GreenCitizen

Greening the Media

2012-01-02T14:21:00.000-08:00

Just got the proofs to my book with Rick Maxwell, due out in April

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/AmericanPolitics/ScienceTechnologyEnvironmentalPo/?view=usa&ci=9780195325201

GOOD NEWS ON THE POWER UTILIZATION OF TVs

2011-07-29T06:05:00.001-07:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/29/flat-screen-tv-electricity

VITAL NEW REPORT

2011-07-20T16:01:00.001-07:00

HERE IS A LINK TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY'S NEW REPORT ON E-WASTE

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/taskforce/docs/strategy.pdf

IMPORTANT NEW U.S. LEGISLATION

2011-06-23T11:57:00.001-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

E-Waste Export Bill to Stop Global E-Waste Dumping & Boost Green Jobs

Environmental, Bipartisan and Industry Support

(Washington, DC, June 23, 2011) U.S. Representatives Gene Green (D-TX) and Mike Thompson (D-CA) yesterday introduced new legislation – the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act - to stop sham U.S. “recyclers” from dumping electronic waste on developing countries and to promote recycling jobs at home. The bill is supported by environmental groups as well as electronic manufacturers (Dell, HP, Samsung, Apple, and Best Buy), all of which already have policies that prohibit the export of e-waste to developing nations. The bill also has bipartisan support, including sponsors Reps. Steven LaTourette (R-OH) and Lee Terry (R-NE).

“This is the most important step our federal government can take to solve the e-waste problem – to close the door on e-waste dumping on developing countries,” said Barbara Kyle, National Coordinator of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, a national environmental coalition which promotes responsible recycling of e-waste. “It will bring recycling jobs back to the U.S.”

The bill addresses the toxic exposures caused by e-waste dumping and primitive recycling operations in countries like China, India, Nigeria, Ghana, which have the subject of recent media exposés, and a scathing report by the U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO).

“The States have been passing laws that are already increasing the amount of e-waste collected for recycling, instead of land-filling,” said Kate Sinding, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Unfortunately, these laws can’t stop recyclers from simply sending our e-waste – and our jobs - to developing nations where improper handling threatens health and the environment. But Congress can.”

Twenty five states have passed e-waste recycling legislation, but these laws do not ban e-waste exports, which is an international trade issue, and not the constitutional jurisdiction of the states. Only Congress has the authority to legislate this much needed restriction.

“This bill accomplishes two things: first, it prevents hazardous material from being shipped where it will be mishandled and cause health and environmental damage; and second, it is a green jobs bill and will create work here in the U.S., processing these used products in safe ways,” said U.S. Representative Gene Green (D-TX). “I applaud HP for leading on this issue and their responsible recycling.”

“Each year, millions of tons of electronics equipment are discarded in the U.S. and shipped to developing nations for unsafe salvage and recovery,” said U.S. Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA). “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.”

Currently, electronic waste is exported to developing countries by many U.S. companies that claim to be recyclers, to be bashed, burned, flushed with acids, and melted down in unsafe conditions in developing countries. Eighty percent of children in Guiyu, China, a region where many “recycled” electronics wind up, have elevated levels of lead in their blood, due to the toxins in those electronics, much of which originates in the U.S. The plastics in the imported electronics are typically burned outdoors, which can emit deadly dioxin or furans, which are breathed in by workers and nearby residents.

“As an industry leader in product lifecycle improvements, HP does not allow the export of e-waste from developed countries to developing countries. We support the work of Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) to pass the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, and we encourage other companies to join the effort and promote responsible recycling,” said Ashley Watson, Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for HP.
The bill establishes a new category of “restricted electronic waste” which cannot be exported from the U.S. to developing nations. Used equipment can still be exported for reuse as long as it’s been tested and is fully functional. Non-hazardous parts or materials are also not restricted. Other exemptions from the restrictions are:
• products under warranty being returned to the manufacturer for warranty repairs;
• products or parts being recalled; and
• crushed cathode ray tube (CRT) glass cullet that is cleaned and fully prepared as feedstock into CRT glass manufacturing facilities

“Not only is this bill good for the environment, but it gives a boost to small business recyclers and creates more green jobs. This is what both the industry and our customers want,” said Dewayne Burns, CEO, eSCO Processing and Recycling.
Similar legislation was introduced in the House in September of 2010, but it was too late in the Congressional session for the bill to advance. This time, the bill has added a provision for research into recycling and recovery of Rare Earth Metals from electronics. Export of electronics scrap to crude recycling operations in developing countries also prevents proper collection and recycling of precious and strategic metals.

“This bill is both a boon to the health of our environment and our U.S. economy. With it, we stop squandering critical metals resources, stop poisoning children and we create good recycling industry jobs in the USA at the same time,” said Jim Puckett, Executive Director of the Basel Action Network.

IMPORTANT POST FROM ELIZABETH GROSSMAN IN YALE360

2011-06-13T06:42:00.001-07:00

Report
Toxics in the ‘Clean Rooms’:
Are Samsung Workers at Risk?
Workers groups in South Korea report an unusually high incidence of cancers and other serious diseases among employees at Samsung’s semiconductor and other electronics plants. While the company denies any link, the pattern of illnesses is disturbingly similar to that seen at semiconductor facilities in the U.S. and Europe.
by elizabeth grossman

To experts in health issues relating to high-tech electronics workers, the story emerging from Samsung’s manufacturing plants in South Korea is distressingly familiar: An unusually high incidence of leukemia, lymphoma, brain cancer, and other serious diseases appears to exist among relatively young people who have worked in Samsung’s semiconductor and other chemically-intensive manufacturing plants. While direct cause and effect are difficult to prove, the South Korea situation presents striking similarities to patterns of illness seen at semiconductor plants in the United States and elsewhere in decades past.

In 2007, a 22-year-old woman named Yu-mi Hwang, who had worked at Samsung’s Giheung semiconductor plant while still in high school, died of leukemia. A year later, a 30-year-old woman who shared a workstation with Yu-mi died, also of leukemia. In March 2010, a 23-year-old woman named Park Ji-Yeon, who had worked at Samsung’s On-Yang semiconductor plant since 2004, also died of leukemia, three years after her diagnosis. In 2005, a 27-year old woman named Han Hae-kyoung, who had worked in a Samsung LCD plant since 1995, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and is now seriously disabled. Another woman, Lee Yoon-jeong, who worked for Samsung in semiconductor production between 1997 and 2003, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2010 at age 30. As of March 2011, Korean labor and occupational health activists have counted 120 such cases of severe illnesses and 46 resulting fatalities among Samsung workers.

South Korea Samsung Factory
CHOI JAE-KU/AFP/Getty Images
A production line employee assembles an LCD TV at a Samsung plant in Suwon, South Korea.
According to Dr. Jeong-ok Kong, an occupational health physician who has tracked these cases for the Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health (KILSH) and other nonprofit organizations, most of the workers who have become ill with serious diseases that could be linked to their jobs worked in Samsung’s semiconductor plants. Initial studies by KILSH and an organization known as SHARPS (Supporters of Health and Rights of People in the Semiconductor Industry) have found 74 people who worked in Samsung semiconductor plants and became seriously ill; at least 26 of them have died. Fifteen additional workers who worked in LCD plants became seriously ill with these diseases, and at least five of them have died, according to Kong; three others worked in cell phone plants, and two of them have died.

“The victims we have been finding are concentrated in several ‘old’ and manual facilities,” said Kong, whose work on behalf of electronics-industry workers won a 2010 American Public Health Association Occupational Health and Safety Section Award.

“SHARPS began collecting information on these cases in 2007, but the victims have work histories that go back before 2000,” said Kong, speaking by phone from South Korea. Most of the workers known to SHARPS to have become ill were born in the 1980s and 1990s. Many were diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses in their 20s and 30s, many within well under ten years of beginning work at Samsung. Kong said similar illnesses were now being reported by workers at other Korean electronics firms.

Samsung, one of the world’s four largest electronics manufacturers, ranks among the top 40 companies on the Fortune 500 and is the largest company in South Korea. With its products accounting for about one-fifth of the nation’s exports, Samsung is extremely powerful in South Korea,

Many of the workers were diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses less than 10 years after starting at Samsung.

with more than $172 billion in sales in 2010. In addition to its extensive electronics businesses, the Samsung Group includes chemical manufacturing, heavy industry and construction, financial services (including life insurance and a credit card business), hotels, resorts, and a medical center. Samsung Electronics’ 2009-2010 sustainability report lists 157,701 employees, 80,115 of whom are listed in the “production” sector in South Korea; but it does not list how many work directly in manufacturing operations.

According to Kong, despite repeated requests by SHARPS, the Korean Ministry of Labor has not made available information showing how many Samsung employees work in manufacturing operations vs. white collar jobs; Samsung has also not provided such information. That these numbers are not public is not surprising as such details have also not been available at the initiation of epidemiological studies of the semiconductor industry in the U.S. and the UK. But it means there is no available count of the number of Samsung employees who work directly in jobs that would expose them to hazardous chemicals, which complicates efforts to establish the significance of the reported cancers and other serious illnesses.

The Samsung workers diagnosed with serious illnesses that may be linked to their employment worked in a variety of operations, according to Kong. Some worked on printed circuit boards for LCD screens; others worked in various aspects of semiconductor fabrication, including chip burning (a process that tests semiconductors by subjecting them to high heat and voltage), ion implantation, and using x-rays to check the quality of chips. While there is a lack of firmly verifiable data about the identity of all the substances used in these processes, what is known is that they involve dozens of chemicals that include organic solvents, among them benzene, and heavy metals, including lead.

Kong protest
Image from YouTube
Dr. Jeong-ok Kong has been an outspoken health advocate for electronics industry workers in South Korea.
Benzene and other volatile organic compounds used widely in semiconductor and other electronics manufacturing also include trichloroethylene (TCE) and methylene chloride, which are associated with cancer and nervous system damage and are also known to affect developing embryos. Benzene is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a confirmed human carcinogen. It is known to cause leukemia and dangerous blood disorders including aplastic anemia and thrombocytopenia, a disease that interferes with blood-clotting, from which at least one Samsung worker is suffering. Benzene is also known to cause cerebral edema and kidney disorders. Exposure to TCE has also been linked to elevated levels of certain cancers, including brain cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma. Lead, mercury, and other metals used commonly in semiconductor and other electronics manufacturing are known neurotoxicants. Arsenic, also used widely in electronics production processes, is toxic to blood cells and carcinogenic.

Most of these processes involving hazardous chemicals take place in so-called “clean rooms” — manufacturing facilities where the enclosed environment is engineered to remove dust and other particles that can damage sensitive equipment such as semiconductor chips and other high-tech components. What makes this potentially significant is that air in clean rooms re-circulates rapidly. This keeps dust and other particles away from sensitive equipment and products. (Those head-to-toe coveralls known as “bunny-suits” were designed to protect microchips et al. — rather than workers — from contaminants.)

Yet this recirculation of air also increases the rate at which workers breathe chemicals and the number of workers exposed, explained Joseph LaDou, former director of the International Center for Occupational Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. When the air circulates rapidly in the clean room’s enclosed environment, the effectiveness of any hoods or filters are diminished, he explained. “In an 8-hour shift — or the longer shifts worked in Asia — clean room workers are breathing a cauldron of chemicals,” said LaDou. And when it comes to any protective standards, “there is no regulation for exposure to groups of chemicals or circulating exposure,” he noted.

“The cases at Samsung fit a pattern of what we saw in the IBM study,” said Richard Clapp, Boston University professor emeritus of environmental health and epidemiologist who conducted an epidemiological study of cancer and death rates among IBM workers between 1969 and 2001 that

A U.S. epidemiologist says the cases at Samsung ‘fit a pattern’ of what was seen in a study of IBM workers.

found elevated rates of blood, brain, lymphatic, and other cancers among workers likely exposed to manufacturing chemicals.

Said Amanda Hawes, an attorney based in San Jose, Calif., who specializes in occupational health issues related to chemical exposure: “What’s being seen at Samsung is comparable to other situations where there’s been an excess of lymphoma and leukemia incidence among workers (particularly women) working in mixed chemical environments with solvents.” Hawes has represented former IBM workers in lawsuits involving chemical exposure. (IBM has settled a number of such cases out of court.)

According to Samsung, studies conducted in 2007 and 2008 by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency and a private consulting team found no correlation between the workplace environment and employee illnesses. “Nevertheless,” Reuben Staines, of Samsung’s corporate communications team in Seoul, wrote in an email, “Samsung Electronics has commissioned an additional independent third-party review, which began in July of last year.” This review is being conducted by a team led by Environ International, a private consultancy, and its work will be reviewed by a panel that includes experts from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Michigan, and other institutions. “The inspection team has been and continues to be given complete access to Samsung’s semiconductor manufacturing facilities,” wrote Staines. Samsung says it will “carefully review” the Environ findings and “make any necessary changes to our environmental safety and health infrastructure and procedures.”

In December 2010, four Korean NGOs that have been working with SHARPS and labor groups issued a critique of a report released last fall into conditions at Samsung’s semiconductor fabrication plants. The report, known as the “Advisory Report” and overseen by Seoul National University, “found no instances of regulatory breaches in our manufacturing operations,” says Samsung. However, the NGOs say the report failed to account for all the chemicals used in the various production lines (some apparently use as many as 99 different chemicals) or to fully account for how chemicals have been managed – lapses they contend include safety and monitoring equipment failures and leaks. The NGO critique also notes that both the Advisory Report and a 2006 assessment by the Korean Institute for Environment Hygiene and Safety cautioned about the potential for exposure to highly concentrated toxic chemicals despite proper operating procedures.

Samsung has taken issue with SHARPS’ assessment of workers’ health and with the critique, calling the NGO account “inaccurate and misleading” and one that “cannot be viewed as a credible epidemiological study.” One criticism is that the NGO document includes illnesses outside of the semiconductor business. Rather than the 120 cases counted by SHARPS, Samsung says it “is aware of 22 cases of leukemia or lymphoma among all

Samsung says it will ‘carefully review’ an ongoing study and make any necessary changes in procedures.

workers employed in its semiconductor business from 1998 through April 2010. Among these cases, we are aware of 10 former employees who have passed away as a result of their illnesses.”

“Samsung maintains a world-class environment, health, and safety infrastructure,” wrote Staines, “and we continually make improvements and enhancements to ensure that it is state-of-the-art. We make these ongoing investments in the normal course of business, which includes careful review and implementation of recommendations that are presented to us through credible research.”

Samsung’s findings thus far mirror what the semiconductor industry has found in its investigations undertaken in response to revelations of comparable illnesses in similar circumstances in the U.K. and the U.S. While academic epidemiologists have found higher than expected incidences of cancers among semiconductor workers based on records from National Semiconductor in Scotland and from IBM in the U.S., the companies involved and the Semiconductor Industry Association have maintained that these studies are scientifically flawed and that there is no proof of a connection between chemical exposures and these illnesses. In 2008, the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) launched a study of cancer incidence among 28,000 former New York State IBM electronics plant workers, but it does not yet have any preliminary results.

In South Korea, two lawsuits brought on behalf of sickened Samsung workers against the Korea Workers Compensation and Welfare Service are now pending. The workers are suing the government agency for denying their compensation claims against Samsung. (In Korea, the government collects workers compensation funds from employers, adjudicates, and pays out claims.) One suit has been brought on behalf of six workers, five suffering from leukemia and one from lymphoma; the other, begun in 2011, is on behalf of four workers suffering from different diseases that include brain cancer. “It is important to note that Samsung is an interested party but not a defendant in this lawsuit,” wrote Staines.

MORE FROM YALE e360

From the Fields to Inner City,
Pesticides May Affect Kids’ IQ
From the Fields to Inner City, Pesticides Affect Children’s IQ
Scientists studying the effects of prenatal exposure to pesticides on the cognitive abilities of children have come to a troubling conclusion: Whether pregnant mothers are exposed in California fields or New York apartments, the chemicals appear to impair their children’s mental abilities.
READ MORE
Staines also noted that Samsung “has strengthened its support programs for employees who have developed serious illnesses” and that “the company is committed to providing support for hospital expenses and living expenses.” The Environ report commissioned by Samsung is due this summer.

In a May 31 email, Kong said that she had just met with the family of another leukemia victim who had worked in a semiconductor factory and was diagnosed at age 37, having worked in electronics plants for 14 years. “He had told his wife to go and meet me when he cannot overcome the cancer,” Kong wrote, “So his wife called me and we met.”

These illnesses — the blood cancers, lymphomas and nervous system and other blood diseases — are all symptomatic of solvent exposure, according to Hawes. These cases are “a red flag,” says Clapp. “If you want to find a cause for these illnesses, this is where you’d go to look.”

POSTED ON 09 Jun 2011 IN

elizabeth grossman ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Grossman is the author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health, and other books. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Salon, The Washington Post, The Nation, Mother Jones, Grist, and other publications. In earlier articles for Yale e360, she explored how the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster could affect marine life off the Japanese coast and reported on recent studies suggesting a possible link between prenatal exposure to pesticides and the mental abilities of children.
MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

© 2010

BIG-TIME MADNESS

2011-06-08T21:54:00.000-07:00

CORPORATE CAPITALISM 101

E-waste management 'not financially attractive'
Jamie Yap, ZDNet Asia on June 8th, 2011 (17 hours 11 minutes ago)

Disposing e-waste is not high up enterprises' priority lists because responsible management is not "financially attractive", said an industry watcher. Others say strong regulation and consumer demand for sustainable products needed.

According to David Moschella, global research director at CSC, a research and advisory firm, companies are not taking the e-waste issue seriously enough as most would hire a third-party to manage e-waste disposal for them.

Moreover, the issue of tackling rising volumes of obsolete, toxic-spilling electronic equipment possibly disposed illegally or unethically is "something vendors would rather not call attention to", he said in his e-mail.

Moschella said the e-waste problem will "absolutely" get worse in the short run because of the rising volumes of devices being built and disposed of. Unrecyclable parts, toxicity, time and costs incurred, and low public awareness all pose challenges to businesses' e-waste management, he added.

In the end, "being responsible is not financially attractive" for most companies as the costs of proper e-waste management often outweigh the benefits, he said.

Tom Dowdall, climate and energy campaigner at environment watchdog Greenpeace, disagreed and said in an e-mail that businesses would take e-waste seriously because reusing and recycling materials can reduce raw materials costs.

In addition, regulation such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive in the European Union, which stipulates collection and recycling targets of all electronic devices, make producers accountable for the costs of e-waste they produce, he noted.

Dowdall also pointed to Greenpeace's Toxic Tech campaign in 2005, which helped push companies to improve recycling services and change designs to make their products more reusable and recyclable. Lead and other heavy metals push recycling prices up too, which is why Greenpeace is campaigning for companies to phase out these materials from their products, he added.

Low public awareness
Besides grappling with financial implications, lack of public awareness is also hampering e-waste management efforts.

Francis Cheong, senior sustainability manager for Southeast Asia-Pacific at Nokia, argued that the main challenge with regard to e-waste is getting more people to recycle their devices. His observation stemmed from a 2008 internal consumer survey which found that 44 percent of old mobile phones are not being recycled.

He said there still is "a lot to be done" in terms of education and awareness. Nokia, for one, is working with external stakeholder such as business partners, schools and non-profit organizations to spread the mobile phone recycling message and participating in national green campaigns, he pointed out in his e-mail.

One example is how the Finnish phonemaker makes it convenient for customers to drop off their unwanted mobile phones and accessories at its Care Center, of which there are over 200 such facilities in Southeast Asia, Cheong pointed out.

He added that it also started an initiative with Singapore telco SingTel which allows customers to ask for recycling envelopes from shop outlets to drop off their unwanted used phones.

Electronics giant Panasonic commits to better e-waste management by assessing the environment impact of its product, from manufacturing to its end of life and being a "recycling-oriented manufacturer", said Low Beng Huat, general manager of Panasonic Asia-Pacific's regional planning and affairs group.

Asked if there are benefits to having proper e-waste management, he said having such processes help in protecting and conserving the environment, as well as reduce the company's dependence on virgin materials which helps, in turn, to lower the total costs of materials.

A shared responsibility
For a "successful and effective e-waste management system" to work though, Low said there must be defined responsibilities among key stakeholders. These include governments, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. There must also be infrastructure in place to carry out recycling activities, he added.

Greenpeace's Dowdall agreed, saying that a long-term solution needs to be a combination of "progressive action from companies" to produce sustainable products, strong regulations which makes companies accountable for products over the whole lifestyle, and growing consumer awareness and demand for sustainable products.
URL:http://www.zdnetasia.com/e-waste-management-not-financially-attractive-62300635.htm

PRIZE-WINNING RADIO PROGRAM

2011-05-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

Koula Hassid kindly sent me this link

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/360/stories/2011/3206745.htm Children of Sodom and Gomorrah

Toby

APPLE YET AGAIN THE PROBLEM

2011-04-21T09:45:00.001-07:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/21/apple-least-green-tech-company/print

IMPORTANT WEB GROUP

2011-04-21T08:33:00.001-07:00

http://www.womensvoices.org/

NEW FOX SOLAR FACILITIY

2011-03-02T07:12:00.000-08:00

Solar Power Inc. installs PV array on movie studio
Chris Meehan

Feb 28, 2011

The spotlight shining on actors shooting movies at Twentieth Century Fox Film’s historic Building 99 is powered by the sun thanks to a new photovoltaic array on its roof. On Feb. 22 Solar Power, Inc. (OTCBB: SOPW) said it completed the installation of a 160-kilowatt photovoltaic array.

It’s just the latest effort of parent company, New Corp.’s (NASDAQ: NWS), larger sustainability campaign dubbed the Global Energy Initiative.

Solar Power Inc. installed the system using its SkyMount racking system. The racking system is unique in that it’s adaptable to various rooftops with minimal rooftop penetration. And it was able to conform to the barrel-shaped roof of the building, according to a Solar Power case study of the system.

The Twentieth Century Fox Film solar installation was designed to provide power for onsite use.

“It’s behind the meter, used to power onsite needs and reduce the amount of electricity they get off the meter,” said Solar Power, Inc. Vice President of Marketing Mike Anderson. He wasn’t sure what percentage of power consumed at the Fox Film site would come from the array. “I can tell you it’s not offsetting all their power, just a portion.”

