Transcript Negative Environmental Aspects of IT Waste
Some Negative Environmental Aspects of IT Waste: Trade in E-Waste
by Thomas Ruddy EMPA Swiss Federal Labs for Materials Testing and Research, St.Gall, Sustainable Info. Tech. Unit
http://www.empa.ch/sit Disclaimer: opinions are those of the author, not nesessarily those of his employer.
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Overview
• •
Benefits
of trade in used IT equipment
Risks
of trade in used IT equipment, 1 of 3 • America, the free rider • Attempts at regulatory control on different levels [email protected]
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Personal introduction
• Organizer of a workshop at the International Symposium “Informatics for Environmental Protection“ IEP ‘01, Zurich, and chronologist of the global digital divide, contributor to the LSE Global Yearbook of Civil Society,
http://www.hsw.fhso.ch/ruddy/Workshop_2.htm
– IEP ‘04 will take place in Geneva.
• Hence the claim as to whether there are potential benefits to help bridge the digital divide is undisputed. Let us now look at some of the risks… [email protected]
3
Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) the “Basel Convention“
• Convenor and Webmaster of “The Environment and ICT“ Content Group at WSIS,
http://www.wsis.ethz.ch
• One of our tenets is derived from the United Nations‘ Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) the “Basel Convention“ on Toxic Waste • Recently attended its 6th Conference of the Parties (COP) • Let me share with you 2 experiences from that COP....
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Unwanted Gifts
• • • • Uganda minister complained about e-waste A friend of mine had been distributing used computers through his NGO “Uganda Connect”.
I put them in touch with one another to sort out: 1. the useful gifts from 2. the computers soon to become end-of-useful-life scrap.
A general suggestion proposed there: need for a
certification agency
to distinguish 1. (above) from 2. [email protected]
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Who invites whom?
• WTO invited us to its side-event.
• It reported on inviting the MEA Basel Convention to discuss compatibility with trade regime.
• Jim Puckett of
http://www.ban.org
asked why shouldn’t the invitation have been
vice versa
?
Why shouldn’t it be the
MEA that invites the WTO regime
to discuss compatibility? • WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism is binding for 144 member countries.
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Regime incompatibilities
• Trade regime – based on principles of ‘
non
discrimination’ • MEA regime - based on rights to discriminate goods by: – the Production and Process Methods (PPM) used, e.g. tuna/dolphin case, and – ‘safeguards’, e.g. for health reasons – ‘Precautionary principle’ which party bears duty to proof? case of solder containing lead in motherboards [email protected]
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Compatibility due to improve
• ‘ At the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001, Ministers agreed to start negotiations on specific issues relating to the trade and environment linkage, ’
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/envir _e/envir_e.htm
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America, the free rider
• Noncompliance with the “Basel Convention“ by the free rider USA • 80% of US recycled computers land in Asia according to the NGO “Basel Action Network“ in San Francisco,
http://www.ban.org
• However the “recycling“ there is not environmentally friendly, but rather a source of pollution for the populace.
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Levels of attempts to regulate exports
• Just as the Basel Convention is a
multi
lateral attempt regulating export from the OECD countries….
• …the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive of the European Union is a regional, or
pluri
lateral attempt; • And Switzerland has an exemplary
national
attempt, SWICO. It levies a recycling fee at purchase.
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