in January 1974 for his Atlantic Far East Lines and renamed her Oceanic Independence. The ship was refitted for 950 passengers for cruising, which included a Portuguese charter out of Africa. However, she was laid up again in January 1976 at Hong Kong.

In 1979 American Hawaii Cruises (C.Y. Tung Group) was formed and the laid up Oceanic Independence was refitted in Japan for inter-island Hawaiian service. On June 21, 1980 she began seven day cruises, sailing Hawaiian waters. In August 1999, Independence began her 1000th Hawaiian cruise with American Hawaii Cruises under American Classic Voyages.

The SS Independence in Hawaiian
waters (Photo credit unknown)

She received “Ship Of The Year Award” for the year 2000 from the Steamship Historical Society of America in a gala week of celebration aboard the 50 year old liner.

American Classic Voyages declared bankruptcy in 2001 and the Independence stopped sailing and was laid up in San Francisco.

In 2003 Norwegian Cruise Lines bought the SS Independence and moved it to the former Mare Island Naval Base in Vallejo, California. She never cruised again.

In 2005 ownership was transferred to what Puckett believes to be “a shell company” known as California Manufacturing Corporation. Despite the name, the California Manufacturing Corporation is located in the same building as Star Cruises/NCL in Miami, Florida.

Citing the example of another old ship owned by NCL that was not refurbished but left on the beach at the shipbreaking complex in Alang, India, BAN asserts that that will be the fate of the Independence.

It is “almost a certainty that the SS Independence is headed for the breaking beaches of Bangladesh or India where massive profits can be made due to the high price of steel and because the ships will be dismantled by some of Asia’s poorest workers in horrific conditions without proper protective equipment and environmental safeguards being applied,” Puckett said.

As member organization of the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, a global coalition of human rights, environmental, public health, and labor organizations, Puckett says BAN will be “putting out a global alert on the ship SS Independence to ensure that countries turn back the vessel as illegal traffick in hazardous waste.”

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Up to 80% of the e-waste in the US is exported to impoverished companies, according to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition [svtc.etoxics.org] (SVTC), and this is a bad thing. Toxic components are either openly burned, soaked in acid baths and dumped into rivers, or piled into mountains of e-waste for scrap recovery, where workers, including children, smash leaded glass tubes, breathe lead solder fumes, and melt plastics with toxic flame retardants. The SVTC points to this video [svtc.etoxics.org], produced by Good magazine with help from the Basel Action Network [www.ban.org], for the harsh reality in moving pictures: it isn’t pretty. Though it’s been illegal to export e-waste to foreign countries since 1990, it still happens, but it doesn’t have to. Keep reading for a few ideas on keeping the e-waste from going too far and making a mess.

Perhaps the easiest thing to do is send stuff back to where you got it from: computer retailers. Though they’ve been a bit sketchy in the past, they’re quickly learning that responsible recycling is a must, and that transparency is the key to solid business. Dell [www.dell.com] offers both donation and recycling options, and will take any old computer, regardless if it’s a Dell or not. They’re working from the EU’s WEEE Directive and is “engaged in the development of country-specific implementation schemes to comply with the national WEEE laws” — in short, they’re still working it out, but are headed in the right direction. Hewlett-Packard [www.hp.com] also offers a variety of services that includes any brand of computer (in most countries), HP printer cartridges, rechargeable batteries and cell phones, and they also have some non-recycling alternatives [www.hp.com]. Apple [www.apple.com], which recently updated its environmental policies [www.apple.com], offers free recycling [www.apple.com] with a purchase (and a 10% discount when trading in an old iPod for a new one) as well as a trade-in program for educational and business customers in the US.

If that won’t work for you, check out the list of qualified recyclers that’s part of the Computer Take Back Campaign [www.computertakeback.com], which have qualified recyclers in most of the 50 states. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) eCycling [www.epa.gov] program has lots of stats, info and resources to learn more about how to best deal with e-waste, including little nuggets like “computer monitors and older TV picture tubes contain an average of four pounds of lead” — yikes! Check out their sections on basic information [www.epa.gov] and frequent questions [www.epa.gov], and, to get really geeky, have a look at the regulations and standards [www.epa.gov] for disposing of the stuff. To find a reputable private recycler, pick from a list of organizations who have taken the Electronics Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship [www.ban.org] [PDF] from the Basel Action Network [www.ban.org]. If your machine still functions (and not just as a paperweight), then seeing that it is reused is perhaps the best option. Companies like RetroBox [www.retrobox.com] and FreeGeek [www.freegeek.org] build computers out of salvaged parts; the latter has a list of like-minded organizations [www.freegeek.org] that can be a good starting place for recycling or reusing your machine. eBay’s Rethink Initiative [rethink.ebay.com] “brings together industry, government and environmental organizations to offer a fresh perspective and new answers to the challenge of e-waste”, and even can help you earn some cash for finding your old electronics a new home. With all of these options, there’s no reason your old electronics should end up as e-waste; stay tuned tomorrow for ideas to avoid ever having to deal with the stuff again.