At present, this is the only project that Solar Power has with the film studio’s parent company News Corp. But it’s not the only sustainability project that News Corp. has underway through its Global Energy Initiative projects. It’s also installing a 4.1-megawatt photovoltaic array at its 2,000 employee Dow Jones headquarters in South Brunswick, N.J.

When completed, the Dow Jones array will provide 50 percent of the facility’s electric needs during peak-sunlight hours. In December, 2.5 megawatts, 60 percent, of that installation was completed, powered on and connected to the grid, News Corp. said.

The phase was also completed four months ahead of schedule.

Under News Corp.’s Global Energy Initiative, the company has been reducing its carbon footprint and energy use. In 2010, the company purchased 642,765 metric tons of carbon dioxide offsets.

“Enough to cover our entire fiscal year 2010 carbon footprint,” the company said.

The offsets included such diverse things as investments in landfill gas collection, wind farms and biomass projects. Its efforts were enough to earn the media conglomerate the second highest rating among S&P 500 companies in the 2010 Carbon Disclosure Report.

Solar Power has another potential array in the works with another studio, Anderson said.

“We are looking at other major motion picture studios that are looking to mitigate energy cost and those that are looking to grow their sustainability initiatives,” he said. “Solar generation becomes something they tend to look at pretty quickly. It makes economic sense and environmental sense.”

EU grows up? down? sideways?

2011-02-07T22:25:00.000-08:00

European Parliament gets tough on WEEE directive
TechEye talks to TCO
07 Feb 2011 13:29 | by Andrea Petrou | posted in Business

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European Parliament gets tough on WEEE directive -

The European Parliament is tightening up on electronic waste policies, adding new pieces of legislation to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive.

It has voted for tougher regulations on the disposal of electronic trash, requiring each country to collect 4kg of e-waste per citizen by 2012, and to process 85 percent of all electronic waste by 2016.

According to TCO Certified, the E-waste stream is growing at a rate three times faster than the overall waste stream. The organisation said that researchers estimate that the amount of global E-waste will be close to 73 billion kg annually by 2015.

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The fact that only a fraction of the E-waste produced today is recycled responsibly adds to the problem. Computers and office electronics account for 40 percent of lead and 70 percent of heavy metals, including mercury and cadmium, in landfills.

It said this shows not only how polluting these products are but also what a waste of resources it is, according to the Basel Action Network the average PC contains up to 27 different kinds of metals of various hazardousness. Many of these metals are scarce and getting more and more difficult and expensive to mine.

Before the WEEE directive was put into force in 2008, both manufacturers and countries would export their electronic waste illegally to third world countries, where it was disposed of in unsafe ways.

Now the European Parliament has decided that it wants a higher collection target and a separate reuse target. Both were pushed through after delays from October with a majority of 580 votes to 37.

In addition MEPs recommend a 50-75 percent recycling target, and suggested a separate re-use target, initially set at five percent.

They also addressed the problem of large volumes of e-waste being falsely declared as ‘reusable' and illegally exported to developing countries.

To ensure these shipments are reduced, they want stricter inspections of deployments, as well as ensuring the exporter should carry the burden of proof that the goods are actually reusable.

According to Emma Sjögren at TCO Certified, this is especially important as these products contain halogenated substances and chemicals and materials containing chlorine and bromine are causing concern in developing countries without recycling facilities today. Uncontrolled Incineration of brominated and chlorinated compounds forms other compounds such as dioxins and furans, many of them highly toxic and, for example, carcinogenic.

"Many of these substances are known to have serious health and environmental effects (most substances are not yet tested). Brominated flame retardants have been used for over 30 years to prevent the ignition of a material and limit the spread of fire," she told TechEye.

"The purpose of flame retardants is to provide protection throughout the product lifecycle. Therefore, they are deliberately constructed not to degrade meaning that once in the environment they persist, often transported by air and water far away from the initial point of pollution.

She added that it was primarily when the IT products were scrapped that problems arise.

"The substances containing bromine and chlorine leak out and, because their degradability is poor, they remain in the environment for a long time," she said.

"Only a small proportion of the world’s electronic goods are reused in a controlled way – for example, large numbers of end-of-life products are shipped to Asia or Africa where they are burned in backyards without any protective equipment – so this is a major and growing problem."

TCO added that as long as these chemicals were used, and the recycling of electrical products are not controlled, the quantities of brominated and chlorinated flame retardants in the environment will increase.

"Even if their use were discontinued today, they would remain in the environment long into the future," Emma added.

from greenelectronics

2011-01-13T08:04:00.000-08:00

Today we learned that Kim Joo hyun, a 26-year-old man who worked in the Samsung electronics LCD factory in Chun-ahn city in Korea, jumped from the roof of the dormitory and killed himself in the early morning of January 1, 2011. He suffered from skin disease due to chemicals and depression because of severe job stress. This shocking news is even more disturbing since it follows a rash of similar suicides by young workers at the Foxconn factory in China and inspires us to increase our determination to bring justice for the Samsung workers and families.

In memory of Kim Joo hyun, we ask that you join the Samsung Accountability Campaign. The Samsung Accountability Campaign is calling on Samsung to accept responsibility for occupational deaths and to Provide Safe and Decent Working Conditions

Over the past two decades, Samsung has become one of the most dominant electronics companies in the world, and is now a global leader in semiconductors, flat panel displays, mobile phones, and television production. Sadly, this rapid rise to global dominance has come with serious consequences for the workers who produce the products – recent reports indicate that about 100 workers – mostly young women - have been stricken with cancer – mostly blood cancers - and at least 30 of them have died – making this the one of the largest known electronics cancer clusters in the world. (See http://tinyurl.com/2bl5c8a for more information).

Samsung has denied all responsibility for these illnesses and the Korean government has declined to declare the cancers “work related” and refuses to disclose results of its investigation of Samsung. In response, a strong support movement led by the victims and their families has emerged in Korea and around the world and is seeking justice for those who have suffered from occupational illness.

Over the past months, hundreds of key activists and leaders from around the world have endorsed a petition addressing Samsung over occupational heath and safety issues. The petition contains a list of precise demands to Samsung. Read the entire petition text and the list of endorsements here.

the new world of the eco-ad

2011-01-10T10:11:00.001-08:00

AdAge

CBS 'EcoAd' Pays 10% to Local E-causes

The Eye Network's New Pitch: Buy a Spot, Save the Planet

By Brian Steinberg

Published: January 10, 2011

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Going green is nice, but getting caught "greenwashing" -- doing environmental promotions that are all talk and no action -- isn't. CBS Corp. is hoping some of its advertisers will take this under advisement and put their money where their mouths are when they talk about acting in the best interest of the planet.

The company, best known for its TV network and programs such as "CSI" and "NCIS," is unveiling a new form of advertising it calls an "EcoAd." Marketers who commit to this sort of promotion can purchase ad packages across CBS's various holdings -- national and local TV, radio, outdoor, online and more -- with the understanding that approximately 10% of the money committed to the sponsorship will be used to fund environmental-improvement efforts at the local level.

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When It Comes to Commercials, Target, Others Keep It Green
How Much Waste Do Your Shoots Generate?
To signal that a marketer's ads are part of the program, CBS will air ads that are part of its "EcoAd" effort with a green-leaf logo for TV, interactive and outdoor advertising and an audio identifier on radio.
At present, the advertisers who have signed up -- clients include General Motors' Chevrolet, SunPower, O Organics, Boston Scientific, Pacific Coast Termite, Port of Los Angeles and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers -- have purchased advertising that will be seen at the local level, not on CBS's broadcast-TV network. But the media company has hopes of capturing national advertising and will this week launch a promotion on CBS and its other media properties touting the "EcoAd." With actor Laurence Fishburne narrating, viewers will be told to "Look for the Leaf" as a signal that the ad is doing something more than just hyping the latest beverages, cars and gadgets.

"Anyone can sell media and sprinkle a few dollars on environmental improvements and call it 'green media,'" said Paul Polizzotto, president and founder of EcoMedia, which CBS acquired in May of last year after working with the company for about two years. The unit maintains contact with local municipalities and searches for environmental projects that require more funding to be put into practice, he said. Advertiser dollars become the catalyst that sparks a local government to take an underfunded project off the shelf and push it toward completion.

Mr. Polizzotto said his company looks for projects that will increase the EcoMedia contribution ten-fold; a contribution of $100,000, for instance, would be added to a project that would, in total, be worth $1 million when all the money is put together. Advertisers can then tell consumers their advertising is part of a project to build new facilities for local residents, to maintain energy efficiency and even to create local jobs.

In Texas, Chevrolet is purchasing a sponsorship in the Dallas area that will have the usual coterie of local advertising, but also let area residents know that Chevy's ad dollars are helping to bring solar-powered, energy-efficient lighting and improved bathrooms to a nine-diamond baseball facility in Arlington, Texas.

The carmaker, which has been on an aggressive ad stint as of late, sees extra value in the PR and goodwill generated by informing consumers of Chevy's donations to local environment projects.

"For me to just go and use advertising dollars to talk more about our carbon-reduction initiative -- it helps, but it doesn't hit home with as many people as I would like it to," said Mark Harland, regional marketing manager for Chevrolet's south central region, which includes Dallas, New Orleans and St. Louis. "If I go into your backyard, where your son or daughter is playing baseball," he added, "that makes a direct impact in a community." The effort offers "a little more context to people in that community and there's a lasting effect. It's not just a 30-second commercial."

CBS appears to be riding a wave of interest by advertisers in linking their sales messages to noble causes. Who hasn't been buffeted by a wave of commercials that tie the product being sold to efforts to help improve the world or a consumer's well-being? From Pepsi's "Refresh" project to Coca-Cola's efforts to link Diet Coke with heart health, marketing initiatives these days hope to appear more relevant by weaving themselves more intricately into the stuff that motivates individual customers.

Other media outlets have tackled this notion. NBC Universal has in recent years begun selling advertising attached to content dedicated to health or the environment. The company's "Green is Universal" efforts have attracted such marketers as Subaru, Home Depot and Procter & Gamble.

The environmental push isn't completely altruistic. For CBS, cultivating such ad revenue can help the company broaden its base. The majority of CBS's ad revenue comes from its broadcast network, but helping to develop local environmental projects can help lure ad dollars to CBS operations that gain their traction at the local level.

Consumer Electronics Show

2011-01-10T09:41:00.000-08:00

Greenpeace interview

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/video/2011/jan/09/greenpeace-ces-2011

the green commercial?

2011-01-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

AdAge

When It Comes to Commercials, Target, Others Keep It Green

How Much Waste Do Your Shoots Generate?

By Natalie Zmuda and Andrew Hampp

Published: January 10, 2011

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- On a late-December morning in Pasadena, Calif., Target was shooting what seemed to be a typical 15-second spot. A little girl was huddled at a kitchen table on an artificially bright and sunny day, awaiting further instruction from veteran commercial director Phil Morrison, while outside raged one of the rainiest days in recent history for Southern California. But far from typical was that in the 12 hours it would take to nail the shot of the girl eating Oreos and shoot two other 15-second spots, hundreds of pounds of commercial-production waste was gathered to be recycled or composted.

That's due to a partnership between Target, which says it has incorporated environmental sustainability into its business strategy for more than three decades, and EcoSet Consulting. The 2-year-old North Hollywood, Calif.-based firm focuses on greening commercial, TV and film sets and is now working with Target on 90% of the retailer's commercials. Wieden & Kennedy is Target's agency.

Hundreds of pounds of waste were recycled and reused to "green" this Target shoot.
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Since spring 2009, Target and EcoSet claim to have diverted 100,016 pounds from landfills, which is 85% of all waste generated by Target's broadcast shoots in Los Angeles. Some 35,400 plastic water bottles have been replaced by reusable bottles and reusable materials have been donated to more than 85 nonprofits and community organizations. Costumes have been donated to families in need and a swing set removed from a location for aesthetic reasons was donated to a children's center, for example. Even a 600-pound foam watering can find a second life as an art installation at a flower show.

Similarly, 280 pounds, or 88% of waste from a one-day Honda CR-V shoot last summer was diverted, according to data provided by EcoSet and Honda agency Rubin Postaer Associates, or RPA. At that shoot, walkie-talkies were charged using a solar-powered charging station and discarded gels, duvetyne and cinefoil (black materials used to absorb light on shoots) were donated to students at the American Film Institute.

'Natural progression'
Andrew Winston, a sustainability consultant and author of two books on green business, said he hasn't heard of a company like EcoSet before, but he approved.

"It's an industry that hasn't been leading in sustainability. But it's an industry waking up to the real impact it has," Mr. Winston said of commercial, film and TV production. "It's a natural progression, with media companies and advertisers thinking not just about their own operations and the products they sell but advertising and the media outlets they use."

At this point, Target is EcoSet's most consistent client, though execs said they have gradually begun receiving more inquiries from agencies and production companies. At the request of Green Tea Films, EcoSet worked on a Walgreen's shoot, for example. In the coming year, Shannon Schaefer, EcoSet's founder and owner, expects more marketers will also seek out EcoSet's services, as they, like Target, align internal sustainability efforts with other areas of the business.

"It's a relatively new company and a new concept," said Ms. Schaefer, who began working full-time as NBC Universal's manager-sustainable production shortly after founding EcoSet. "The traction we've gotten is positive. People are very excited and want to take part but are still figuring out ... how to take the corporation's sustainability mandate or messaging and bring it into the advertising."

While many marketers have turned to carbon offsets to "green" commercial production in the past, EcoSet and others like it (operations with similar visions have begun cropping up in New York, New Orleans, Austin, New Mexico and abroad in markets like Australia and the U.K., said Ms. Schaefer) represent a more tangible approach.

In short, EcoSet is intent on making production itself more sustainable, rather than turning to carbon offsets as a singular solution to balancing wasteful production. (Worth noting, Nike announced it was abandoning the practice of purchasing carbon offsets last year.) It's an admirable goal, considering commercial production alone produces about 18 million pounds of waste per year, half of which is food-related. But EcoSet has its work cut out. Commercial sets are among the trickiest production environments around, when it comes to going green, said Kris Barberg, account manager-client liaison for EcoSet.

"Most shoots are only five, six days at the most and everything is so temporary, so fast-paced that it's challenging to do the right thing," Ms. Barberg said.

EcoSet's work begins before the shoot, with coordination between the catering company and location manager. It also reviews creative boards or scripts to determine what types of props will need to be donated. During a shoot the set is staffed with eco-monitors, who set up composting stations, distribute reusable water bottles and oversee waste and recycling stations.

And, because of the often-overwhelming and costly nature of gathering resources for a green shoot, EcoSet advises productions about the materials needed, from reusable water bottles to biodiesel generators to recycling and composting bins. EcoSet's waste hauler also takes food, bones, soiled paper and compostable dinnerware from the set to a commercial composting site north of Los Angeles.

'Save a tree, use a noodle'
Even on-set utensils are green. At the Target shoot, the silverware was made of corn starch and talc, while the coffee stirrers were wheat pasta noodles. "We call it the 'save a tree, use a noodle campaign,'" joked Ms. Barberg.

While the process is hands-on, Target says it's not intrusive or costly.

"It's been very easy [to implement]," said Shawn Gensch, VP-brand marketing at Target. "There's seamless integration and great communication [on set]."

Mr. Gensch added that there have not been incremental expenses. It's about choices, he said, such as choosing to have a biodiesel generator or choosing not to use plastic silverware. EcoSet also provides documentation from donations for tax purposes.

"[Commercial shoots] are an area that had not been addressed, so we wanted to give the proper attention to it," Mr. Gensch said. "We do believe this is something that can materially impact production on location."

Laura Commike Gitman, director-advisory services at Business for Social Responsibility, a global business network and consultancy focused on sustainability, echoed that sentiment. "The media industry is a large and growing industry and one of the U.S.'s largest exports," she said. "Finding environmental opportunities throughout the media sector is going to be an important way to have an impact."

nice LA Times BLOG

2011-01-06T09:52:00.001-08:00

CES: Consumer Electronics Assn. and Greenpeace say gadgets getting more green
January 6, 2011 | 8:01 am
Though much of the technology being showcased at CES is user-friendly, it’s got a ways to go before it’s truly eco-friendly. But companies are getting close, according to two studies released at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

The Consumer Electronics Assn. said that nearly 49 million products on the market are registered with the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool.

Roughly 27,000 product models meet Energy Star energy-efficiency standards, according to the report, and more manufacturers are using renewable packaging material such as bio-based plastics instead of clamshell cases.

In 2009, the industry recycled 200 million pounds of electronics at 5,000 permanent collection sites around the country.

Separately, Greenpeace reviewed more than 40 products and declared the industry to be increasingly attuned to green business practices. Companies are cutting back on hazardous chemicals in phones, televisions and computers, the environmental group said.

Glass used for screens no longer contains arsenic, and the use of mercury is declining as more companies turn to LED displays.

But efforts to green the entire product life cycle are still few and far between, according to Greenpeace. Companies rarely track the amount of energy they use in manufacturing and distribution.

Short warranties cause many gadgets to be thrown out within three years, and marketing eco-friendly offerings to consumers isn’t a priority, the survey found.

Participants included Dell, Motorola, Panasonic, Research in Motion, Samsung and Toshiba. Apple and Philips bowed out, but Greenpeace looked at some of their products anyway –- and concluded that they would have performed well against competitors.

Read the report here: Download Greenpeace Product Survey 2011

But some said the electronics industry should start its greening campaign with CES itself. Virtual-event producer ON24 concluded that if the Las Vegas show were to go entirely digital, it could avoid 179,000 tons of carbon emissions and 1.4 million pounds of waste.

The roughly 125,000 attendees would save 136 million miles spent flying to and from the show. Digital documents could take the place of 2 million sheets of paper.

Last year, show organizers said they recycled 68% of the waste generated by CES attendees -– a total of 372 tons of cardboard, paper, metal, wood, carpet padding and plastic.

Independent publishers ask--how green are e-books?

2011-01-04T14:09:00.000-08:00

Is E-Reading Really Greener?

Raz Godelnik
August, 2010

Is E-Reading Really Greener?

by Raz Godelnik

The emergence of e-book readers, starting with the release of Amazon’s Kindle in November 2007 and through the launch of Apple’s iPad in April 2010, is changing the book industry. No doubt about that. But is it also making reading more sustainable? Is it really greener to abandon the good old print-on-paper book for a cool gadget that holds hundreds of books without causing back strain?

With publishers’ and readers’ awareness of environmental issues growing and the market share of e-books, while still very small, growing very fast, the question arises for a growing number of publishers, authors, booksellers, and readers.

Intuitively it seems like a no-brainer—with e-book readers, no paper is required; no trees are cut down; no books need to be shipped and stored. Can it get any better than that?

Well, I wish it was that simple, but it isn’t. Just like physical books, e-books that are read on the Kindle, iPad, Nook, or any other device have their ecological footprint. The question is: which option, print or digital, has a smaller footprint?

To find that out, we need to use a life cycle analysis (LCA), which evaluates the ecological impact of any product, at every stage of its existence—in this case, from cutting down trees for paper to the day when the iPad and the Kindle will end their lives.

Toxic Waste Issues

Any analysis of e-readers must take a couple of significant factors into consideration:

Materials. Consumer electronics are notorious for containing a variety of toxic materials. Some companies are more transparent than others and make it relatively clear that their e-reader devices are free of toxic materials like PVC (Sony and Apple) and BFRs and mercury (Apple). But as Casey Harrell, an international campaign coordinator for Greenpeace, which monitors the environmental impact of consumer electronics, told the New York Times, e-readers remain something of an unknown variable.

“In terms of the Kindle or other similar e-book gadgets, I don’t know what chemicals are in or out,” Harrell said. “Companies will want to brag about their eco-credentials,” he points out, so if you don’t see any mention, the chemicals have probably not been eliminated.

Recycling. Electronic waste is becoming a growing environmental problem, and even though companies like Apple and Amazon have recycling programs in place, there’s a good chance e-readers will contribute to the electronic waste stream.

According to the EPA, Americans generated about 3 million tons of electronic waste in 2007. Out of all that waste, only 13.6 percent was recycled. The rest ended up in landfills or incinerators, even though, as the Electronic TakeBack Coalition explains, the hazardous chemicals in them can leach out of landfills into groundwater and streams.

And even the 13 percent that is supposedly recycled is not necessarily safe. According to the Electronic TakeBack Coalition, most recycling firms take the low road, exporting instead of recycling. From 50 to 80 percent of e-waste that is collected for recycling is shipped overseas for dismantling under unsafe conditions, harming people’s health, land, air, and water in developing countries in Asia and Africa.

About Energy Consumption and Unknowns

Three other issues are important as well.

First, a lot of necessary information on e-readers is missing.

When it comes to physical books we have all the information we need, but the situation with e-readers is getting more complicated, as most of the required information is not available. If you try to find out about the environmental impacts of Amazon’s Kindle or B&N’s Nook, good luck with that. Except for Apple, none of the companies that sell e-readers makes environmental data available.

When Joe Hutsko of the New York Times tried to learn more about the Kindle, he reported, “Phone calls and e-mail messages to Amazon inquiring about the materials in the popular Kindle device have thus far gone unanswered.”

Second, even as e-readers are becoming more energy-efficient (for example, Amazon’s Kindle and B&N’s Nook use E Ink technology, which is significantly more power-efficient than an LCD screen), this is not the full story. E-readers are also part of a wave of mobile devices that increasingly depend on the Internet and data centers to deliver hosted services and digital content, and hence will contribute to a rapid growth in energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with so-called cloud computing over the coming years.

Third, as we’ll see, even the LCA, thorough as it can get, leaves some territories unexplored, including social implications. Could we say e-books are greener if, for example, we find out they’re performing better on the life cycle assessment, but at the same time we learn that they’re manufactured in sweatshops where working conditions are deplorable?

Life Cycle Consequences

But LCA is still the best tool we’ve got, so let’s see what we can learn from it, using information provided by Apple on its iPad. (There was one attempt to do LCA for the Kindle, but I found it not valid due to lack of information.)

Recently Daniel Goleman and Gregory Norris presented their life cycle assessment comparing Apple’s iPad to physical books in a New York Times op-ed piece.

Using the available information and looking at the iPad only as an e-reader—putting aside all the other functions it has—their conclusion regarding the breakeven point was, “When it comes to global warming, though, it’s 100 books.” In other words, you need to replace a purchase of at least 100 physical books with 100 books on your iPad to make it a greener option from a carbon footprint standpoint.

