Residents of North and South Carolina can no longer toss their old laptops, flat-screen TVs or a host of other unwanted gadgets out with the trash starting Friday. The Carolinas join a growing list of state and local governments that have adopted recycling rules aimed at curbing the health and environmental hazards of discarded electronics.
The move comes on the heels of a federal bill proposed last week, H.R. 2284, that would further mandate that electronics recycling does not occur in developing countries where lagging disassembly methods expose impoverished people — often children — to potentially toxic levels of lead, mercury and other chemicals.
“Each year, millions of tons of electronics equipment are discarded in the U.S. and shipped to developing nations for unsafe salvage and recovery,” Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif), a bill cosponsor, said in a statement. “By carefully regulating the export of e-waste, this bipartisan legislation takes concrete steps to address a growing environmental and health crisis while creating good-paying recycling jobs here in the U.S.”
E-waste is the fastest-growing category of municipal waste in the U.S., and more than 80 percent of that waste ends up in landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Meanwhile, an estimated 50 percent to 80 percent of the remaining material — collected for recycling — is exported to China, India and other developing countries in Asia and Africa.
“Both the people handling e-waste and those living nearby may be exposed,” explained Dr. Aimin Chen of the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Environmental Health, who recently led a study on the emerging concern of developmental neurotoxins in e-waste. “Where there aren’t environmental controls, there have been reports of high levels of chemicals in air, soil, dust and water.”
What’s more, he added, unlike leaded gasoline or paint, the mix of pollutants in any one device may interact, causing more harm than any one chemical would alone. E-waste also appears to pose serious respiratory and immunologic risks.
Source: HUFFPOST GREEN
By Lynne Peeples