I think the breakeven point is lower. When I compared the carbon footprint of the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G Model provided by Apple (130 kg CO2) with the carbon footprint of an average physical book (7.46 kg CO2, as provided by Cleantech report), I found a breakeven point of 17.4 books, meaning that in terms of carbon footprint, the iPad becomes a more environmental friendly alternative option for book reading once its user reads the 18th book on it.

But as Goleman and Norris show, the carbon footprint is just one part of the comparison. With respect to fossil fuels, water use, and mineral consumption, one e-reader has as much impact as 40–50 print-on-paper books. And with respect to human health consequences, they claim the figure is somewhere between 50 and 100 books.

The implications of the breakeven point depend on two elements—how many years a consumer will use an e-reader before switching to a newer one, and how many books the consumer reads. For a bookworm who plans to keep using an e-reader for couple of years, it may actually become a greener option. But someone who (like most Americans) reads only six to seven books a year and switches to a newer e-reader version within three to four years may not be going green.

We also have to remember that physical books can improve their ecological footprint, and they are slowly doing that. We see increasing use of recycled and FSC-certified paper, as well as greater adoption of sustainable practices in the industry. Although there’s still much to be done, progress in the last couple of years has been impressive, and it seems likely to continue as publishers identify going green not only as beneficial to the environment, but also as beneficial to business.

We are, of course, only on the first part of a long journey, and I believe e-readers will get more eco-friendly in time. The future of the book industry will probably include “greener” versions of both physical and electronic books. And, with more pressure from consumers, companies may not only start revealing all the information about their e-readers, but actually compete on which one has the greenest e-reader to offer.

Raz Godelnik is the co-founder and CEO of Eco-Libris. Founded in 2007, Eco-Libris is a green company working with publishers, authors, bookstores, and book lovers worldwide to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. For more information, go to ecolibris.net.

IBPA, the Independent Book Publishers Association

Philippines Rationality

2010-12-26T15:09:00.001-08:00

Networks
The changing color of technology
By Alma Buelva (The Philippine Star) Updated December 27, 2010 12:00 AM

| Zoom
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness...” — Charles Dickens

MANILA, Philippines - The words of the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era ring true 140 years after his death as humanity gets all wrapped up in the conveniences made possible by advanced technologies that, in turn, they also blame for polluting the planet.

Technology changes fast, but so does the climate. The best of both worlds doesn’t seem to exist anymore and can’t be had unless drastic measures are taken that will make the environment, to borrow a popular phrase from social networking, “add technology as friend.”

Unsustainable energy consumption and high levels of electronic waste and greenhouse gas emissions fly in the face of state-of-the-art technological progress. It’s been proven, however, that necessity is the mother of all invention and who else should know this better than the movers and shakers in the information technology (IT) industry who are addressing the need to “go green” with innovations designed not to damage nature any further.

Models of green

The IT industry is responsible for about two percent of the world’s carbon emissions and data centers are the fastest growing part of that footprint, according to a new report from Pike Research, a research company from Boulder, Colorado that specializes in market intelligence related to clean technology.

While energy efficiency has not traditionally been a major emphasis for IT companies, the industry is now highly focused on implementing solutions that will reduce energy expenses and carbon emissions, especially those associated with data center operations. Pike Research estimates investment in greener data centers will experience rapid growth over the next five years, increasing from $7.5 billion in global revenue to $41.4 billion by 2015, representing 28 percent of the total data center market.

Green data centers optimize their use of space, energy and IT resources with emphasis on virtualization. Software powerhouse SAP is among those that have taken the green route that last year saw a huge reduction in the carbon footprint of its global data centers.

In September, the German company announced that it cut its global carbon footprint by 15 percent last year, which meant savings of about €90 million. SAP said it reduced its carbon footprint from 501 kilotons of carbon in 2008 to 425 kilotons in 2009 by increasing the efficiencies of its data centers to lower energy consumption. In addition, the software company cut back on employee business travels by 32 percent and held more virtual meetings instead. It likewise encouraged its employees to carpool whenever possible.

A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), caused by a company, event, product or individual. When environment-conscious IT companies are not focused on carbon footprints, they are literally looking up to the sun for sustainable solutions. Also, as they are wont to do, they turn to their own software tools to help improve their environmental standing.

The sun and software make for strange bedmates, but together they make for some of the best new tools that the IT industry is using to be friends with the earth again. A case in point is consumer electronics giant Sharp Electronics, which has been harvesting solar energy in every possible way. The company’s headquarters complex in Japan has manufacturing and office buildings literally covered with solar panels that steadily supply the company with an alternative and clean source of energy. A global leader in solar electricity, Sharp has brought the world the first solar-powered calculator and now has solar-powered products for residential and commercial applications.

Pike Research says the abundance of solar modules has cultivated demand for solar solutions so that between 2010 and 2013, solar demand will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24 percent.

Meanwhile, adoption of carbon management software and services by enterprises around the world is on the rise. This happens as corporations grapple with ways to accurately measure and reduce their carbon footprint to meet targets set by their own corporate sustainability programs, industry initiatives, and government mandates. Pike Research estimates the global market for carbon management software and services to expand by 40 percent annually from $384 million in 2009 to more than $4.3 billion by 2017.

Waste-to-energy

The search for sustainable and clean sources of energy is also taking some Japanese inventors to look in the most unlikely places. One research is now exploring the possibility of harvesting energy from wasted body heat of people who just laze around the house or in front of the TV. Researchers believe wasted body heat of idle people could be captured and converted into energy to power at least the couch potatoes’ weapon of choice: the TV remote.

Top auto makers such as Honda and Toyota, along with 21 other Japanese companies, have gone on an “energy scavenging” campaign to create sustainable electronic devices for use at homes, offices and automobiles based on energy amassed from body warmth. According to Japanese researchers, even the smallest movements of the most determined couch potato could be turned into useful energy to power a battery-free TV remote or video game controller with the aid of vibration capture technology. If they succeed, being a couch potato could become a real job.

Vibration capture technology is also the inspiration behind another Japanese research that studied how heavy foot traffic, say in a subway station, could be turned into energy. With the help of sound waves, researchers developed a so-called “electricity-generating floor” that creates energy when passengers step on them. The energy is then stored in a capacitor for the subway’s use. Although more work is needed, an electricity-generating floor is designed to help subways and railways become more energy-efficient by tapping an unusual source of energy - footsteps. If this comes into fruition, then we all could walk the talk toward a greener future.

Carbon footprints

But should green technologies only preoccupy big organizations with equally big data centers and passionate researchers looking for solutions from under the seats of couch potatoes?

As any environment pundit would say, every individual can contribute something to ensure a healthy environment. For example, IT users could opt to buy only products that comply with standards set in the Energy Star, a government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. Or they could check the carbon footprints of technologies they use and know at least how something as ordinary as sending and receiving e-mail or reading online newspapers and e-books could affect the environment when multiplied by billions of instances daily worldwide.

Not everything new is green and it’s true with e-mail. Something as deceptively harmless as an e-mail does have carbon footprint. This makes useless spam messages all the more aggravating.

The average spam e-mail causes emissions equivalent to 0.3 gram of CO2 per message, according to a study on the environmental impact of spam conducted by climate change consultants ICT and spam expert Richi Jennings. In 2008, ICF said an estimated total of 62 trillion spam e-mails were sent worldwide.

The study, commissioned by virus protection and Internet security company McAfee, emphasized that the 0.3 gram of CO2 per spam, when multiplied by the annual volume of spam, is like driving around the earth 1.6 million times. The ICF arrived at this figure by calculating the energy use associated with each stage in the lifecycle of spam, including the energy used to create, transmit, receive, process or view, and filter spam. The total energy required adds up to more than 33 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), which ICF said is roughly equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes and the greenhouse gas emissions of 3.1 million cars using two billion gallons of gasoline. If these parallel examples are not mind-blowing enough, the ICF added that the total energy wasted on spam is similar to the power provided by four large new coal power plants.

The study, which examined the degree of spam problems in 11 countries, maintained that the level of spam-related emissions per country is usually proportionate to the number of e-mail users. Simply put: the more users, the more spam. Also, ICF established that an average business e-mail user is responsible for 131kg of e-mail-related CO2 emissions per year and 22 percent of that are due to spam.

Self-serving or not, McAfee’s commissioned study showed that spam filtering could save 135 terawatt hours of electricity a year, which is equivalent to taking 13 million cars off the road. A day without spam is therefore good for the environment, the study concluded.

Meanwhile, the advent of online newspapers and electronic books or e-books caused many to ask if they are truly more environment-friendly than their paper versions that necessitate the cutting down of trees. The jury is still out on this one but because e-newspapers and e-books consume power, they also leave carbon footprints.

Mike Berners-Lee, a leading British expert who specializes in organizational responses to climate change, said if a person browses for an hour a week on a 50-watt laptop, the energy consumed is less than a weekly paper even if the direct electricity impact is scaled up by a factor of five to account for the production of the laptop, the networks and all the other IT products involved to upload the newspaper online.

Of course, a host of other factors must be considered to determine if online newspapers and e-books are greener than the paper products they replace. But in the meantime, those of us with an insatiable appetite for consuming digital products and services might do well to recall Dickens, yet again, who said, “Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.”

WE NEED FORMAL, PUBLIC AUDITS OF EVERY FILM AND TV SHOW!

2010-12-24T07:33:00.000-08:00

Sophia Coppola’s New Film ‘Somewhere’ Boasts Green Production Efforts
Filed under: film-tv, green and famous, movies — Michael Parrish DuDell @ 1:21 pm. from ecorazzi

Although we love going to the cinema, making a movie can be super taxing on Mother Earth. In the upcoming film Somewhere, however, director Sophia Coppola made a serious effort to make the production process as green as possible.

“We had a small crew. We did what we could not to make waste, didn’t use a lot of lights, and we all had our own water bottles,” says Coppola. “In my own life I try to be aware as much as I can, you know, recycle, and just learn more about what you can do.”

The film centers around an emotionally adrift movie star, played by Stephen Dorff, who goes through some big life changes thanks to his teenage daughter.

For Dorff, being eco-friendly is a big deal and something the actor tries to focus on in his personal life.

“I believe in doing a lot for the environment. One thing we can definitely do is limit some of the carcinogenic smoke that comes from some of these vehicles,” says Dorff. “Another thing is, obviously, recycling and doing the basics.”

Here is the great Story of Electronics film

2010-12-14T05:52:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK TIMES GETS REAL--ISH

2010-11-17T21:08:00.001-08:00

Should You Be Snuggling With Your Cellphone?

By RANDALL STROSS

WARNING: Holding a cellphone against your ear may be hazardous to your health. So may stuffing it in a pocket against your body.

I’m paraphrasing here. But the legal departments of cellphone manufacturers slip a warning about holding the phone against your head or body into the fine print of the little slip that you toss aside when unpacking your phone. Apple, for example, doesn’t want iPhones to come closer than 5/8 of an inch; Research In Motion, BlackBerry’s manufacturer, is still more cautious: keep a distance of about an inch.

The warnings may be missed by an awful lot of customers. The United States has 292 million wireless numbers in use, approaching one for every adult and child, according to C.T.I.A.-The Wireless Association, the cellphone industry’s primary trade group. It says that as of June, about a quarter of domestic households were wireless-only.

If health issues arise from ordinary use of this hardware, it would affect not just many customers but also a huge industry. Our voice calls — we chat on our cellphones 2.26 trillion minutes annually, according to the C.T.I.A. — generate $109 billion for the wireless carriers.

The cellphone instructions-cum-warnings were brought to my attention by Devra Davis, an epidemiologist who has worked for the University of Pittsburgh and has published a book about cellphone radiation, “Disconnect.” I had assumed that radiation specialists had long ago established that worries about low-energy radiation were unfounded. Her book, however, surveys the scientific investigations and concludes that the question is not yet settled.

Brain cancer is a concern that Ms. Davis takes up. Over all, there has not been a general increase in its incidence since cellphones arrived. But the average masks an increase in brain cancer in the 20-to-29 age group and a drop for the older population.

“Most cancers have multiple causes,” she says, but she points to laboratory research that suggests mechanisms by which low-energy radiation could damage cells in ways that could possibly lead to cancer.

Children are more vulnerable to radiation than adults, Ms. Davis and other scientists point out. Radiation that penetrates only two inches into the brain of an adult will reach much deeper into the brains of children because their skulls are thinner and their brains contain more absorptive fluid. No field studies have been completed to date on cellphone radiation and children, she says.

Henry Lai, a research professor in the bioengineering department at the University of Washington, began laboratory radiation studies in 1980 and found that rats exposed to radiofrequency radiation had damaged brain DNA. He maintains a database that holds 400 scientific papers on possible biological effects of radiation from wireless communication. He found that 28 percent of studies with cellphone industry funding showed some sort of effect, while 67 percent of studies without such funding did so. “That’s not trivial,” he said.

The unit of measurement for radiofrequency exposure is called the specific absorption rate, or SAR. The Federal Communications Commission mandates that the SAR produced by phones be no more than 1.6 watts per kilogram. One study listed by Mr. Lai found effects like loss of memory in rats exposed to SAR values in the range of 0.0006 to 0.06 watts per kilogram. “I did not expect to see effects at low levels,” he said.

The city of San Francisco passed an ordinance this year that requires cellphone retailers to post SARs prominently. This angered the C.T.I.A., which announced that it would no longer schedule trade shows in the city.

The association maintains that all F.C.C.-approved phones are perfectly safe. John Walls, the association’s vice president for public affairs, said: “What science tells us is, ‘If the sign on the highway says safe clearance is 12 feet,’ it doesn’t matter if your vehicle is 4 feet, 6 feet or 10 feet tall; you’re going to pass through safely. The same theory applies to SAR values and wireless devices.”

The association has set up a separate Web site, cellphonehealthfacts.com. Four attractive young people are seen on the home page, each with a cellphone pressed against the ear — and all four are beaming as they listen. By this visual evidence, cellphone use seems to be correlated with elation, not cancer.

The largest study of cellphone use and brain cancer has been the Interphone International Case-Control Study, in which researchers in 13 developed countries (but not the United States) participated. It interviewed brain cancer patients, 30 to 59 years old, from 2000 to 2004, then cobbled together a control group of people who had not regularly used a cellphone.

The study concluded that using a cellphone seemed to decrease the risk of brain tumors, which the authors acknowledged was “implausible” and a product of the study’s methodological shortcomings.

The authors included some disturbing data in an appendix available only online. These showed that subjects who used a cellphone 10 or more years doubled the risk of developing brain gliomas, a type of tumor.

The 737 minutes that we talk on cellphones monthly, on average, according to the C.T.I.A., makes today’s typical user indistinguishable from the heavy user of 10 years ago. Ms. Davis recommends keeping a phone out of close proximity to the head or body, by using wired headsets or the phone’s speaker. Children should text rather than call, she said, and pregnant women should keep phones away from the abdomen.
The F.C.C. concurs about the best way to avoid exposure. It is not by choosing a phone with a marginally lower SAR, it says, but rather by holding the cellphone “away from the head or body.”

It’s advice that I find hard to put into practice myself. The comforting sight of everyone around me with phones pressed against their ears, just like me, makes the risk seem abstract.

But Ms. Davis, citing unsettling findings from research in Israel, France, Sweden and Finland, said, “I do think I’m looking at an epidemic in slow motion.”

HIS NUMBERS MAY BE DONW ON THE REAL FIGURES, BUT HIS STORIES ARE TELLING

2010-11-17T20:57:00.000-08:00

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/11/foxconn-photo-gallery?mbid=wir_newsltr

THANKS TO LIZ FERRIER FOR PASSING THIS ON TO ME

IS ANYBODY SIMPLE-MINDED ENOUGH TO LOVE THIS?

2010-11-17T20:54:00.001-08:00

Hewlett-Packard helps build Kenya e-waste plant
San Francisco Business Times - by Steven E.F. Brown
Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 12:54pm PST
Related:
Technology

Computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. is helping build an electronic waste recycling plant in Kenya along with an Irish nonprofit, Camara Education Ltd.
Palo Alto-based HP (NYSE: HPQ) and Dublin’s Camara are putting this plant in Mombassa, on the coast, where there aren’t any such facilities right now (only the capital, Nairobi, has any significant e-waste recycling, and it’s expensive to truck discarded junk more than 300 miles by road, which takes up to six hours. Train trips take 13 hours between the cities.). They hope to open the plant by the end of the year.
Having a port facility also makes it easier to ship recycled material overseas for sale or further processing.
Computer use is growing in Kenya, but the use of mobile phones is growing even faster, and they generate a great deal of electronic device waste.
Kenya’s government said cell phone connections grew by 34 percent between 2008 and 2009, hitting 17.4 million.
Refrigerators, televisions, computers, printers and phones make up most of the e-waste generated in Kenya, according to the United Nations.
Camara is a charity that seeks to improve education in Africa through technology. It has two main businesses -- education and computer reuse. People and companies in Ireland donate used computers and Camara wipes them of data, loads up new software, and uses them in Africa.

Read more: Hewlett-Packard helps build Kenya e-waste plant | San Francisco Business Times

EXCITING NEWS

2010-11-17T20:42:00.001-08:00

Dear Toby,

This morning, we released our newest Story of Stuff Project movie - The Story of Electronics - a look at the 'design for the dump' mentality so prevalent in the electronics industry.

This movie couldn't come at a better time: this November, Americans are expected to spend over $8.5 billion on consumer electronics, motivated by enticements to buy gizmos we don't really need or to replace gadgets that are still working with slightly newer versions.

The thing is, making all these devices takes an enormous environmental and public health toll: mining the metals trashes communities from Congo to Indonesia; assembling them uses huge amounts of water and energy and exposes workers to a host of toxic chemicals; and getting rid of them when we're on to the next, newer, better model creates mountains of e-waste.

The good news is that while the production, consumption and disposal of short-lived, toxics laden electronics are a really big problem, the solution is pretty simple: Make 'em Safe, Make 'em Last, and Take 'em Back.

We're releasing The Story of Electronics today to send a clear message to the electronics industry: it's time to send that design for the dump mentality to the dump where it belongs and start making less toxic, longer lasting and more easily recyclable products.

Our goal is to get a quarter of a million people to watch The Story of Electronics by Black Friday, just over two weeks from now.

You can help us reach this goal by:

Watching The Story of Electronics;

Sharing the movie with your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, fellow students and anyone else you think might be interested;

Reading Annie's Huffington Post piece about the movie, and then commenting on it, liking it or sharing it; and

Working with our partners at the Electronics TakeBack Coalition to tell two of the largest electronics manufacturers-Acer and Lenovo-to "Make 'em Safe, Make 'em Last, and Take 'em Back!"
Every time we release one of our movies, we're floored by the way our community jumps in to spread the message. We know this time will be no different.
So, thank you, and we hope you enjoy The Story of Electronics!

Sincerely,

Annie, Michael, Allison, Christina and Renee

The Story of Stuff Project Team

P.S. It costs a pretty penny to produce and distribute our movies. You can help offset the distribution costs we're racking up this week with a secure, on-line donation to The Story of Stuff Project. Thank you!

C

THE RAGPICKER-CELL PHONE PARADOX

2010-11-09T07:20:00.001-08:00

India: Land of many cell phones, fewer toilets
By RAVI NESSMAN The Associated Press
News Fuze
Posted:
MUMBAI, India—The Mumbai slum of Rafiq Nagar has no clean water for its shacks made of ripped tarp and bamboo. No garbage pickup along the rocky, pocked earth that serves as a road. No power except from haphazard cables strung overhead illegally.
And not a single toilet or latrine for its 10,000 people.
Yet nearly every destitute family in the slum has a cell phone. Some have three.
When U.S. President Barack Obama visits India Nov. 6, he will find a country of startlingly uneven development and perplexing disparities, where more people have cell phones than access to a toilet, according to the United Nations.
It is a country buoyed by a vibrant business world of call centers and software developers, but hamstrung by a bloated, corrupt government that has failed to deliver the barest of services.
Its estimated growth rate of 8.5 percent a year is among the highest in the world, but its roads are crumbling.
It offers cheap, world-class medical care to Western tourists at private hospitals, yet has some of the worst child mortality and maternal death rates outside sub-Saharan Africa.
And while tens of millions have benefited from India's rise, many more remain mired in some of the worst poverty in the world.
Businessman Mukesh Ambani, the world's fourth-richest person, is just finishing off a new $1 billion skyscraper-house in Mumbai with 27 floors and three helipads, touted as the most expensive home on earth. Yet farmers still live in shacks of mud and cow dung.
The cell phone frenzy bridges all worlds. Cell phones are sold amid the Calvin Klein and Clinique stores under the soaring atriums of India's new malls, and in the crowded markets of its working-class neighborhoods. Bare shops in the slums sell pre-paid cards for as little as 20 cents next to packets of chewing tobacco, while street hawkers peddle car chargers at traffic lights.
The spartan Beecham's in New Delhi's Connaught Place, one of the country's seemingly ubiquitous mobile phone dealers, is overrun with lunchtime customers of all classes looking for everything from a 35,000 rupee ($790) Blackberry Torch to a basic 1,150 rupee ($26) Nokia.
Store manager Sanjeev Malhotra adds to a decades-old—and still unfulfilled—Hindi campaign slogan promising food, clothing and shelter. "Roti, kapda, makaan" and "mobile," he riffs, laughing. "Basic needs."
There were more than 670 million cell phone connections in India by the end of August, a number that has been growing by close to 20 million a month, according to government figures.
Yet U.N. figures show that only 366 million Indians have access to a private toilet or latrine, leaving 665 million to defecate in the open.
"At least tap water and sewage disposal—how can we talk about any development without these two fundamental things? How can we talk about development without health and education?" says Anita Patil-Deshmukhl, executive director of PUKAR, an organization that conducts research and outreach in the slums of Mumbai.
India's leaders say they are sympathetic to the problem.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an economist credited with unleashing India's private sector by loosening government regulation, talks about growth that benefits the masses of poor people as well as a burgeoning middle class of about 300 million. He describes a roaring Maoist insurgency in the east—which feeds in large part on the poor's discontent—as the country's biggest internal security threat.
Sonia Gandhi, chief of the ruling Congress Party, has pushed laws guaranteeing a right to food and education, as well as a gargantuan rural jobs program for nearly 100 million people. But as many as 800 million Indians still live on less than $2 a day, even as Mumbai's stock exchange sits near record highs.
Many fear the situation is unsustainable.
"Everybody understands the threat. Everybody recognizes that there is a gap, that this could be the thing that trips up this country," says Anand Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director of the Mahindra & Mahindra manufacturing company.
Private companies have tried to fill that gap, and Tata sells a 749 rupee ($16) water purifier for the poor. Mafias provide water and electricity to slumdwellers at a cost far higher than what wealthy Indians pay for basic services.
"For every little thing, we have to pay," says Nusrat Khan, a 35-year-old maid and single parent who raises her four children on less than 3,000 rupees ($67) a month and blames the government for her lack of access to water and a toilet.
The government is spending $350 million a year to build toilets in rural areas. Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of the Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement, estimates the country needs about 120 million more latrines—likely the largest sanitation project in world history.
"Those in power, only they can change the situation," says Pathak, who claims to have helped build a million low-cost latrines across India over the past 40 years. "India can achieve this—if it desires."
In the slums of Mumbai, home to more than half the city's population of 14 million, the yearning for toilets is so great that enterprising residents have built makeshift outhouses on their own.
In Annabhau Sathe Nagar, a raised latrine of corrugated tin empties into a river of sewage that children splash in and adults wade across. The slum in east Mumbai has about 50,000 residents and a single toilet building, with 10 pay toilets for men and eight for women—two of which are broken.
With the wait for those toilets up to an hour even at 5 a.m., and the two-rupee (4-cent) fee too expensive for many, most people either use a field or wait to use the toilets at work, says Santosh Thorat, 32, a community organizer. Nearly 60 percent have developed piles from regularly waiting to defecate, he says.
Conditions are far worse in Rafiq Nagar, a crowded, 15-year-old slum on the lip of a 110-acre garbage dump.
Most of the slumdwellers are ragpickers who sort through heaps of trash for scraps of plastic, glass, metal, even bones, anything they can sell to recyclers for cash. A pungent brew of ripe garbage and sewage blows through the trash-strewn streets, as choking smoke from wood fires rolls out the doorways of windowless huts. Children, half clothed in rags, play hopscotch next to a mysterious gray liquid that has gathered in stagnant puddles weeks after the last rainfall.
Just beside the shacks, men and women defecate in separate areas behind rolling hills of green foliage that have sprung up over the garbage. Children run through those hills, flying kites.
Khatija Sheikh, 20, splurges to use a pay toilet in another neighborhood 10 minutes away, but is never sure what condition it will be in.
"Sometimes it's clean, sometimes it's dirty. It's totally dependent on the owner's mood," says Sheikh, whose two young children use the street. Her home is less than five feet from an elevated outhouse built by a neighbor that drops sewage next to her walls.
Since there are no water pipes or wells here, residents are forced to rely on the water mafia for water for cooking, washing clothes, bathing and drinking. The neighborhood is rife with skin infections, tuberculosis and other ailments.
A large blue barrel outside a home is filled with murky brown water, tiny white worms and an aluminum drinking cup. To fill up two jerry cans costs between 40 ($.90) and 50 ($1.10) rupees a day, about one-third of the average family's earnings here.
"If the government would give us water, we would pay that money to the government," said Suresh Pache, 41, a motorized rickshaw driver.
Instead, it has issued demolition notices throughout the slum, which sits illegally on government land. Pache, whose home was razed 10 times, jokes that the destruction is the only government service he can count on.
Yet the world of technology has embraced the slumdwellers with its cheap cell phones and cut-rate calling plans that charge a sliver of a penny a minute. Pache bought his first phone for 1,400 rupees ($31) four months ago. Since then, his wife, a ragpicker, found two other broken models as she scoured the garbage dump, and he paid to have them repaired.
He speaks with fluency about the different plans offered by Tata, Reliance and Idea that cost him a total of 300 rupees ($6.70) a month. Now, when his rickshaw breaks down, he can alert his wife with a call. She uses her phone to tell the recyclers where she is in the dump so they can drive out to her, saving her the time and effort of dragging her bag of scraps to them.
Mohan Singh, a 58-year-old bicycle repairman, says his son uses their 2,000 rupee ($45) Orpat phone to play music and talk to relatives. Thorat, the community organizer, shows photographs of his neighborhood and videos of a pre-school he started on his Nokia cameraphone, while his second phone rings in his pocket. Sushila Paten, who teaches at the pre-school, organizes a phone chain with her Samsung to instantly mobilize hundreds of people in the streets when violent thugs show up demanding "rent" from the squatters.
In fact, the spread of cell phones may end up bringing toilets.
R. Gopalakrishnan, executive director of Tata Sons, one of India's most revered companies, says the rising aspirations of the poor, buttressed by their growing access to communications and information, will put tremendous pressure on the government to start delivering.
People already are starting to challenge local officials who for generations answered to no one, he says.
"I think there are very, very dramatic changes happening," he says.

CHINA AND E-WASTE OCTOBER 8, 2010

2010-10-16T05:32:00.001-07:00

A new regulation to help reduce e-waste and curb environmental pollution is set to take effect in China in January 2011. The government will establish a licensing system for the disposal and recycling of e-wastes, under which only enterprises with a proper license are eligible for e-waste disposal.

The regulation also stipulates all imported electrical products should meet the requirements for pollution control and enterprises should adopt a design conducive to innocuous treatment and recycling.

The regulation will play a significant role in helping to prevent and reduce environmental pollution, promoting comprehensive utilization of resources, developing a circular economy, building a resource-saving and environmentally-friendly society and protecting people's health, said Zhang Lijun, vice minister of environmental protection.

The e-waste products contain valuable resources, such as copper, aluminum, iron and plastic. China is a big country in terms of production and consumption of electrical and electronic products.

China produced over 9 million TV sets, 46 million refrigerators, 39 million washing machines, 68.5 million air conditioners, 138 million computers, nearly 62 million printers and 600 million mobile phones in 2008. Nearly 25 million TV sets, 5.4 million refrigerators, 10 million washing machines, 1 million air conditioners, 12 million computers, 6 million printers and 40 million mobile phones were thrown out in 2009.

By Liang Jun, People's Daily Online

ILLEGAL E-WASTE TRADE

2010-10-16T05:17:00.001-07:00

Two year investigation sees nine charged over international WEEE dumping
Source URL: http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=18819

Nine people have been charged today (October 14) in what the Environment Agency is saying is biggest investigation ever into illegal electrical waste exports from the UK to West Africa.

All nine have been charged with offences under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007 and European Waste Shipment Regulations 2006 and bailed to attend Havering Magistrates Court on November 11.

It is illegal for UK businesses to send electronic waste abroad to be dumped and the action today, follows a two year investigation.

Officers from the Environment Agency's National Crime Team began their investigations in the middle of 2008.

They claim to have uncovered a network of individuals, waste companies and export businesses involved in the export of electrical waste.

In some instances, it is alleged by the agency that 'considerable sums' of money changed hands in deals to collect and recycle electrical waste while treatment costs were avoided.

There's also evidence of the waste ending up being illegally dumped in Africa, potentially avoiding huge fees for the companies allegedly involved.

The Environment Agency's national environmental crime team manager, Andy Higham, said: "Over the past two years painstaking intelligence work by Environment Agency officers has uncovered a web of individuals and companies that appear to be making considerable sums of money by exporting electrical waste overseas.

"Exporters of broken electricals put at risk the lives of those who work on waste sites in developing countries.

"These are often children who are paid a pittance to dismantle products containing hazardous waste.

"Illegal exporters also avoid the costs of recycling in the UK and undermine law-abiding business.

"It is always a crime to export broken electricals and hazardous waste from the UK to developing countries to be dumped.

"The last thing we want is our waste causing harm to people or the environment overseas."

Luke Walsh

KENYAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION REPORT

2010-09-16T05:57:00.001-07:00

Kenya promises to address e-waste challenges

Written By:Allvoices, Posted: Tue, Sep 07, 2010

The Kenyan government will address challenges and opportunities brought about by rising electronic waste (e-waste), Environment and Mineral Resources Minister John Michuki has said.

Speaking at a national Stakeholders Workshop on Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (eWaste) Nairobi 2010 on Tuesday, Michuki urged delegates government officials, representatives from National Environment Management Authority, computer software giants Microsoft, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and industry to assit the government in charting the way forward in terms of re-use, recycling and refurbishment of electronic goods.

This he said must be inline with Basel Convention Declaration and other International declarations.

The stakeholders called for urgent adoption of sound policies and clear guidelines on e-waste management in Kenya and the East African region. Microsoft's Regional Education Manager East and Southern Africa Mr. Mark Matunga called for concerted efforts in e waste management, which has proved to be a challenge to many African countries.

"There is an urgent need for the government and other stakeholders from the private sector to work towards streamlining the management of e waste, especially in the wake of increased turnover of electronic equipment on the continent. Kenya, like most Africa countries has no polices and strategies for dealing with e-waste and is therefore its population is greatly exposed to health hazards that are associated with e waste"," said Mr. Matunga.

Speaking at the workshop, UNEP Deputy Executive Director Angela Cropper spoke of the emerging global threats and opportunities provided by tackling growing e-waste challenge.

Acknowledging technology's potential for assisting with infrastructure and overcoming knowledge barriers, she noted innovation and technology can also play a role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, green growth and assisting with climate change challenges.

Sher said UNEP is conducting extensive research on e-waste. UNEP launched a landmark report, Recycling - from E-Waste to Resources, in February 2010 that examined e-waste in 11 developing countries, including Kenya.

A recent baseline study done in 2008 that showed Kenya generates 3,000 tons of electronic waste per year.

The study predicts that the quantity is expected to increase as demand increases.

Internationally, China, India and Pakistan receive much of the world's e-waste. Worldwide, e-waste generation is growing by about 40 million tons a year.

"Raising recycling rates and re-using valuable metals and components, as well as increasing safe waste management and its regulation, is critical if countries and businesses are to transform mountains of e-waste into an asset", said Ms. Cropper

The meeting observed that increased pace of technological development and obsolescence, many appliances have a short life-expectancy and require sound re-use, recycling and disposal solutions.

Dumping or improper recycling of electronic waste causes serious environmental contamination, and while electronic goods are mostly used in the developed world, many end up in developing countries.

National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) Managing Director Ayub Macharia observed that increased pace of technological development and obsolescence meant many appliances have a short life-expectancy and require sound re-use, recycling and disposal solutions.

He said dumping or improper recycling of electronic waste causes serious environmental contamination, and while electronic goods are mostly used in the developed world, many end up in developing countries.

The stakeholders also discussed among other key topics, the need to identify and map the environmental impact of e-waste on Kenya, capacity constraints hindering the disposal of e-waste in Kenya and the collection system and recycling infrastructure of e-waste.

The meeting finalized guidelines on management of e-waste en route to an amendment to Kenya's waste laws and regulations in order to minimize the impacts and maximize the benefits of growing numbers of electronic products manufactured in Kenya or imported into the country.

E-waste consists of old electronic items such as computers, printers, mobile phones, refrigerators and televisions.

Increasing demand for electronic goods in Kenya and in the developing world means that levels of e-waste are growing fast and the hazardous substances such as heavy metals contained in most of these products are posing a serious risk to the environment and to human health.

However, e-waste also presents an economic opportunity through the recycling and refurbishing of discarded electronic goods and the harvesting of the precious metals they contain.

The forum stressed the need by all stakeholders to adopt t recommendations and guidelines on e-waste management and a review of the Kenyan government's own electronic waste disposal procedures.

SONY PRESS RELEASE

2010-09-01T06:00:00.001-07:00

Sony Pictures Entertainment Receives LEED Gold Certification For Culver City Lot Office Project

PR Newswire
08/30/10 - 01:09 PM EDT
CULVER CITY, Calif., Aug. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Pictures Entertainment today announced that it has been awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold certification for the studio's Lot and Office Transformation (LOT) Project by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The LOT Project included the construction of two new 100,000 square foot office buildings, named after Jack Cohn and Harry Cohn, and a parking structure located at the heart of the studio's historic lot based in Culver City, California.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090128/SONYPICLOGO)

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090128/SONYPICLOGO)

"We are proud to receive this designation for our newest buildings on the lot," said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures. "It's our belief that we have a responsibility to help create a greener world for our community and future generations, and this project is an important part of our overall sustainability efforts."

"We're excited to be recognized by such a respected international body," said Amy Pascal, Co-Chairman of Sony Pictures. "We're also gratified that the buildings and the park area between them have become a new 'center of gravity' for our lot, a place where employees and visitors come to eat, exercise and meet with one another in an atmosphere that can be both relaxed and refreshing."

The LEED Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for evaluating water, energy and atmosphere efficiency; material and resource selection and indoor environmental quality of sites for sustainability.

The Jack Cohn and Harry Cohn buildings, which were designed for Sony Pictures by Gensler Architecture with developer Georgetown Company and general contractor CW Driver, were recognized by USGBC for a number of factors related to their design and construction. Elements rated positively by USGBC include: the use of local and recycled building materials as well as diverting over 93 percent (16,128 tons) of construction waste material from landfills; the incorporation of onsite filtration system for storm water runoff and low-flow toilets and urinals; the use of low-emitting carpeting, paint, sealants, adhesives and wall coverings; the installation of motion detector lights and energy efficient light bulbs; the implementation of "Green Housekeeping" building maintenance standards; and the availability of preferred parking for low emitting and fuel efficient vehicles as well as car pools and van pools.

In addition, the LOT Project included the construction of a state of the art, highly efficient central cooling plant.

"Naturally, a project of this size and scope was undertaken with a great deal of thought and care," said Jeff Hargleroad, Executive Vice President, Corporate Operations. "We recognized early on this was a great opportunity to pursue design and construction practices that would map to our core values as a company; it became obvious that this was the right thing to do."

As the first and only studio to achieve ISO14001 certification (the international standard for managing an organizations impact on the environment), Sony Pictures Entertainment has had an established sustainability practice studio-wide since 2001.

Led by Lynton and Pascal, the studio's emphasis on the pursuit of environmental sustainability has taken on a new energy in the past two years. Goals announced in the fall of 2008 include a commitment to go "zero waste" on the studio's main lot. A composting program in partnership with the City of Culver City has helped move the company significantly forward to meet that goal. In addition to the LEED building project and other facilities and operations initiatives, the studio is pursuing sustainable practices across production, consumer products, employee programs and community outreach. For more information on SPE's sustainability efforts, visit: http://www.sonypictures.com/green/.

About Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America (SCA), a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution, operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in more than 140 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com.

SOURCE Sony Pictures Entertainment

JEERY BROWN!

2010-08-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

This story appeared on Network World at
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/082610-california-files-charges-against-e-waste.html

California files charges against e-waste recycler's execs

The company managers submitted false reimbursement requests to the state, the attorney general alleges

By Grant Gross, IDG News Service
August 26, 2010 11:04 AM ET
Sponsored by:

California Attorney General Edmund Brown Jr. has filed criminal charges against the owner and two managers of a San Jose electronic waste recycling firm, accusing them of submitting US$1 million in fraudulent reimbursement claims for more than 2 million pounds of waste they never recycled.

Two managers at Tung Tai Group were arrested last week, Brown announced late Wednesday. They are John Chen, 38, of Hillsborough, California, and Jason Huang, 65, of Foster City, California. They both posted bail, set at $1 million for each, Brown said in a news release.

Company owner Joseph Chen, 69, of Hillsborough, is in China, and Brown's office is making arrangements for him to return to the U.S. to face the charges, the release said.

"Tung Tai Group attempted to collect $1 million in fraudulent and fictitious state reimbursements for millions of pounds of electronic waste that didn't exist," Brown said in a statement. "This brazen scheme is a violation of state law and the public trust."

Tung Tai Group did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the charges.

The three men face 17 criminal counts for submitting false documents, attempting to defraud the state, forgery and hazardous waste storage and handling violations. If convicted, the defendants face a maximum of nine years in prison.

E-waste recyclers in California break down television sets, computer monitors, laptops and other waste collected from businesses and households in California. Recyclers submit claims for reimbursement to the state Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle). On average, CalRecycle pays $0.43 per pound of material recycled.

In late 2008, CalRecycle auditors contacted investigators at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control after noticing discrepancies in the claims submitted by Tung Tai and the records kept by Golden State Records and Recycling, a company that collected and transferred materials to Tung Tai, Brown said in the release.

In July 2009, state agents searched the Tung Tai facility and discovered two separate sets of records, Brown said. Those records showed that Tung Tai had significantly inflated the pounds of recycled material it submitted for reimbursement to CalRecycle between January and September 2008, Brown's office said.

For example, one set of records showed that a collector delivered 62,000 pounds of material to Tung Tai, but forms submitted to CalRecycle for reimbursement listed nearly 555,000 pounds. That change increased Tung Tai's requested reimbursement from the state by more than $235,000, Brown's office said.

Tung Tai also submitted records to CalRecycle listing items that were never delivered to the company by any approved collector of electronic waste, Brown said.

The state did not make payments on inflated requests for reimbursement, which totaled $1 million, Brown said.

John Chen and Huang are scheduled to be arraigned in Santa Clara Superior Court on Sept. 9.

EARTH911

2010-08-30T08:34:00.001-07:00

Dell Sets Packaging Bar High For Electronics Industry
by Amanda Wills
Published on August 25th, 2010
No Comments

Technological advances and stringent legislation have made 2010 a big year for the electronics industry.

But despite a high interest in e-waste exportation and the development of sleeker designs that allow for easier recycling, many manufacturers are still skipping over one important detail: packaging.

According to Dell's 2009 Corporate Responsibility report, the company's free consumer recycling program has collected 484 million pounds of equipment since 2006. Photo: Dell's Official Flickr Page
In 2008, Dell announced a plan to revolutionize computer packaging by using recycled content and cutting down on materials – a plan that was expected to result in a significant reduction in carbon emissions and fuel usage related to transportation.

On Tuesday, the company announced that its fervent push towards that goal has proven substantial. Dell has eliminated the use of more than 18.2 million pounds of packaging material since 2008.

To put that into perspective, that’s the same weight as 226 fully-loaded 18-wheelers or almost 4,184 small pick-ups.

Outlined in its recently released 2009 Corporate Responsibility Report, Dell has increased the amount of recycled content in its packaging by approximately 32 percent.

The company is now 94 percent of the way to achieving its stated goal of increasing recycled content in packaging by 40 percent by 2012.

As an added bonus, more than half (57 percent) of Dell’s packaging materials can now be conveniently recycled by customers using their local curbside pick-up programs. The company is aiming for that number to be 75 percent by the end of 2012.

According to Oliver Campbell, senior manager of Global Packaging, Dell’s dramatic reduction started with simple changes that allowed for smaller cube packaging, such as putting fewer disks, catalogs, etc.

Dell also used engineering tools to run various ”what if” scenarios. With these tools, Dell has optimized its Inspiron 15 laptop packaging so that 63 laptops fit on each shipping pallet, up from 54. More laptops on each pallet means more laptops fit into each vehicle, resulting in fewer shipping vehicles and less shipping-related environmental impact.

“Establishing these packaging goals has transformed my team from great packaging engineers to inspired environmental champions,” says Campbell. “The progress we’ve made has kept a lot of materials out of landfills, made responsible packaging disposal easier for customers and is making Dell a more environmentally responsible company.”

Earlier this year, Dell also released a new line of notebook computers made solely from bamboo as an alternative to plastic casing. This type of packaging can be placed in compost systems, and Dell used the resulting soil from its tests to grow cucumber and sunflower plants.

This isn’t the first time Dell has been ahead of the curve on manufacturer responsibility. In 2009, it became the first major computer manufacturer to formally ban the exporting of electronic waste to developing countries.

Currently, the U.S. has no federal law against sending e-waste to dealers overseas, despite existence of the widely accepted Basel Convention, an international treaty which controls the cross-border movement of hazardous waste. The Electronics TakeBack Coalition estimates that the U.S. exports enough e-waste each year to fill 5,126 shipping containers, which when stacked, would reach 8 miles high.

DECCAN CHRONICLE

2010-08-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

The e-waste land
August 26th, 2010
DC Correspondent
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Tags: e-waste generation, electronic devices, faulty hardware, Must-Read

City spews 30K tonnes of e-waste per annum
The IT revolution in Tamil Nadu, particularly in Chennai, has created an additional burden for the civic authorities. The e-waste generation in the city is on a rise due to the enhanced usage of computers and latest electronic devices and there is no proper scientific mechanism to treat e-waste.
A recent study by the city corporation revealed that Chennai generates about 14,000 tonnes of e-waste from faulty computers and hardware. For the fiscal 2008-09, the waste generated through compact disc (CDs) and tapes was estimated to be around 2,800 tonnes, while mobile phones generated a solid waste of 47 tonnes during this period.
It is approximately estimated that Chennai generates about 30,000 tonnes of e-waste annually. “The city corporation will soon identify a private firm to handle the e-waste generated from Chennai. The corporation council will discuss this issue shortly,” corporation commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni said. Only a few private firms handle e-waste and they sell the parts that can be reused. In future, the civic body will also have an e-waste management policy, the commissioner added.
According to Ripon Buildings sources, the treatment of e-waste will be taken up on a scientific basis. The private firm will procure the e-waste from the corporation and after dismantling the electronic structures it can re-sell the products. Besides, some dismantled parts should be segregated and shredded before undergoing special treatment.
The special treatment will also include electromagnetic separation; Eddy current separation and density separation using water has also to be undertaken. The process has to be scientifically dealt with as the ferrous, non-ferrous metals and plastics have to be removed.
The civic body has engaged a private consultant for selection of a private developer for implementing e-waste management. The flourishing Chennai IT industrial belt is one of the electronic hubs of the country producing enormous amounts of e-waste and this waste has to be treated as per the ‘The Hazardous Waste Management Rules, 2003’, the corporation sources added.
With no stringent rules to stop import and dumping of e-waste and municipal garbage in India from abroad, the country seems to be turning into an easy dump yard of rubbish from other countries. This poses a major health hazard to the people.

SRI LANKA'S DAILY MIRROR

2010-08-30T08:21:00.001-07:00

CEA enhances public private partnership for e-waste management
TUESDAY, 24 AUGUST 2010 00:00
Electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) is becoming a problem in Sri Lanka with the development and increasing per capita income of the country. Though e-items are playing a big role in our lives when it became waste it can cause many environmental as well as health problems. Therefore the Government and the private sector have taken several steps for e-waste management in the country.

A meeting on e-waste management in Sri Lanka and contribution of stakeholders in the subject was held at the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), Battaramulla, last Thursday, 12 August 2008, with a view of streamlining of e-waste management in the country. The meeting was chaired by Minister of Environment Anura Priyadarshana Yapa.

The Secretary to the Ministry of Environment Dr. R. H. S. Samarathunge, the CEA Chairman Charitha Herath, and the Director General of CEA, Ramani Ellepola and some other semi government stakeholders attended the meeting. Mobile phone service providers, e-vendors and licence bearing (for e-waste handling/export) facilitators represented the private sector as stakeholders of the e-waste management in the country.

The Minister said that we both state sector and private sector should join together to manage e-waste properly in the country. He urged that the most practicable way of implementing such a programme is public -private partnership as practiced for the waste mobile phones and accessories collection programme with Dialog Axiata Plc, which is functioning today.

CEA Chairman proposed to enhance the said existing programme towards all mobile phone service providers to set up a heavy collection network with all respective outlets for them.

It was also proposed to form a steering committee with the participation of the public and private sectors for strengthening e-waste management in the country. It was decided to get all stakeholders together under a common logo and a theme for e-waste management, to develop an effective collecting mechanism for selected e items distributed among all outlets of every stakeholder company and to educate and make people aware on technical handling of e-waste and to handover them to collection centres. The CEA will coordinate and facilitate the mechanism in possible ways. It is expected to get the financial facilitation for the programme from the revenue collected through Environmental Conservation Levy.

FINANCIAL STANDARD EDITORIAL, august 30 2010

2010-08-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

Nigeria as Dumping Ground for E-waste

By Editorial Board

Nigeria as Dumping Ground for E-waste

Recently, Dr. Ngeri Benebo, Director
General of the National Environmental
Standards and Regulations
Enforcement Agency (NESREA) raised alarm over the health and environmental hazards posed by indiscriminate importation of used electrical/electronics by unscrupulous businessmen into the country. Benebo who spoke at the recently concluded National Conference on ICT and the Nigerian Environment in Lagos identified lack of legislation, weak global and regional response as well as absence of infrastructure for recycling as some of the challenges militating against e-waste control in Nigeria.

Sadly, as far back as February 2008, Greenpeace, a global environmental advocacy group, had in a statement declared that "Nigeria is one of many destinations for the developed world’s toxic e-waste." A flurry of activities designed to meet the damaging revelation head-on were initiated at the time. Benebo told a stakeholders meeting that the Federal Government had initiated a number of actions to combat the scourge of e-waste dumping in the country including the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee on e-waste management to proffer lasting solutions to the problem.

Investigations by Greenpeace also revealed that the problem was traceable to the large influx of second hand electronic/electrical equipment into the country. Benebo then reportedly said "all imports of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEE) that qualify as WEE under the Basel Convention including those identified by the national definitions in Nigeria could be prohibited. Nigeria can impose additional requirements regarding age and packaging in order to ensure that the material sent into the country as second hand electrical/electronic goods are not hazardous wastes."

It is inexcusable that four years after the Basel Action Network, a pressure group that monitors the trade in hazardous waste, published a report which claimed that some 500 containers with 400,000 second-hand computers were unloaded every month in Lagos ports, the government has yet to establish sound legal and regulatory framework capable of putting a stop to the odious practice. Although Article 2(1) of the Basel Convention on the Control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal did not give a universal definition of waste by describing it as "substances or objects which are disposed of or are intended to be disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the provisions of national law, Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia proffers a more detailed definition of e-waste as "all secondary computers, entertainment device electronics, mobile phones, and other items such as TVs and refrigerators, whether sold, donated, or discarded by their original owners."

Benebo is right in describing e-waste as an emerging hazardous waste issue in Africa with absence of national infrastructure to recycle the materials as well as legislation to regulate the sector. The proposed national policy on e-waste management should fill this gap for Nigeria. It should ensure that the incidence of dumping of e-waste from the developed countries is minimised to the barest minimum if not eradicated. Because millions of computers become obsolete in the developed world every year, the menace of hazardous waste to the African continent remains potent and real. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that worldwide, 20 million to 50 million tonnes of electronics are discarded each year. Less than 10 per cent gets recycled and half or more ends up overseas. As Western technology becomes cheaper and the latest machine comes to be regarded as a disposable fashion statement, this dumping will only intensify.

Successful implementation of the policy would, however, require the support of Nigerians because the ravishing poverty afflicting a vast majority of the citizenry means that most Nigerians cannot afford brand new products. More importantly, the requisite equipment that can aid detection must be procured while the officials who will be deployed to the borders are also given the necessary training. The world’s waterways are still filled with ships looking to unload toxic waste in vulnerable countries. The latest dimension to dumping of hazardous waste which consists of the dumping of unwanted mobile phones, computers and printers, which contain cadmium, lead, mercury and other poisons means that target countries must ensure that the dangerous wastes are not allowed on their territories.

The public should also be educated on the dangers of burning damaged or disused electronics because improper disposal of e-waste can release hazardous chemicals and heavy metals into the environment, making certain areas toxic.

SRI LANKAN SUNDAY TIMES

2010-08-30T08:05:00.001-07:00

Sri Lanka to reduce e-waste with private sector assistance

22 AUGUST 2010

By Bandula Sirimanna
Sri Lanka's Central Environmental Authority (CEA) is taking action to manage electronic waste with the assistance of the private sector as this would be a serious problem in the near future, a senior official said.

CEA Chairman Charitha Herath told the Business Times that increasing use of hi-tech products creates more electronic waste in the country leading to many health and environmental hazards. The CEA will launch island-wide e-waste management campaigns and programmes under a common theme and a logo. A committee comprising members of the stakeholder institutions will also be set up for planning the future programmes, Mr Herath said.

The Ministry of Environment is also devising a policy to reduce the creation of e-waste and prevent toxic components, he revealed. “Earlier we were thinking about establishing a dedicating recycling facility but then we understood that the Sri Lankan market is small and so it was not financially viable for the private sector to come in at this point of time," he said.

These decisions were taken at a stakeholder meeting on e-waste management held on August 12 at the CEA, chaired by the Minister of Environment. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa with the participation of the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Chairman CEA and the Director General of the CEA. At present some telecommunication companies have moved on with successful collection systems for used mobile phones while considerable amount of e-waste continues to be recycled in the informal sector.

Almost all of these processes are rudimentary in nature and could be dangerous and toxic. Some processes involve burning, breaking of CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)’s and other chemical and physical processes to recover materials. These result in release of toxic materials to the environment through emissions and effluents and there is also great potential to cause health impacts to the workers involved in these processes, Mr Herath said.

A recent study conducted by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the CEA revealed that the penetration rate of mobile phones reached 40% in 2009 as against the penetration rate of 28% in 2008. According to the annual report of the Central Bank, 2009 usage of mobile phone reached up to 85% on subscriber base. Annual growth rate estimated for the other major e-items include: Personal Computers 8-10%, Printers 5-7%, Televisions 6-8%, Refrigerators 4-6%, Air-Conditioners 4-6%, Photocopy Machines 2-4%, Washing Machines 6-8% and Batteries 4-6%.

Mr Herat said “While there have been some initiatives to set policies and regulations for e-waste management, overall, these hazardous wastes are currently disposed of in a haphazard manner in roadside dump yards as well as in home gardens”. Under this set up the CEA will devise a policy to tackle this problem, he added

HOW I LOVE THE GLOBAL NORTH

2010-08-30T08:03:00.001-07:00

EXported e-waste seized by customs officials
PTI, Aug 20, 2010, 05.29pm IST

CHENNAI: More than 120 tonnes of e-waste imported from various countries by different companies in violation of Customs Act and hazardous waste management rules have been seized at the port.

The e-waste shipped here in eight containers were seized by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials.

Of the total five consignments, one was from Australia, one from Canada, two from Korea and one from Brunei, a DRI release said.

The subsequent examination of the goods revealed that all the computer monitors, CPUs, processors were very old, used and appeared to be in unusable condition.

A large proportion of the computer monitors were found to be more than ten years old and clearly meant for recycling.

In one of the consignment imported from Brunei by a company it was found to contain 166 used old computer monitors, 89 control panels, electrical motor parts, printers and keyboards.

Cases have been registered against the importers for violations of provisions of the Customs Act 1962 read with hazardous waste (management, handling and transboundary movement) rules 2008.

These goods need to be re-exported back to the country of origin after due process of adjudication.

Read more: Imported e-waste seized by customs officials - Pollution - Environment - Home - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/Imported-e-waste-seized-by-customs-officials-/articleshow/6381703.cms#ixzz0y6L6xc96

YET MORE TROUBLE IN PARADISE

2010-08-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

Sacramento Bee

California's pioneering e-waste program a model gone wrong
tknudson@sacbee.com

PUBLISHED SUNDAY, JUL. 18, 2010

It seemed a perfect symmetry: California, the world's high-tech capital, would lead the way in recycling the debris of our digital revolution.

But five years after its launch, the state government-run electronic waste program stands out not as a model of the green innovation for which California is famous but as an example of good intentions gone awry.

By paying more than $320 million to collect and recycle computer monitors and televisions, the state has built a magnet for fraud totaling tens of millions of dollars, including illegal material smuggled in from out of state.

"I don't think anybody could have forecast the greed that has poisoned the program," said Bob Erie, chief executive officer of E-World Recyclers north of San Diego and once an enthusiastic supporter of the state effort.

None of the many states that followed California took on e-waste recycling as a government program; instead they made industry responsible for its own waste.

California officials have long been aware of the problems with their approach, too; they met with recycling industry officials two years ago at a private club in Los Angeles to discuss solutions, including whether the state should be in the e-waste business at all.

But nothing has changed. Instead, The Bee found:

• Recyclers and collectors have submitted $23 million in faulty and fraudulent e-waste claims that have been rejected by the state. But state and industry officials estimate that other ineligible claims, totaling as much as $30 million, may have inadvertently been paid.

• More than two dozen e-waste firms have been investigated for fraud by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control over the past two years, but none has been fined or prosecuted.

• Even though California officials know that illegal e-waste is flowing into the state – and acknowledge that public funds are being wasted recycling some of it – no state official has traveled out of state to investigate.

A new California Gold Rush

Truck after truck drops its load of electronic garbage at ECS Refining, one of the state's best-known e-waste recyclers based in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Until it is fed into two ear-piercing shredders, the pyramid of printers, fax machines, keyboards, CD players and telephones serves as a monument to our electronic obsession.

Not far away, some of the heaviest, most hazardous material also piles up: computer monitors and TVs – both of which contain significant amounts of lead. Each year Californians discard about 3.3 million of them, 9,200 a day on average.

Those larger items are the targets of California's e-waste recycling program, which began Jan. 1, 2005. Six million unwanted monitors and TVs that had no value on New Year's Eve turned into green gold overnight.

The goal of the law was to prevent lead-laden glass tubes from winding up in landfills while jump-starting a green industry to collect and recycle the castoffs. At that, it has been a resounding success.

So far some 840 million pounds of monitors and TVs, about 17 million units, have been recycled in California, far more than in any other state.

"It's easy to throw stones, but the hard numbers on what we've recycled as a state are astonishing," said John Shegerian, chief executive officer of Electronic Recyclers International.

His firm, based in Fresno, is the largest monitor and TV recycler in the state. But that distinction bears a footnote: The state has rejected $2.7 million of ERI's claims, mostly in 2008 and 2009, state records show.

"I am not happy about it. I am not proud of it," said Shegerian, blaming tougher state scrutiny of e-waste sources for the denials. "That was a black period. And financially it hurt."

California's electronic waste recycling system could be likened to a gigantic river. At the mouth of the waterway are some 60 recyclers who tear apart TVs and monitors for copper, steel, plastic and other components.

Upstream are more than 500 collectors, who funnel e-waste to recyclers. Farther upstream are handlers – scavengers and peddlers – who round up material to sell to the collectors.

Overseeing the flow are two agencies: CalRecycle, which scrutinizes claims and pays recyclers, and the Department of Toxic Substances Control, which investigates fraud and environmental violations.

Funding it all are state consumers, through an $8 to $25 fee on the purchase of new monitors and televisions.

At the program's inception, with hundreds of millions of dollars in state payments up for grabs, companies seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"It was the second coming of the California Gold Rush," said Erie, the Southern California recycler. "They came from Texas. They came from Pennsylvania. They came from all over the place and said, 'Let's open up in California because the government's paying money.' "

That frenzy caught the state off guard. Faulty and fraudulent claims of $1.9 million the first year climbed to $6.8 million in 2008 and to $9.8 million last year; overall the state has rejected payment on 6.5 percent of all claims – $22.6 million out of $347 million.

Unknown is how many ineligible claims have escaped notice. "If you are going to hold me to a number, add probably another 10 percent for the stuff that got through," said Jeff Mahan, chief of the e-waste fraud unit at the toxic substances control department.

To qualify for payment, recyclers must document that monitors and TVs come from California. But the logbooks they give the state, with names and addresses of the original owners – provided by collectors and handlers who gathered the waste – frequently read like works of fiction.

There are bogus names, made-up addresses, dead people and Hollywood celebrities. And there is brazenness by the truckload.

"I would find Dustin Hoffman's name, Robin Williams' name, Mike Tyson's name. It's just incredible," Mahan said.

Here's what one state official wrote after spot-checking a 2009 claim from SIMS Recycling Solutions headquarters in Roseville seeking $482,000 for 1.2 million pounds of e-waste delivered to its Southern California plant:

"100% of the sources contacted stated they DND (did not discard) … The last names appear to have been looked up in some sort of alphabetical directory … . Patterns of falsehood are obvious in these logs."

That entire $482,000 claim was rejected. In all, the state has turned down $4.5 million in e-waste claims from SIMS, the most in the state.

SIMS has appealed the denials. But its president, Steve Skurnac, acknowledged that his firm should have screened names more carefully.

"The onus is on us to prove that it's qualified material," Skurnac added. "We understand that."

Other surprises emerged as the state learned about the scramble for e-waste on the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco – and the sources of recyclers' paperwork.

As one claim reviewer wrote after checking with an L.A. handler who sold e-waste to SIMS last year: "Call to Issac with Cal-E. He stated almost all peddlers on logs are illegal aliens who cannot read or write. He reconstructs the logs from their pieces of paper (and) napkins."

Such discoveries, though, typically come months after monitors and televisions have been dismantled and recycled, leaving investigators with more questions than evidence.

"There is really no corpse to look at like with a murder," said Mahan, the e-waste fraud chief. "It's all paperwork."

Buried in the blizzard of payment claims and e-mails lurk enough twists and turns to fill a John Grisham novel – without the convenient conclusions. Chapters end abruptly, stories change, numbers don't add up, recollections collide and cases evaporate.

Shopping spree in Arizona

At midday, small stones along the streets of Tucson, Ariz., glitter like silver and platinum in the hot sun. In recent years, Los Angeles e-waste collector Global Comp One has been active here, buying up thousands of unwanted monitors as if they, too, were precious metals.
"We purchase in quantities of any volume," the company's owner, Allen Baker, wrote in an April 8, 2009, letter soliciting material from Rise Equipment Recycling Center. "I am in Arizona bi-weekly and would welcome an opportunity to meet with you."

A year earlier, state officials had noted that Global Comp One was delivering monitors to Electronics Recyclers in Fresno and ARC International in Los Angeles with paperwork riddled with "disconnected phone numbers, wrong numbers (and) wrong contact names," state records show.

They also had fielded a tip that the collector was buying monitors in Colorado and redeeming them in California.

Though they had documented no wrongdoing, their concern was based on simple economics. In Tucson, for example, computer monitors sell for a dollar apiece, sometimes less, while California recyclers offer e-waste collectors around $8 to $10 apiece.

The state of California, in turn, pays recyclers about $15 to $18, depending on weight, to recycle them – but only if the waste comes from California.

Jeff Hunts, manager of the e-waste payment system at CalRecycle, had forwarded the Colorado tip to Mahan, urging him to take action.

"We need a big win," Hunts wrote.

Mahan had started investigating, but he didn't get far. "All the addresses we had for him, he had moved," Mahan said. "I would certainly like to know where I can get ahold of Mr. Baker."

Baker was not hard to find. The Bee tracked him down by phone recently in Southern California, where he said the state's concerns are well-founded – just not about him.

"The system is fraught with fraud," he said.

Baker said he buys monitors across America to refurbish and sell to buyers in other countries for $3.50 to $12 each. He no longer participates in California's recycling program, he said, but when he did he never intentionally redeemed out-of-state material.

"I'm not saying it's not possible that, because we're doing business intrastate and interstate, that something might have gotten mixed at one time," he said. But the state, Baker said, checked him out and "we were clean … We run a very tight ship."

Mahan said Baker has not been cleared at all. "We still have a lot of interest in talking to him," he said.

Where did monitors go?

Other mysterious cases unfold uncomfortably close to home.
Last December, six piles of used monitors from state agencies sat on pallets in the warehouse near Arco Arena where the state auctions off its own electronic discards.

There were charcoal-black HPs, just 3 years old, milky-white View-Sonics, manufactured in 1997 and a real antique: a Packard Bell, vintage 1989.

No one wanted them – except Farrah Philip, a buyer for KYO Computer, a Bay Area recycler with a history of run-ins with the state, from violations of state environmental regulations to $400,000 in rejected e-waste claims.

But unlike Global Comp in Arizona, KYO paid a premium for the monitors at auction that day – about $14 apiece.

CalRecycle officials were not aware that KYO had attended the auction and, when informed of the price paid, they were mystified. How could KYO make a profit?

Eight days later, The Bee tracked the monitors back to KYO's warehouse in industrial Newark, in southern Alameda County, to see what was up. There, the trail went cold.

As trucks rumbled by outside, Philip insisted the purchase made sense. The state, she said, would pay her 39 cents a pound for the monitors to be recycled, at least $15 each. Even after paying another firm to process the glass, she could make money off the copper and plastic.

And because these monitors obviously were from California, there would be no challenge to her logbooks' veracity. "The state knows this came from them," she said.

Could we see the 108 monitors from Sacramento? That would not be possible, Philip said, because they had already been dismantled, their glass tubes shipped to the nearest glass recycler in Oregon.

In the wake of the auction, CalRecycle has launched an internal audit of KYO to scrutinize its e-waste. In such audits, one scenario the agency must rule out involves shipping working monitors overseas for resale, then backfilling those spots for state recycling reimbursement with out-of-state or other ineligible monitors.

Reached recently at her office, Philip said she was not aware of the audit. Asked again about the December auction purchase, her story changed. She said KYO did lose money on those monitors after all; she had bought them to keep workers busy while searching for cheaper units.

Philip declined to discuss details.

"This is secret, confidential," she said. "We cannot share (with) everybody."

Tough talk, no prosecutions

Recycling fraud was among many topics quietly debated in the summer of 2008, when state and industry officials met in Los Angeles to discuss the program's flaws.

"We need a bill to be introduced that will fix the e-waste program," say official notes of the meeting obtained by The Bee.

Ideas filled the room: better tracking, more transparency, tougher enforcement of fraud, stricter standards for collectors – and shifting the job of recycling to manufacturers.

"Producer responsibility makes more sense," the notes say. "You built it, you take care of it."

Two years later, not much has happened.

"The enforcement is there, but we could do better than what we are doing," said Gary Petersen, a former California Integrated Waste Board member who called the meeting. "There are bad people out there. We've got to make sure those guys get caught."

Mahan, who has tried to catch them for two years, said 26 investigations have been launched. Five were strong enough to forward to criminal investigators in his department; two have been referred to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and the state attorney general's office.

To date, there have been no prosecutions, penalties or fines. But there is plenty of pent-up anger and finger-pointing.

"Clearly DTSC has not made this their priority," said one senior state e-waste official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Why are they not picking up these things and running with them?"

Mahan said part of the problem lies with his department's regulations, which are "geared to enforcing environmental violations, not financial things."

CalRecycle's Hunts counts himself among the frustrated.

"It's tough to get a DA or the AG interested in recycling crime," Hunts said. "It's not sexy. It's not going to get anybody re-elected."

Another case has been referred to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, according to one state official. But Ken Rosenblatt, a supervising district attorney for environmental protection in Santa Clara, refused to talk about it.

"I'm afraid I just don't have any information on that subject for you," Rosenblatt said.

In lieu of prosecutions, Hunts said the state's most effective strategy has been denying payments on bad claims – a process that has pushed some out of business.

But The Bee found that several companies docked for large volumes of suspect claims remain active.

That includes Tung Tai Group, a San Jose recycler that had 38 percent of its claims – $1.6 million in all – rejected over the past two years and is under investigation by the state.

John Chen, Tung Tai's executive vice president, said his firm fell victim to unscrupulous e-waste collectors: "A lot of it was not having proper logs – not fraudulent logs – and not understanding what our mistakes were."

Chen complained that the state took months to inform his company about problems and rejected many claims for minor paperwork infractions.

Overall, Chen said he believes CalRecycle is improperly denying millions of dollars of legitimate e-waste. Because recyclers pay for the waste months before the state rules on claims, they are the ones who suffer the financial consequences, he said.

Others feel too much attention is devoted to the provenance of e-waste, not enough to the importance of recycling.

Beyond basic ethical concerns, Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, said out-of-state waste getting recycled in California is no big deal.

"Frankly I'm glad that there is a recycling opportunity for that waste so that hazardous material isn't getting illegally dumped," Murray said.

Recyclers with good track records, though, are unhappy with the lack of action against scofflaws. Paul Gao, president of California Electronic Asset Recovery, east of Sacramento, has had less than one half of one percent of his claims turned down since 2005.

"We try our best," Gao said. "Why can they not prosecute somebody?"

Part of the problem may lie in the DNA of California's e-waste recycling program, in particular its reliance on tedious after-the-fact verification, and its focus on documenting minute volumes of waste.

"Focusing on fraudulent activities like shipping truckloads of (monitors) in from other states is imperative to keeping our program honest," Gao said.

Instead, he said, the state often insists recyclers track down and produce documentation for just a few monitors at a time.

"The program could be run better," Gao said. "You have to catch these bad guys."

IS THIS LOVE? OR PROGRESS?

2010-08-16T04:41:00.001-07:00

The Producers Guild of America just released greenproductionguide.com, a database of environmentally-friendly products and services from vendors across the United States that is meant to diminish wasteful practices in film and TV production. Take a peek! There are valuable links and downloads

ANDREW CALABRESE WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO SEND ME A LINK TO THESE STUNNING PHOTOS

2010-08-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/08/04/magazine/20100815-dump.html?emc=eta1

EPA and Intel

2010-08-08T18:43:00.001-07:00

EPA Announces Nation’s Top 50 Green Power Organizations

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named the 50 green power partners using the most renewable electricity. The Green Power Partnership’s top purchasers use more than 12 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electricity use of more than 1 million average American homes. Green Power helps to prevent emissions from conventional power sources that are linked to harmful air pollution and climate change.

The top 10 on the list are Intel Corporation, Kohl’s Department Stores, Whole Foods Market, City of Houston, Dell Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Cisco Systems, Inc., commonwealth of Pennsylvania, U.S. Air Force, and the city of Dallas.

Green power is generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas, and low-impact hydropower. Green power resources produce electricity with an environmental profile superior to conventional power technologies and produce no net increase to greenhouse gas emissions. Purchases of green power also help accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide.

Intel Corporation remains the partnership’s largest single purchaser of green power, using more than 1.4 billion kWh, equivalent to the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of nearly 125,000 average American homes. Washington, D.C. (No. 14), TD Bank, N.A. (No. 15), the state of Illinois (No. 23), Pearson, Inc. (No. 27), Chicago Public Schools (No. 35), and Harris N.A. (No. 42), are all making first-time appearances on the national list. BD (No. 19), a global medical technology company, and the Port of Portland (No. 49), both rose in the rankings by nearly doubling their green power purchases. Nearly a quarter of the top 50 partners have increased their green power purchases since April.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership works with more than 1,200 partner organizations to voluntarily purchase green power to reduce the environmental impacts of conventional electricity use. Overall, EPA’s green power partners are using more than 17 billion kWh of green power annually, equivalent to the CO2 emissions from electricity use of more than 1.5 million average American homes.

USEFUL BBC ACCOUNT

2010-08-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

EUROPE

4 August 2010 Last updated at 08:04 ET
Europe breaking electronic waste export ban
By Aidan Lewis
BBC News, Rotterdam
Old televisions and computers containing hazardous substances are still being exported from Europe despite a ban aimed at stopping the trade, which poisons workers at makeshift recycling plants in Africa and Asia.
In Rotterdam a Dutch customs officer swings open a heavy metal door to reveal a pile of old televisions stacked tight within a shipping container.
Instead of proceeding to Ivory Coast, these goods will be impounded, checked and most likely sent back to Germany, from where they arrived.
This is the front line of the European effort to stop electronic and electrical equipment, consumed and discarded in ever greater quantities, from being dumped in the developing world.
It is a daunting task.
Rotterdam is Europe's busiest port, a hub for regional shipping. More than nine million six-metre (20ft) containers or their equivalent pass through each year.
Just one-third of those carrying goods for export are from the Netherlands, with most coming from the EU's other 26 states, including the UK and southern Europe.
Customs officials select suspect shipments through risk profiling, sorting through a list of indicators including the container's sender and its destination.
'One step behind'
But even though the Dutch have led the way in cracking down on illegal e-waste exports - the European Union banned the trade in the mid-1990s - only 3% or so of the containers in Rotterdam are checked. In an average week one shipment may be caught, which could mean several containers holding 800 monitors each.
An unknown number of containers slip through, or are directed to European ports with fewer controls.
"Risk profiles are always based on what happened before and you're actually often one step behind," says Carl Huijbregts of the Dutch environment ministry's inspectorate.
Because this is an illicit trade, there is little data on its scale. But interceptions in Europe and anecdotal evidence from destination states suggest it is flourishing.
"We have an extraordinary amount of illegal shipment along the coast in Europe", says Karl-Heinz Florenz, a German member of the European Parliament who is working to update EU law.
Traffickers trick the authorities by not labelling goods as electronics, by pretending they are for re-use, or by hiding them in the middle of a container.
The containers that get through are shipped to West Africa - most commonly Ghana and Nigeria - and to South Asian countries including India and Pakistan.
"The fundamental problem with electronics is that it's designed in a very bad way," says Kim Schoppink, a campaigner at the Dutch branch of Greenpeace who travelled to Ghana to look at the issue in 2008.
"That makes it very expensive to recycle in Europe and therefore it's dumped in developing countries."
The e-waste contains valuable metals, which are extracted at informal recycling sites.
But it also contains toxic heavy metals and hazardous chemicals that are handled by workers, some of them children.
"They take some copper and aluminium and the rest they burn," says Ms Schoppink.
"With this burning process a lot of toxic chemicals are released and these workers are exposed to that every day."
Concerns about industrial dumping in the developing world led to the 1989 Basel Convention on international movements of hazardous waste.
In 1994 the European Community adopted the convention, which bans the export of hazardous waste to anywhere outside the OECD grouping of mostly developed countries.
It is meant to complement EU rules encouraging the collection and recycling of e-waste within Europe according to fixed environmental standards.
But by the EU's own admission, its rules are only partially effective. Just one-third of e-waste is thought to be treated in line with the bloc's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive.
'Fundamental issue'
The rest enters a "hidden flow" fed by offices, municipal waste collection points, and shops that take back goods under guarantee, and part of that flow is illegally exported.
"It really has become the crisis issue of the whole Basel Convention," says Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, pointing to the e-waste generated as people buy flat-screen TVs and switch to digital. "It is really the fundamental, number one issue."
He says the US, which has not ratified the Basel Convention, is "way behind" Europe on e-waste, and estimates that as much as 80% of American e-waste is exported, much of it to China through the port of Hong Kong.
In Europe, some countries have a better record than others in applying the directive and trying to stop illegal exports, with southern EU states lagging behind.
But even where officials try to enforce the rules, there are challenges. These include distinguishing between second-hand goods - which are legal to export - and e-waste, and the fact that collection and recycling targets are out of line with the growing amount of electronics generated.
"We have 27 European member states but there are more than 100 collection systems and every system has another weak spot," says Mr Huijbregts.
There are plenty of opportunities for the brokers involved in illegal e-waste trafficking to siphon off e-waste.
"You don't need a truck, you don't need a crane, you don't need a digger," says Mr Florenz. "You only need an office, some connections, and you have to know the regulations and the border and customs."
Alongside environmental damage in the developing world, Mr Florenz has an additional concern - that Europe is buying then losing large quantities of increasingly scarce raw materials contained in e-waste.
And the more these materials fall into the hands of illegal brokers, the tougher it is for companies like Sims Recycling Solutions, which processes much of the e-waste generated in the Netherlands.
There have been e-waste prosecutions in EU states, including the Netherlands and the UK. But observers are worried that they have not produced the kind of penalties that could serve as a deterrent.
"In some countries it can be 200 euros ($260; £165) which, if you look to the profits that they make, is nothing," says Nancy Isarin, an expert on waste shipment with the European environmental network Impel.
"Other countries might have higher fines, but they are never actually implemented."
Beyond tightening controls within the EU, campaigners point to the need to ensure second-hand electronics sent to developing countries for charity are disposed of correctly.
And they flag up broader challenges - getting electronics companies to design greener products and weaning consumers off their electronics habit.
"You have to do everything you can to enforce the laws you have in place and make people pay the costs of what they're doing," says Mr Puckett. "And that ultimately is a really good thing as it drives greener production."

The Kenyan Situation

2010-08-03T16:08:00.001-07:00

Africa Review|The East African|Daily Nation|NTV|NTV Uganda|Daily Monitor|The Citizen|N-Soko
Wednesday
August 4, 2010

COMPANY INDUSTRY
Kenya comes face-to-face with ICT waste

The Ministry of Information and Communications has started campaigns to reduce dumping of used electronic goods.

By Paul Wafula

Posted Wednesday, August 4 2010 at 00:00
Kenya is courting an environmental disaster from increased electronic scrap (e-waste) unless it quickly sets up rules to curb importation of the products.

The International Telecommunication Union warns that the rate at which electronic waste is growing poses a danger unless manufacturers change direction or governments take a firm stand.

Locally, the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) has been pushing for measures to educate users on the dark side of ICT growth.

A 2008 study indicated that Kenya generated 3,000 tonnes of electronic waste from computers, monitors and printers in 2007.

Computer for Schools Kenya, an NGO, says e-waste grows at a rate of about four per cent in a year, which is three times higher than the general waste.

The transition to digital TV broadcasting is expected to compound the problem in Africa while concerns have been raised that donations of second-hand computers is pushing Kenya to the edge.

Kenya is at the verge of an ICT revolution that has seen mobile phones selling for as low as Sh1,000.

However, what is worrying environmentalists is where the old computers, mobile phones, and television sets are taken when new models replace them.

As it is, they end up in landfills or incinerators, meaning that toxic substances like lead, cadmium and mercury used in manufacturing contaminate land, water, and air.

E-waste containing toxic chemicals and heavy metals that cannot be disposed of or recycled makes up five per cent of all municipal solid waste worldwide.

In the past 10 years, African governments have been preoccupied more with universal access to telecoms services without paying equal attention to the impact on the environment.

Information and Communications Minister Samuel Poghisio told an ITU meeting that the short lifespan of mobile handsets and desire to keep up with the latest trendy handsets compound the problem.

According to Ms Judith Katona, the representative and counsellor of ITU, Kenya and the continent at large should not allow the growth of the ICT sector to be at the expense of the environment.

“The fruits of our high-tech revolution are pure poison if these products are improperly disposed of at the end of their useful life,” said Ms Katona.

Although there are environmental laws in Kenya that hold to account those generating toxic waste, and with the failure to comply with disposal standards carrying a penalty of Sh500,000 or a prison term of 18 months, Kenya continues to face environmental and health problems due to indiscriminate, unregulated and trade in electronic waste.

However, the government will find it difficult to fight e-waste at a time when it is striving to meet universal access policy objectives that encourage importation of electronic gadgets in the country.

“We are in the process of strengthening the type of approval function within our national regulatory bodies to bar the entry of sub-standard equipment into our markets,” said Mr Poghisio.

The fight against e-waste got another blow after the Finance minister ignored the Ministry of Information’s push for a ban on importation of used computers and encourage local computer assembling.

The ban plan has been strongly opposed by sector players, saying the government should come up with a long-term legal framework to address the issue.

However, the Information PS, Dr Bitange Ndemo, says over the years a number of government incentives have led to dropping of prices of new computers which defeats the need to import used computers whose life span is shorter.

Compared to new computers, whose life span can go for up to eight years depending on use, the second hand versions can take only three years.

“The organisations shipping in used computers are actually being paid to get them out of source countries but are disguising themselves as donors assisting Kenyan schools,” said Dr Ndemo.

On the global scene, some manufacturers have begun to assume greater responsibility for what happens with their products after they become obsolete.

Dell, HP, and Gateway have programmes to collect old computer equipment. But this is yet to take root in Kenya.

The Basel Action Network, an American watchdog that has sought to curb the export of toxic electronic material from the United States, has set up a new certification and auditing programme for recyclers and companies that generate electronic refuse.

Urgent implementation

In addition to outlining safe domestic handling and disposal practices for old television sets, computers and other electronic equipment, the system would effectively ban participating recyclers from exporting toxic, non-functional electronic waste to developing nations.

For over three years now, policy makers have been toiling to craft an e-waste policy as pressure from environmental experts mounts for the Government to issue guidelines on dealing with this phenomenon.

Watchdogs are warning that only urgent implementation of laws and policies will cover Africa from being turned into a dumping ground for electronic goods manufacturers.

Greening Cable

2010-08-02T08:40:00.001-07:00

The Greening of Cable
By Brian Santo, Editor-in-Chief
CedMagazine.com - August 01, 2010
Saving energy is one thing, but there has to be an economic payback, and money – some in the cable industry are calling that combination.

Rough estimates are that the cable industry is spending in excess of $1 billion a year on energy. Cable companies might be able to reduce their energy expenses by 10 percent, however, with only minimal effort. A cable company committed to far more than the minimum could cut its energy bill by more than 20 percent, by some accounts. How’s that for opex savings?

Carbon footprints take in more than just energy usage; the source of the energy, for example, can mean that two companies with the same energy consumption might have radically different carbon profiles. For example, hydroelectric has a lower overall carbon impact than coal power. The company buying hydro power would have a lower carbon imprint than the company buying coal power.

Reducing a company’s carbon imprint by more than 20 percent is well within the realm of possibility.

Exactly how, though? Answers are beginning to come. Companies like Cox Communications, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Rogers Communications are exploring several avenues and are sharing their results.

They’re being aided by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, which is not only encouraging green practices, but is also actively employing them, all in the interest of establishing guidelines, business cases and best practices the entire industry can benefit from.

CABLE CONSUMES
The three biggest energy expenditures are the transmission network itself and critical facilities, and a distant third is facilities and offices. A big chunk of that third category is vehicles (see Carbon Impact Study).

Headends and central offices, and the networks themselves, suck a lot of power.

“In 2008, Virgin Media was one of the top carbon emitters that was not a utility in the U.K. Why? Because of the energy used in their network,” said Paul Shmotolokha, president of Coppervale, a company that consults with communications companies on energy use. Coppervale did the energy audit for Virgin Media. Since then, Virgin has been actively reducing its carbon footprint.

There are multiple factors in the green equation. Conservation remains one of the weightiest of them. Simply not wasting power can be fairly simple once a company identifies and commits to practices that reduce wasting energy, such as turning off lights where not needed or sealing off unused rooms with outside windows, which are likely to greenhouse when it’s hot and sunny and leak heat when it’s cold.

“There have been tremendous improvements in lighting in just the last three years,” Shmotolokha said. “And not just because of LEDs. It’s the control systems, the fluorescent tubes – everything. Lighting is the quickest and easiest payback – it’s a no-brainer.”

“We’ve got a list; it’s forty or fifty items,” said Jay Rolls, senior vice president of technology development at Cox. The list covers everything from office energy management to fleet management to looking for any energy savings possible in the construction of its new data center in Arizona. “What I’ve learned is that not only can you get payback, but with some things, you can get payback within a year. That’s a beautiful thing from a budget standpoint,” he said.

That’s all fairly straightforward, but the greening of the network itself is still in the initial stages.

Switching and routing equipment, including CMTSs, can consume a lot of energy (and generate a lot of heat), as can servers in data centers and server farms, including VOD libraries.

Energy consumption is being increased as companies move to switched digital video. Taking advantage of the channel-bonding capability can also increase energy consumption in D3 equipment because multiple tuners are now drawing power.

SET-TOP DRAW
Don’t forget the set-tops. While the energy drawn gets charged against the accounts of subscribers, the vast majority of boxes are still owned by the service provider. Older-model HD DVRs can draw about 25 watts of power, while some newer models draw as little as 3W, Shmotolokha noted.

Shmotolokha said one European client insisted it would not buy set-tops that did not have a standby mode, “and the vendor community responded to that,” he said.

While companies like Cisco and Arris and Juniper are trying to figure out how to minimize power consumption and maximize energy efficiency in switching systems, the big struggle is figuring out how to draw off the tremendous amounts of heat these systems generate in headends and central offices.

Power generation is another major variable – employing photovoltaics (PV), wind energy or geothermal energy to offset what you might otherwise pull from the grid.

Here the SCTE is putting its money where its mouth is, or – as SCTE President and CEO Mark Dzuban puts it – “we’re eating our own dog food.” The organization is installing a 12 kW PV system to power its headquarters in Exton, Pa. The SCTE expects to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony later this month for the system, which will help power its IT systems, including its website.

“All the learning that comes out of that – how do you finance and build something like that – that will all go into a presentation,” Dzuban said.

The problem is that photovoltaic power is still very expensive and still not very efficient, despite years of gradual improvement.

The federal tax incentive is available nationwide. “But if you only have federal incentives, the best you can do is single green,” said John Hewitt, vice president of cable sales at Alpha Technologies. Double green is possible only in those six states that currently have additional incentives for PV projects.

That list includes Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon. The members on that list are likely to change from year to year.

“Does PV work? Yes,” Dzuban said, referring to some megawatt systems Cox Communications installed at some of its Arizona facilities last year. “Cox is running some big systems. Now how do you go from conceptual to the actual nuts and bolts of doing it?”

Rogers, he noted, is using geothermal energy – not for cooling, but for heating.

The SCTE will help compile and share information from Cox, and from Rogers, and from Comcast and Time Warner and others, which it plans to start publishing soon, with the expectation that the volume of what gets published will increase as the industry gains more experience. Dzuban promised a set of specifications and best practices in 2011.

HEADEND LOADS
As easy as it is to find double-green opportunities in offices, it’s hard to eke big improvements in power consumption or in power efficiency in critical facilities such as headends, central offices and hubs.

That said, there might be some areas to save in. Just as there are peak hours for energy usage, there are peak hours for network usage.

Communications service providers have large data centers with multiple servers. Maybe they can be managed so that they don’t all have to be up and running, suggested Derek DiGiacomo, director of information services at the SCTE.

“Can devices have sleep modes? Do all servers have to be on at all times? Can they be brought back on quickly? I’ve seen models that show you might get a 50 percent reduction in energy usage simply by using cycling software,” DiGiacomo said.

In general, the equipment draws what it draws. Manufacturers can diminish the sizes of their systems, but while power efficiency might be improved somewhat, the real progress and advantages tend to be in density.

Meanwhile, products from different manufacturers tend to be similar in terms of their energy demands. That said, there are some instances where the differences are actually quite stark.

As mentioned above, switching equipment can draw a lot of power. Alpha powers softswitches from both Nortel and Cedar Point Communications. “Nortel draws double the power,” Hewitt observed.

The outside plant is where other savings might be achieved.

For years, the typical amplifier in use by the cable industry was a 15-amp model. But in recent years, as network architectures evolved and nodes became smaller, the 15-amp product is simply much bigger than necessary.

On average, 80 percent of an HFC network operates at fewer than 10 amps, Hewitt said, yet operators out of habit tend to replace amplifiers with the traditional 15A model, typically operated at their “sweet spot” at about 12A – still more than necessary. They just end up generating heat, he said. “We’re starting to see 50 percent of the network not matching the size of the requirement.” Alpha is now making 3A, 6A, 10A and 15A models “so that when it comes time to replace an amp, you can size it appropriately.”

Is it worth it to swap one piece of equipment for another immediately, be it a switch, a set-top or an amp? Probably not. But if you’re buying new equipment, either for an initial deployment or to replace a system at the end of its normal lifecycle, in addition to looking at features, factoring in the relative power consumption of the competing products is clearly advisable.

Another option is to just eliminate the problem by eliminating components that draw power – go fiber deep, or put in a passive optical network (PON). While either option will save on power, no question, Shmotolokha said the expense of the deployment cannot be justified by the power savings alone.

The key is to start by picking specific goals. Time Warner Cable, for example, decided to start by concentrating on getting efficiencies in its fleet and by reducing its use of paper. (Reusing and recycling paper doesn’t affect energy consumption directly, but it does diminish one’s carbon footprint.)

Long term, Coppervale recommends a plan (and Coppervale can help companies develop such plans) that take into account:

• The network
• Critical facilities
• Offices
• Carbon baselining (doing a carbon audit, which becomes a baseline for a comparison to measure improvement)
• Internal programs (getting employee buy-in)

“Do all five of those, and communicate that to your subscribers, and you can really improve your brand with your customers. And let’s face it,” Shmotolokha said, “some cable companies have a bad image in some markets. This is an opportunity to improve a bad image.”

In the future, even more variables could be introduced to the equation.

First and foremost, energy prices are only going to go up. Peak oil production is about 85 million barrels a day, and one of the factors that drove gas up to $4 a gallon a few years ago was that worldwide demand was at about 84 million barrels a day, Shmotolokha explained.

Now, in a recession that is still being felt the world over, demand is still about 80 million barrels a day. Once world economies perk up again, so will demand for oil (and other forms of energy), and that will only serve to drive costs up again.

FUTURE ENERGY
“Say you’re a small, $100 million company, and energy prices go up and you end up spending another 5 percent or 10 percent on energy,” Shmotolokha said. “That’s $5 million to $10 million a year – that’s a pretty big line item increase.”

There’s growing interest in the notion of carbon taxes, an additional fee levied on companies that could go up or down based on their carbon footprints. And as noted above, given that communications networks are huge users of power, a carbon tax could be a big hit for communications service providers.

Utilities are also looking at their own version of tiered pricing, based on the nowfamiliar concept of peak usage. “You can see the grid change between 5:30 and 6:30 as electric ovens come on,” Hewitt observed.

It might take five or 10 years, but utilities are going to want to charge more for power consumed during peak periods, an inducement for people to change their behaviors, opting to draw power at other times when the option is available, or, as Hewitt put it, “so maybe you don’t bake a cake at 6:00.”

That’s residential. Business hours are business hours, and that’s unlikely to change. Under those circumstances, installing renewable energy becomes more salient. “A PV system can offset consumption at peak times,” Hewitt said.

This dovetails directly with the Smart Grid approach, but a convergence of communications and utilities interests just isn’t happening yet. “It makes sense for a power company to monitor usage, and MSOs have a high-bandwidth pipe into the house. A meter should just have an Ethernet cable in the back so you can send back the data. You could do it for practically free at this point,” Hewitt said. “I think Smart Grid is going to be an important part of the future.”

excellent story from earth911

2010-07-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

Ask the Experts: Electronics
by Lori Brown
Published on July 26th, 2010
1 Comment

The increasing passage of electronic waste legislation is an enormous step forward in an effort to increase national collection and recycling rates. Photo: Flickr/massdistraction
If you follow legislation pertaining to electronic waste, you probably receive a new alert as often as you do a load of laundry. From producer responsibility take-back programs to advance recovery fees, electronic waste is an ever increasing issue in public policy.

When New York Governor David Paterson signed into law the Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act on May 28, the state became the 23rd in the nation to pass legislation pertaining to the recycling and disposal of electronic waste.

Though the states have the same goals of keeping hazardous end-of-life electronics and their components out of the landfills and reducing the financial burden placed on municipalities and taxpayers, the way each approaches their objectives can vary greatly.

The increasing passage of electronic waste legislation is an enormous step forward in an effort to increase national collection and recycling rates and keep hazardous components out of the environment, but this variation in approach from state to state leads many in the industry to debate whether the right strategy is being adopted or creating a non-harmonized and segmented headache.

There doesn’t seem to be an easy answer to this debate. States that have passed e-waste laws have shown their progressive handling of a serious environmental issue, and early data for those states has shown significant increases in electronic waste recovery. Others argue that creating 50 different e-waste laws is counterproductive and would prefer to see a blanket federal policy.

We’ll take a look at how a few distinct states manage their electronic waste laws as well as address current issues related to the collection, handling and recycling of these electronics. To get a different perspective, Earth911 interviewed Arizona State University School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment Professor Eric Williams Ph.D, considered by many to be one of the foremost electronic waste life cycle assessment experts in the United States.

New York
The newly signed New York Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act will require manufacturers of certain electronics to accept their manufactured electronics for recycling or reuse at their end of life, at no fee to the consumer, set to take effect April 2011.

This take-back program is a common form of extended producer responsibility (EPR), a way for manufacturers to bear the responsibility and show their commitment for their products long after the point of sale.

Local New York City company 4th Bin hauls off e-waste from residents and businesses. Photo: The 4th Bin
Take-back programs aim to remove the financial burden of handling this fastest-growing part of the waste stream from municipalities and taxpayers. Many believe this shift in responsibility will also encourage increased innovation in design, with more reusable and recyclable components being utilized.

Under the law, manufacturers are required to take-back their share of waste, calculated by their market share of electronic sales in New York. If they accept less, they are charged per pound of shortfall. They can also earn tradeable, saleable or bankable “recycling credits” by accepting more than their share of waste.

The law covers computers, televisions, portable digital music players, digital video recorders and electronic and video game consoles. It preempts the New York City 2008 e-waste law.

Earth911: As an average consumer, what should one look for when purchasing a new gadget? Are there specific features that will make disposing of something easier down the road?

Williams: There are some manufacturers that make it easier for consumers to recycle their products at the end-of-life by doing things like providing paid postage to mail it in, etc. So, it’s less a feature of the gadget than it is a policy that the company has put in place. Right now, that information is still not made very easy for the consumers to find. Some type of consumer card or message with the product’s packaging might make it easier for the consumers to know.

Oregon
Put into effect Jan. 1, 2009, Oregon’s HB 2626 is another example of a manufacturer financed take-back and recycling program.

The Oregon E-Cycles program is financed by electronics manufacturers and jointly implemented with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The program covers computers (desktops and laptops), monitors and televisions.

Manufacturers are assigned a recycling obligation each year by the Oregon DEQ. They may participate in one of two programs to meet this goal: a State Contractor Program (SCP) or an Independent Program.

The SCP program is a per-pound recycling fee to the Oregon DEQ, based on return share by weight. The Independent Program can be applied to manufacturers whose recycling plan is approved by the DEQ each year.

In it’s first year, Oregon’s E-Cycle program collected 18.9 million pounds of electronics, more than 5 pounds per Oregon resident.

The disposal ban component of the law went into effect Jan. 1, 2010, making it illegal for both consumers and businesses to dispose of computers, monitors and televisions in the garbage or at collection sites including landfills, incinerators or transfer stations.

Earth911: As a researcher, educator and consumer yourself, what do you think your role in refining e-waste (how it’s disposed of, where it’s disposed of and who should pay for it) in the U.S?

Williams: We have all these questions of what we ought to do with e-waste, from trade bans and recycling certifications to Energy Star certifications. The question is do these things solve the problems we thought they would solve, and do they effect other problems that we hadn’t thought about when we made those policies? As a researcher, my job is to analyze these questions and try to find alternative ideas and policies managing the social and environmental implications of e-waste.

E-waste is usually seen as a purely environmental issue. But it is a social issue as well. The problem is we’re not trying to clean up the industry, we’re trying to just shut it down. We ought to first think of solutions that solve the environmental problems but allow people to keep their jobs. As an educator, I have to communicate these results to contribute to results and engage a broader audience.

According to Williams, "There are some manufacturers that make it easier for consumers to recycle their products at the end-of-life by doing things like providing paid postage to mail it in, etc. So, it's less a feature of the gadget than it is a policy that the company has put in place." Photo: Flickr/Jerry W. Lewis
California
The Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 established a funding system for the collection and recycling of certain electronic waste materials, implemented by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) working alongside the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC).

The Act calls for the collection of an Advance Recycling Fee (ARF) at the point of sale of certain electronic products. This Electronic Waste Recycling Fee, which ranges from $8 to $25 depending on screen size, is used to fund authorized electronic collectors and recyclers, offsetting the cost of properly managing the products at their end of life.

Unlike bottle bills, the fee is not a deposit, and the covered products do not contain redemption value. Consumers are not reimbursed this fee when covered products are turned in for recycling.

The law also calls for the reduction in hazardous substances used in certain electronic products sold in California.

Earth911: A dilemma has been how to collect e-waste in the most efficient manner that consumers will respond to. In your experience, what type of collection has been most effective? Bins and kiosks at major retail outlets, community collection events, local pickup services? Do you have ideas for solutions yourself?

Williams: There are still many open questions on this. Some preliminary work suggests the curbside tends to work best. My thoughts are that you can talk people into bringing their electronics into a retailer like Best Buy, which makes sense from a logistic efficiency perspective.

It would be more efficient than collecting at the curb at each person’s home. But the thing is, to expect people to make a separate trip for their electronics, I’m not sure people are going to really do that. If somebody’s making the trip to that central location already, that’s a bit easier, but you’re still going to have people that question why they should have to load up their electronics in their cars to do this.

In my opinion, the potential of deposit programs are great. When you buy the electronics, you may pay $10 or $20 extra upfront, and when you turn that electronic back in you get [a portion of] that money back. It seems to me that has a lot of potential to increase the collection rates as people have an economic incentive to turn those products back in [a bottle bill variation type of perspective].

SUPER-COOL BBC STORY

2010-07-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

21 July 2010 Last updated at 06:25 ET
Vibration packs aim to replace batteries for gadgets
By Michael Fitzpatrick Technology reporter

A Japanese electronics firm has shown off a vibration-harvesting generator that could replace standard batteries.

The Vibration Energy Cell batteries deliver power after a vigorous shake

Brother Industries, better known for its line of printers, claims the devices could be used in place of AA or AAA batteries for some applications.

At an event in Tokyo, the firm showed the device powering a TV remote control, a remote switch for a lamp and an LED torch.

The mechanism works similarly to that of a bicycle light dynamo, only in this instance movement from a few shakes provides the energy to power.

"Our Vibration Energy Cells generate electricity using a coil, a magnet, and condenser that charges electricity. These are all embedded in the battery," a Brother spokesman told BBC News.

"Because of its low output this type of cell is designed to be used for things such as TV remote controls and LED devices, which consume low power and do not consume electrical power continuously."
Energy shaker

The idea behind the technology is to remove the need for toxic rechargeable batteries and other disposable batteries that can harm the environment, said the company.

So far, two of the AA sized prototypes developed produce a voltage of 3.2V or lower, which is just enough to charge low power consumption device such as TV remote controls.

Despite the low power, Carl Telford an analyst at electronics business consultants Strategic Business Insights, says the batteries are a significant break through with much potential.

"It's great because they will work OK in a low-power application for AA batteries that one can shake without breaking; a remote control, for example," he told BBC News.

"Of its size, it is small, compact, and directly compatible with existing power sources. Brother says that it can produce enough power at reasonably low frequencies, around 4-8Hz - this is impressive.

"Walking with a device in your pocket would vibrate with a frequency of around 2Hz. You'd need to shake the remote quite briskly, but it would work."

Other researchers are also working on motion-generated and alternative power for gadgets and electronics in the hope of making them self-sufficient.
Energy boot

Amongst others, American company TenXsys Inc. is now developing its Kinetic Energy Scavenging technology for various application including those for the military.

And UK mobile operator Orange recently revealed its Power Wellies, created in collaboration with renewable energy experts GotWind.

Using a "power generating sole" the boots convert heat from the wearer's feet into an electrical current.

This "welectricity" can then be used to re-charge a mobile phone. Twelve hours of stomping in the Orange Power Wellies will give enough power to charge a mobile phone for one hour, according to the company.

Brother claims no such effort is needed to power its batteries.

A TV remote control would require a power-inducing shake after 10-30 button presses says Brother.

"It does not matter how long you shake it. It depends on the number of shakes, and how you shake. It varies depending on the force - long swing or short swing or speed of swing, etc - you put in to shake the remote," the spokesman said.

There are no plans to commercialise the batteries as yet, according to Brother.

"Currently the cells are still in the trial phase and so far we do not have a clear business plan for this item. However, we will continue to monitor the market to make a business plan when needed."

GULFNEWS STORY

2010-07-21T16:10:00.001-07:00

Trash Truth: What a waste
A single cellphone ending up as waste can contaminate 600,000 litres of water. Now imagine the havoc wrought on human health and the environment by tonnes of E-waste dumped into landfills across the UAE each day
By Sharmila Dhal, Senior ReporterPublished: 00:00 July 22, 2010Reader comments (0)
170,000 cellphones collected by Enviroserve from its collection boxes across the UAE since 2008Image Credit: SuppliedImage 1 of 3123
Dubai: Tonnes of electronic waste with highly toxic chemicals including carcinogens are being dumped into UAE landfills, causing irreversible damage to ground water, soil fertility and human health, officials and environmentalists have warned.
The country may boast of a $2.8 billion (Dh10.28 billion) spending on consumer electronics in 2010 with a record mobile phone penetration of 140 per cent, but regular acquisitions and upgradations of these devices by techno-savvy and throw-at-will consumers is causing concern as the obsolete or surplus items they replace are being recklessly discarded.
"Presently, e-waste is disposed (of) at landfills," Engr Hassan Mohammad Makki, Director of Waste Management Department at Dubai Municipality, told XPRESS, warning that, "This can lead to contamination of groundwater due to heavy metal concentration."
Enviroserve, a federally accredited operator to deal with e-waste, said a single cellphone ending up in a landfill could contaminate up to 600,000 litres of water.
Indifferent public
Sources said as callous residents throw everything from organic waste and paper, plastics and glass to obsolete electrical and electronic items into the same bins in their homes, large swathes of the desert in the suburbs of Dubai such as Jebel Ali, Al Ghusais and Al Lusaili could slowly be turning toxic as much of the non-segregated waste gets emptied into landfills in these areas.
They said lead, mercury, cadmium and other poisonous chemicals in the e-waste add toxins to the leachate of the soil, affecting vegetation and the animals feeding on it. The potential damage to human health is severe as many of these chemicals are carcinogenic and can also affect the functioning of the brain, kidneys and other vital organs (see box).
"The issue is extremely grave as most people here want the latest, most advanced electronic products at all times. As they buy new ones, most of them do not know what to do with their old products and end up disposing of them irresponsibly. When these electronic products end up in a landfill, they cause grave environmental damage," said Habiba Al Marashi, Chairperson, Emirates Environmental Group and Board Member, UN Global Compact.
Although the exact amount of e-waste generated in the country is yet to be ascertained, Habiba said, "With the advent of new mobiles, computers, laptops and televisions, the pile of e-waste in the UAE is bigger than ever before." The reasons behind this hazardous build-up are being largely blamed on an irresponsible public, inadequate infrastructure and lack of legislation.
Although there are select avenues to drop off recyclable and reusable e-waste (see box), residents either remain unaware of this or lack the will to make a trip to these designated places.
A Bur Dubai resident said facilities to discard different kinds of e-waste are neither adequate nor convenient. "Why can't the municipality have another bin for e-waste along with the three bins it has installed near bus shelters? Currently they are meant only for the disposal of paper, bottles and cans and general trash," he said.
Efforts so far by companies and NGOs to collect old mobiles or other electronic items are more in the nature of periodic campaigns rather than a sustained exercise.
As a result, large amounts of e-waste go into the bins of our homes and this mass just gets bigger and more hazardous as it is shoved into building chutes, roadside wheel bins and into the compactor trucks of the municipality and waste management companies that, for the most part, empty them into the landfills.
No distinction
Ajay Kumar, Operations Manager at Dulsco, a leading waste management company in Dubai, said compactor trucks do not distinguish between the different types of waste which are merely crushed and then dumped into the landfills.
Sajida Shaikh, General Manager, Marketing & Customer Service, Dulsco, said, "Sorting should happen at the source of waste generation, and not be a post-collection process."
Such a segregation, said Kumar, would help recover resources from the waste and also ensure that recyclables are not contaminated by organic waste.
"Having said that, we do send around eight-ten of our trucks to Tadweer for post-collection sorting," he said.
But a large percentage of the trucks, be it from firms like Dulsco — it has a total fleet of 100 trucks — or elsewhere, make their way to the landfills at Jebel Ali, Al Ghusais or Al Lusaili in Dubai.
While the pioneering Tadweer which segregates recyclable materials and treats biological waste to make compost does its bit, sources said recycling remains an infant industry in the UAE while refineries for processing e-waste and extracting raw material like gold, silver and copper remain non-existent.
They said currently, recycling is largely confined to items such as paper, glass, plastics and cans with names like Union Paper Mills (paper) and Horizon Technology (PET processing) being at the forefront.
In terms of e-waste, companies like Enviroserve and more recent entrants like the Green Foundation, manually disassemble mobile phones or other types of e-waste they collect from corporations, individuals, NGOs etc at local facilities for recycling, but send the more complicated recyclable elements such as cartridges, batteries, motherboards and data cables to certified facilities in Europe where they are broken down into spare parts and melted down into metals, precious metals or plastics.
Zornitza Hadjitodorova, Division Manager, E-waste, Enviroserve, said the company has collected over 170,000 mobile phones since 2008 from its Envirophone collection boxes across the UAE which have been recycled. Similarly, Makki said Dubai Municipality has collected 60,495 computers since 2007 which have been refurbished at the PC Refurbishment Centre and donated to charities. A separate section to collect household electronic and electrical equipment waste has also been set up by the civic authority.
Green foundation
Besides targeting corporations and charities, the Green Foundation collects e-waste in a consumer initiative launched at Emax electronics stores in the region, Jonathan Tozer, Marketing Director at the foundation, said.
The lack of refineries has spawned a huge unorganised industry where scrap dealers buy old electrical and electronic products to sell them again for profit. "Reuse is a grey area," said Zornitza, "because you do not know if a product is reused as a whole, if data is removed or if it is crushed and ends up in the landfill."
Although the UAE is a signatory to the Basel Convention of 1990 that requires it to minimise the generation of e-waste, legislation on e-waste management is yet to come about.
"Necessary legislations are not in place for the disposal of e-waste," admitted Makki, but explained that the municipality's Waste Management Department, in association with an international consultant, is working out effective waste minimisation strategies. "The consultants have submitted the draft minimisation strategy and it is being reviewed by a committee in the municipality," he revealed.
In the absence of a clear legislation, it is not binding on manufacturers to take back end-of-use electronic equipment, although many of them include a small recycling fee in the original selling price.
Experts said unlike the West where residents are obliged to pay a waste tax, people in the UAE get away with dumping. There is no disposal fee either, with trucks that empty the non-segregated waste into the landfills having to pay as little as Dh10 per truck as a gate charge. "People come here as expatriates and forget that it is their responsibility to keep the environment safe," said Zornitza, adding that sustainable solutions to lower the carbon footprint should be developed.
Ajay Kumar said one way out could be to come up with incentive schemes for villa and apartment owners to influence people to recycle. Targets need to be set with those achieving them being rewarded and others being penalised. This could well be linked with the upcoming housing fee, he suggested.
Health Hazards
E-waste could contain several hazardous chemicals, including lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polyvinyl chlorides which affect human health:
Lead present in TV monitors, cathode ray tubes etc damages the brain and nervous system. Vomiting, diarrhoea, convulsions etc are common in small-dose exposures. Children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable
Cadmium in circuit boards, batteries etc is a carcinogenic and affects the functions of kidney, liver and hormones
Mercury in flat panel display screens, thermometers, electric meters etc, is a neurotoxin and even in small doses, can cause severe brain and kidney damage
Chromium causes lung cancer, besides affecting the nose, throat and lungs
Printed circuit boards release brominated flame retardants, mercury and isocyanates which can be deadly

ANOTHER STORY WHERE THE PETTINESS OF FEDERALISM AND CAPITALISM APPLIES

2010-07-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

California's pioneering e-waste program a model gone wrong
tknudson@sacbee.com

PUBLISHED SUNDAY, JUL. 18, 2010

It seemed a perfect symmetry: California, the world's high-tech capital, would lead the way in recycling the debris of our digital revolution.

But five years after its launch, the state government-run electronic waste program stands out not as a model of the green innovation for which California is famous but as an example of good intentions gone awry.

By paying more than $320 million to collect and recycle computer monitors and televisions, the state has built a magnet for fraud totaling tens of millions of dollars, including illegal material smuggled in from out of state.

"I don't think anybody could have forecast the greed that has poisoned the program," said Bob Erie, chief executive officer of E-World Recyclers north of San Diego and once an enthusiastic supporter of the state effort.

None of the many states that followed California took on e-waste recycling as a government program; instead they made industry responsible for its own waste.

California officials have long been aware of the problems with their approach, too; they met with recycling industry officials two years ago at a private club in Los Angeles to discuss solutions, including whether the state should be in the e-waste business at all.

But nothing has changed. Instead, The Bee found:

• Recyclers and collectors have submitted $23 million in faulty and fraudulent e-waste claims that have been rejected by the state. But state and industry officials estimate that other ineligible claims, totaling as much as $30 million, may have inadvertently been paid.

• More than two dozen e-waste firms have been investigated for fraud by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control over the past two years, but none has been fined or prosecuted.

• Even though California officials know that illegal e-waste is flowing into the state – and acknowledge that public funds are being wasted recycling some of it – no state official has traveled out of state to investigate.

A new California Gold Rush

Truck after truck drops its load of electronic garbage at ECS Refining, one of the state's best-known e-waste recyclers based in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Until it is fed into two ear-piercing shredders, the pyramid of printers, fax machines, keyboards, CD players and telephones serves as a monument to our electronic obsession.

Not far away, some of the heaviest, most hazardous material also piles up: computer monitors and TVs – both of which contain significant amounts of lead. Each year Californians discard about 3.3 million of them, 9,200 a day on average.

Those larger items are the targets of California's e-waste recycling program, which began Jan. 1, 2005. Six million unwanted monitors and TVs that had no value on New Year's Eve turned into green gold overnight.

The goal of the law was to prevent lead-laden glass tubes from winding up in landfills while jump-starting a green industry to collect and recycle the castoffs. At that, it has been a resounding success.

So far some 840 million pounds of monitors and TVs, about 17 million units, have been recycled in California, far more than in any other state.

"It's easy to throw stones, but the hard numbers on what we've recycled as a state are astonishing," said John Shegerian, chief executive officer of Electronic Recyclers International.

His firm, based in Fresno, is the largest monitor and TV recycler in the state. But that distinction bears a footnote: The state has rejected $2.7 million of ERI's claims, mostly in 2008 and 2009, state records show.

"I am not happy about it. I am not proud of it," said Shegerian, blaming tougher state scrutiny of e-waste sources for the denials. "That was a black period. And financially it hurt."

California's electronic waste recycling system could be likened to a gigantic river. At the mouth of the waterway are some 60 recyclers who tear apart TVs and monitors for copper, steel, plastic and other components.

Upstream are more than 500 collectors, who funnel e-waste to recyclers. Farther upstream are handlers – scavengers and peddlers – who round up material to sell to the collectors.

Overseeing the flow are two agencies: CalRecycle, which scrutinizes claims and pays recyclers, and the Department of Toxic Substances Control, which investigates fraud and environmental violations.

Funding it all are state consumers, through an $8 to $25 fee on the purchase of new monitors and televisions.

At the program's inception, with hundreds of millions of dollars in state payments up for grabs, companies seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"It was the second coming of the California Gold Rush," said Erie, the Southern California recycler. "They came from Texas. They came from Pennsylvania. They came from all over the place and said, 'Let's open up in California because the government's paying money.' "

That frenzy caught the state off guard. Faulty and fraudulent claims of $1.9 million the first year climbed to $6.8 million in 2008 and to $9.8 million last year; overall the state has rejected payment on 6.5 percent of all claims – $22.6 million out of $347 million.

Unknown is how many ineligible claims have escaped notice. "If you are going to hold me to a number, add probably another 10 percent for the stuff that got through," said Jeff Mahan, chief of the e-waste fraud unit at the toxic substances control department.

To qualify for payment, recyclers must document that monitors and TVs come from California. But the logbooks they give the state, with names and addresses of the original owners – provided by collectors and handlers who gathered the waste – frequently read like works of fiction.

There are bogus names, made-up addresses, dead people and Hollywood celebrities. And there is brazenness by the truckload.

"I would find Dustin Hoffman's name, Robin Williams' name, Mike Tyson's name. It's just incredible," Mahan said.

Here's what one state official wrote after spot-checking a 2009 claim from SIMS Recycling Solutions headquarters in Roseville seeking $482,000 for 1.2 million pounds of e-waste delivered to its Southern California plant:

"100% of the sources contacted stated they DND (did not discard) … The last names appear to have been looked up in some sort of alphabetical directory … . Patterns of falsehood are obvious in these logs."

That entire $482,000 claim was rejected. In all, the state has turned down $4.5 million in e-waste claims from SIMS, the most in the state.

SIMS has appealed the denials. But its president, Steve Skurnac, acknowledged that his firm should have screened names more carefully.

"The onus is on us to prove that it's qualified material," Skurnac added. "We understand that."

Other surprises emerged as the state learned about the scramble for e-waste on the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco – and the sources of recyclers' paperwork.

As one claim reviewer wrote after checking with an L.A. handler who sold e-waste to SIMS last year: "Call to Issac with Cal-E. He stated almost all peddlers on logs are illegal aliens who cannot read or write. He reconstructs the logs from their pieces of paper (and) napkins."

Such discoveries, though, typically come months after monitors and televisions have been dismantled and recycled, leaving investigators with more questions than evidence.

"There is really no corpse to look at like with a murder," said Mahan, the e-waste fraud chief. "It's all paperwork."

Buried in the blizzard of payment claims and e-mails lurk enough twists and turns to fill a John Grisham novel – without the convenient conclusions. Chapters end abruptly, stories change, numbers don't add up, recollections collide and cases evaporate.

Shopping spree in Arizona

At midday, small stones along the streets of Tucson, Ariz., glitter like silver and platinum in the hot sun. In recent years, Los Angeles e-waste collector Global Comp One has been active here, buying up thousands of unwanted monitors as if they, too, were precious metals.
"We purchase in quantities of any volume," the company's owner, Allen Baker, wrote in an April 8, 2009, letter soliciting material from Rise Equipment Recycling Center. "I am in Arizona bi-weekly and would welcome an opportunity to meet with you."

A year earlier, state officials had noted that Global Comp One was delivering monitors to Electronics Recyclers in Fresno and ARC International in Los Angeles with paperwork riddled with "disconnected phone numbers, wrong numbers (and) wrong contact names," state records show.

They also had fielded a tip that the collector was buying monitors in Colorado and redeeming them in California.

Though they had documented no wrongdoing, their concern was based on simple economics. In Tucson, for example, computer monitors sell for a dollar apiece, sometimes less, while California recyclers offer e-waste collectors around $8 to $10 apiece.

The state of California, in turn, pays recyclers about $15 to $18, depending on weight, to recycle them – but only if the waste comes from California.

Jeff Hunts, manager of the e-waste payment system at CalRecycle, had forwarded the Colorado tip to Mahan, urging him to take action.

"We need a big win," Hunts wrote.

Mahan had started investigating, but he didn't get far. "All the addresses we had for him, he had moved," Mahan said. "I would certainly like to know where I can get ahold of Mr. Baker."

Baker was not hard to find. The Bee tracked him down by phone recently in Southern California, where he said the state's concerns are well-founded – just not about him.

"The system is fraught with fraud," he said.

Baker said he buys monitors across America to refurbish and sell to buyers in other countries for $3.50 to $12 each. He no longer participates in California's recycling program, he said, but when he did he never intentionally redeemed out-of-state material.

"I'm not saying it's not possible that, because we're doing business intrastate and interstate, that something might have gotten mixed at one time," he said. But the state, Baker said, checked him out and "we were clean … We run a very tight ship."

Mahan said Baker has not been cleared at all. "We still have a lot of interest in talking to him," he said.

Where did monitors go?

Other mysterious cases unfold uncomfortably close to home.
Last December, six piles of used monitors from state agencies sat on pallets in the warehouse near Arco Arena where the state auctions off its own electronic discards.

There were charcoal-black HPs, just 3 years old, milky-white View-Sonics, manufactured in 1997 and a real antique: a Packard Bell, vintage 1989.

No one wanted them – except Farrah Philip, a buyer for KYO Computer, a Bay Area recycler with a history of run-ins with the state, from violations of state environmental regulations to $400,000 in rejected e-waste claims.

But unlike Global Comp in Arizona, KYO paid a premium for the monitors at auction that day – about $14 apiece.

CalRecycle officials were not aware that KYO had attended the auction and, when informed of the price paid, they were mystified. How could KYO make a profit?

Eight days later, The Bee tracked the monitors back to KYO's warehouse in industrial Newark, in southern Alameda County, to see what was up. There, the trail went cold.

As trucks rumbled by outside, Philip insisted the purchase made sense. The state, she said, would pay her 39 cents a pound for the monitors to be recycled, at least $15 each. Even after paying another firm to process the glass, she could make money off the copper and plastic.

And because these monitors obviously were from California, there would be no challenge to her logbooks' veracity. "The state knows this came from them," she said.

Could we see the 108 monitors from Sacramento? That would not be possible, Philip said, because they had already been dismantled, their glass tubes shipped to the nearest glass recycler in Oregon.

In the wake of the auction, CalRecycle has launched an internal audit of KYO to scrutinize its e-waste. In such audits, one scenario the agency must rule out involves shipping working monitors overseas for resale, then backfilling those spots for state recycling reimbursement with out-of-state or other ineligible monitors.

Reached recently at her office, Philip said she was not aware of the audit. Asked again about the December auction purchase, her story changed. She said KYO did lose money on those monitors after all; she had bought them to keep workers busy while searching for cheaper units.

Philip declined to discuss details.

"This is secret, confidential," she said. "We cannot share (with) everybody."

Tough talk, no prosecutions

Recycling fraud was among many topics quietly debated in the summer of 2008, when state and industry officials met in Los Angeles to discuss the program's flaws.

"We need a bill to be introduced that will fix the e-waste program," say official notes of the meeting obtained by The Bee.

Ideas filled the room: better tracking, more transparency, tougher enforcement of fraud, stricter standards for collectors – and shifting the job of recycling to manufacturers.

"Producer responsibility makes more sense," the notes say. "You built it, you take care of it."

Two years later, not much has happened.

"The enforcement is there, but we could do better than what we are doing," said Gary Petersen, a former California Integrated Waste Board member who called the meeting. "There are bad people out there. We've got to make sure those guys get caught."

Mahan, who has tried to catch them for two years, said 26 investigations have been launched. Five were strong enough to forward to criminal investigators in his department; two have been referred to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and the state attorney general's office.

To date, there have been no prosecutions, penalties or fines. But there is plenty of pent-up anger and finger-pointing.

"Clearly DTSC has not made this their priority," said one senior state e-waste official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Why are they not picking up these things and running with them?"

Mahan said part of the problem lies with his department's regulations, which are "geared to enforcing environmental violations, not financial things."

CalRecycle's Hunts counts himself among the frustrated.

"It's tough to get a DA or the AG interested in recycling crime," Hunts said. "It's not sexy. It's not going to get anybody re-elected."

Another case has been referred to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, according to one state official. But Ken Rosenblatt, a supervising district attorney for environmental protection in Santa Clara, refused to talk about it.

"I'm afraid I just don't have any information on that subject for you," Rosenblatt said.

In lieu of prosecutions, Hunts said the state's most effective strategy has been denying payments on bad claims – a process that has pushed some out of business.

But The Bee found that several companies docked for large volumes of suspect claims remain active.

That includes Tung Tai Group, a San Jose recycler that had 38 percent of its claims – $1.6 million in all – rejected over the past two years and is under investigation by the state.

John Chen, Tung Tai's executive vice president, said his firm fell victim to unscrupulous e-waste collectors: "A lot of it was not having proper logs – not fraudulent logs – and not understanding what our mistakes were."

Chen complained that the state took months to inform his company about problems and rejected many claims for minor paperwork infractions.

Overall, Chen said he believes CalRecycle is improperly denying millions of dollars of legitimate e-waste. Because recyclers pay for the waste months before the state rules on claims, they are the ones who suffer the financial consequences, he said.

Others feel too much attention is devoted to the provenance of e-waste, not enough to the importance of recycling.

Beyond basic ethical concerns, Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, said out-of-state waste getting recycled in California is no big deal.

"Frankly I'm glad that there is a recycling opportunity for that waste so that hazardous material isn't getting illegally dumped," Murray said.

Recyclers with good track records, though, are unhappy with the lack of action against scofflaws. Paul Gao, president of California Electronic Asset Recovery, east of Sacramento, has had less than one half of one percent of his claims turned down since 2005.

"We try our best," Gao said. "Why can they not prosecute somebody?"

Part of the problem may lie in the DNA of California's e-waste recycling program, in particular its reliance on tedious after-the-fact verification, and its focus on documenting minute volumes of waste.

"Focusing on fraudulent activities like shipping truckloads of (monitors) in from other states is imperative to keeping our program honest," Gao said.

Instead, he said, the state often insists recyclers track down and produce documentation for just a few monitors at a time.

"The program could be run better," Gao said. "You have to catch these bad guys."

Malaysia's Daily Express Says

2010-07-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

INDEPENDENT NATIONAL NEWSPAPER OF EAST MALAYSIA
Established since 1963
Proper way to manage e-waste needed: Masidi
Published on: Friday, July 16, 2010
Kota Kinabalu: Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun proposed a brainstorming meeting between all the local authorities in Sabah to find ways to properly manage electronic waste (e-waste) in their respective areas.

"Maybe the Local Government and Housing Ministry could have a meeting with all the Municipal Councils or District Councils (among others) to plan a proper way to manage e-waste," he said when opening the Seminar on E-Waste here on Thursday.

To take efforts on handling such wastes in Sabah a notch further, he reiterated the idea of a scheme to buy back equipment no longer used, a roundtable discussion with telecommunication companies on how to manage e-waste and also a law overseeing e-waste management.

Although acknowledging that managing e-waste has yet to get off the ground in the State, he pointed out that it was better to start now than later.

"We're still in the initial stage but it's good we start early because the implications on the environment and health are serious," Masidi said, adding they are trying to learn from Perak, which has legislation on e-waste management and also an understanding with telcos on e-waste, among others.

"What we're trying to do has already been done in Perak where the State and telcos work together to manage and dispose e-wastes because they are the best people to do this as they have the expertise and know-how.

"The buyback scheme would also be good (to complement the effort) where those wanting to buy new mobile phones (for instance) must handover the old ones instead of discarding them and at the same time the government can introduce tax exemptions as incentives.

"For instance, there were 41,776 mobile phones recorded in Sabah in 1999 and the number had grown to almost 20 times at 752, 000 at the end of 2008 including discarded phones, he added.

"And if there is a need we will see to it to have a law for e-waste but the approach is not towards penalising but rather awareness because like any other law, if the people don't understand the law will not be effective," he said.

Towards this end, Perak Executive Council member, Datuk Hamidah Osman said that is why this seminar was vital to inform the pubilc especially stakeholders of the dangers of ignoring the issue of e-waste.

"Many problems will occur if the problem is not handled smartly É there are many problems (associated with ignoring e-waste) but it has never been really exposed, so what the Sabah government is doing is very good.

"Firstly to create public awareness É it is not enough if only the Government or enforcement is in the picture because the public are actually the ones (directly) dealing with the matter," she said.

She had earlier presented a paper called "Efforts to Implement E-Waste Management in Perak".

Meanwhile, Masidi welcomed other companies to transport e-waste from Sabah to disposal sites.

"If there are others, we are more than happy É we will also consider if there are companies willing to do everything (from collection to disposal)," he said, adding, however, there are not many companies able to do so.

Department of Environment Sabah Director, Hj Razak Abdul Manap said Petrojadi Sdn Bhd is the only company licensed by the department to handle e-waste because they are the only one with the capability to do so.

He said the company would temporarily place the e-waste in a container, due to difficulties finding a location for an off-site storage, before shipping the wastes to the final disposal site at Syarikat Kualiti Alam Sdn Bhd in Negeri Sembilan.

"We welcome other transporter companies if they have such facilities (off-site storage)."

Participants at the seminar comprised environmental officers (administrators and engineers) involved in solid waste management from the public sector, non-governmental organisations, institutions of higher learning and representatives from the private sector.

It is jointly organised by the Environmental Action Centre, Environment Protection Department, Department of Environment, Telecoms Malaysia, Computer Services Department and City Hall.

more on ragpickers

2010-07-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

India's poor risk 'slow death' recycling 'e-waste'

AFPJULY 7, 2010

NEW DELHI — Young rag-pickers sifting through rubbish are a common image of India's chronic poverty, but destitute children face new hazards picking apart old computers as part of the growing "e-waste" industry.

Asif, aged seven, spends his days dismantling electronic equipment in a tiny, dimly-lit unit in east Delhi along with six other boys.

"My work is to pick out these small black boxes," he said, fingers deftly prising out integrated circuits from the pile of computer remains stacked high beside him.

His older brother Salim, 12, is also hard at work instead of being at school. He is extracting tiny transistors and capacitors from wire boards.

The brothers, who decline to reveal how much they earn a day, say they are kept frantically busy as increasing numbers of computers, printers and other electronic goods are discarded by offices and homes.

Few statistics are known about the informal "e-waste" industry, but a United Nations report launched in February described how mountains of hazardous waste from electronic products are growing exponentially in developing countries.

It said India would have 500 percent more e-waste from old computers in 2020 than in 2007, and 18 times more old mobile phones.

The risks posed to those who handle the cast-offs are clear to T.K. Joshi, head of the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi.

He studied 250 people working in the city as recyclers and dismantlers over 12 months to October 2009 and found almost all suffered from breathing problems such as asthma and bronchitis.

"We found dangerously high levels -- 10 to 20 times higher than normal -- of lead, mercury and chromium in blood and urine samples," he told AFP.

"All these have a detrimental effect on the respiratory, urinary and digestive systems, besides crippling immunity and causing cancer."

Toxic metals and poisons enter workers' bloodstreams during the laborious manual extraction process and when equipment is crudely treated to collect tiny quantities of precious metals.

"The recovery of metals like gold, platinum, copper and lead uses caustic soda and concentrated acids," said Joshi.

"Workers dip their hands in poisonous chemicals for long hours. They are also exposed to fumes of highly concentrated acid."

Safety gear such as gloves, face masks and ventilation fans are virtually unheard of, and workers -- many of them children -- often have little idea of what they are handling.

"All the workers we surveyed were unaware of the dangers they were exposed to. They were all illiterate and desperate for employment," said Joshi. "Their choice is clear -- either die of hunger or of metal poisoning."

And he warned exposure to e-waste by-products such as cadmium and lead could result in a slow, painful death.

"They can't sleep or walk," he said. "They are wasted by the time they reach 35-40 years of age and incapable of working."

There are no estimates of how many people die in India from e-waste poisoning as ill workers generally drift back to their villages when they can no longer earn a living.

"The irony is that the amounts of gold and platinum they extract are traces -- fractions of a milligramme," said Priti Mahesh, programme coordinator of the New Delhi-based Toxic Link environment group.

"Computers, televisions and mobile phones are most dangerous because they have high levels of lead, mercury and cadmium -- and they have short life-spans so are discarded more," she said.

The Indian government has proposed a law to regulate the e-waste trade, but Delhi environment group the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said any legislation would miss the army of informal workers such as brothers Asif and Salim.

"The proposed law says only big firms should be in the business of recycling and dismantling," said Kushal Pal Singh Yadav, a CSE campaigner.

"This is not going to work because the informal sector already has a cheap system of collection, disposal or recycling in place -- so people will use that."

For Joshi, the sight of children working in appalling conditions taking computers apart is as potent a symbol of India's deep troubles as rag-pickers sorting through stinking household rubbish dumps.

"India needs laws which will protect workers' interests, especially the vulnerable and children. We have a lot to learn from Western societies about workers' rights," he said.

more on grauniad and sustainability

2010-07-06T16:04:00.001-07:00

good site

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainability/series/guardian-news-media-sustainability-report-2010+operations

GRAUNIAD'S CLAIMS--HIGH BUT NOT MIGHTY

2010-07-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

The Guardian's sustainability vision 2009
We want to be a leader on media sustainability and environmentally regenerative in our activities
guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 July 2009 18.56 BST
larger | smaller
Our vision is to be a leader on sustainability within the media industry and to be environmentally regenerative in our activities. Through our editorial coverage and business activities, we will demonstrate to readers, staff, advertisers, suppliers and our communities that Guardian News & Media is committed to enhancing society's ability to build a sustainable future.

Editorial

Clearly our greatest impact comes from informing and influencing our global audience. We will therefore build on our position as a recognised leader in the reporting of environmental and social justice issues, by providing the most comprehensive news coverage on subjects such as climate change, environmental degradation and social inequality.

These topics will be explored from the social, economic, political and scientific perspectives, both nationally and globally.

We will promote public debate and harness the power of our readers and users by creating online tools and projects that give them the opportunity to share knowledge and ideas, as well as encouraging them to make a difference, both as individuals and within their communities.

Social justice has always been at the heart of our journalism and we will consistently give a voice to disadvantaged communities around the world who are most affected by climate change.

Commercial

GNM's reputation puts us in a strong position to benefit from the growing trend in businesses moving towards a more sustainable future.

We will support our large existing clients in this endeavour as well as enable small and emerging companies to develop their markets.

We recognise that tensions can arise between our need for advertising revenues to sustain our business and being a medium for promoting consumption. Our role is neither to hector our readers nor to censor on their behalf. Our editorial coverage informs and influences our audience in their choices.

We will work with our readers and users to gain a deeper understanding of what products and services they want in this area, and use this knowledge to engage with our advertisers and sponsors on the issue of sustainability.

Operational

Our ambition is to be environmentally regenerative. We will investigate how we can become carbon positive – go beyond carbon neutral and positively affect climate change.

Our offices and print sites will be of the highest environmental standards and we commit to minimising waste and maximising both efficiency and recycling. We will avoid unnecessary energy use, reduce our energy consumption where possible, use renewables and only offset emissions where there are no real alternatives.

Sustainability will be at the heart of our procurement processes as we recognise that our suppliers represent a key part of our operational impact.

We will consistently increase the amount of recycled and certified virgin newsprint in our products and will work across the industry to minimise the ecological footprint of paper supply and newspaper distribution.

People

We will empower and inspire everyone who works at GNM to act by encouraging sustainable behaviour. We will achieve this through leadership, raising awareness and incentives. At our new offices in Kings Cross, our working culture will aim to minimise waste and we will make it easy for all of us to act responsibly. We will also work in partnership with our local and global communities to address their social and environmental needs, by highlighting the issues and providing volunteering, resources and funding.

• Our vision was agreed by the board in 2007 and any changes are signed off by directors. The last revision was in 2008, strengthening the community component and also committing to be a leader in the media sector

Definitions
There is no universal definition of sustainability, which for many companies has become the accepted term for what previously was known as corporate social responsibility. So we felt it was important to be clear on our interpretation and also to define what we mean by our ambitious aim to become environmentally regenerative.

Sustainable development

We have developed our definition from the Brundtland Commission:* sustainable development is development that meets our present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. This gives us, as individuals and collectively as a business, a shared responsibility for our impact on the environment as well as confronting and addressing social injustice within our local and global communities.

Environmentally regenerative

GNM has a vision to be environmentally regenerative, which for us means ensuring there is a net decrease in atmospheric gases that contribute to climate change resulting from the existence of our company. This long-term goal means not only dealing with our direct emissions but also those from the products and services we consume.

Alongside this, we will continue to concentrate our editorial resources on informing and influencing our audiences around the world to minimise their own environmental footprint, and to challenge the political and economic structures that lead to unsustainable behaviour.

We will work with communities both locally and in the developing world to deepen their knowledge and understanding of sustainability and reduce their own environmental footprints.

*Our Common Future, published by Oxford University Press in 1987.

MORE RAGPICKER ABJECTION--from economic times

2010-07-06T15:43:00.001-07:00

India's rag-pickers at new risks from e-wastes
6 Jul 2010, 0954 hrs IST,
Topics:
united nationsMaulana Azad Medical CollegeOccupational and Environmental HealthToxic Link
NEW DELHI: Young rag-pickers sifting through rubbish are a common image of India's chronic poverty, but destitute children face new hazards picking apart old computers as part of the growing "e-waste" industry.

Asif, aged seven, spends his days dismantling electronic equipment in a tiny, dimly-lit unit in east Delhi along with six other boys.

"My work is to pick out these small black boxes," he said, fingers deftly prising out integrated circuits from the pile of computer remains stacked high beside him.

His older brother Salim, 12, is also hard at work instead of being at school. He is extracting tiny transistors and capacitors from wire boards.

The brothers, who decline to reveal how much they earn a day, say they are kept frantically busy as increasing numbers of computers, printers and other electronic goods are discarded by offices and homes.

Few statistics are known about the informal "e-waste" industry, but a United Nations report launched in February described how mountains of hazardous waste from electronic products are growing exponentially in developing countries.

It said India would have 500 percent more e-waste from old computers in 2020 than in 2007, and 18 times more old mobile phones.

The risks posed to those who handle the cast-offs are clear to T.K. Joshi, head of the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi.

He studied 250 people working in the city as recyclers and dismantlers over 12 months to October 2009 and found almost all suffered from breathing problems such as asthma and bronchitis.

"We found dangerously high levels -- 10 to 20 times higher than normal -- of lead, mercury and chromium in blood and urine samples," he told AFP.

"All these have a detrimental effect on the respiratory, urinary and digestive systems, besides crippling immunity and causing cancer."

Toxic metals and poisons enter workers' bloodstreams during the laborious manual extraction process and when equipment is crudely treated to collect tiny quantities of precious metals.

"The recovery of metals like gold, platinum, copper and lead uses caustic soda and concentrated acids," said Joshi.

"Workers dip their hands in poisonous chemicals for long hours. They are also exposed to fumes of highly concentrated acid."

Safety gear such as gloves, face masks and ventilation fans are virtually unheard of, and workers -- many of them children -- often have little idea of what they are handling.

"All the workers we surveyed were unaware of the dangers they were exposed to. They were all illiterate and desperate for employment," said Joshi. "Their choice is clear -- either die of hunger or of metal poisoning."

And he warned exposure to e-waste by-products such as cadmium and lead could result in a slow, painful death.

"They can't sleep or walk," he said. "They are wasted by the time they reach 35-40 years of age and incapable of working."

There are no estimates of how many people die in India from e-waste poisoning as ill workers generally drift back to their villages when they can no longer earn a living.

"The irony is that the amounts of gold and platinum they extract are traces -- fractions of a milligramme," said Priti Mahesh, programme coordinator of the New Delhi-based Toxic Link environment group.

"Computers, televisions and mobile phones are most dangerous because they have high levels of lead, mercury and cadmium -- and they have short life-spans so are discarded more," she said.

The Indian government has proposed a law to regulate the e-waste trade, but Delhi environment group the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said any legislation would miss the army of informal workers such as brothers Asif and Salim.

"The proposed law says only big firms should be in the business of recycling and dismantling," said Kushal Pal Singh Yadav, a CSE campaigner.

"This is not going to work because the informal sector already has a cheap system of collection, disposal or recycling in place -- so people will use that."

For Joshi, the sight of children working in appalling conditions taking computers apart is as potent a symbol of India's deep troubles as rag-pickers sorting through stinking household rubbish dumps.

"India needs laws which will protect workers' interests, especially the vulnerable and children. We have a lot to learn from Western societies about workers' rights," he said.

IMPORTANT PETITION

2010-06-14T08:31:00.001-07:00

Stand with Chinese workers making Apple iPhones

Dear Toby Miller,

As Apple releases the new iPhone 4G, Chinese activists are mourning the deaths of 11 workers who made Apple iPhones and iPods, and are taking to the streets to demand Apple stop the conditions at its supplier factory that led to the deaths: the extreme long hours, poverty wages, humiliation by managers and denial of independent union representation. Apple CEO Steve Jobs refuses to take responsibility, saying last week, "for a factory, it's pretty nice". Take action and forward this message!

Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
Apple CEO Steve Jobs

Below is the sample letter:

Subject: Apple must stop Foxconn's worker abuses

Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],

I am deeply troubled with Apple's lack of concern for the Foxconn workers who have contributed to the growth and success of your company.

According to independent labor rights organizations, 13 Foxconn workers have now attempted suicide and 1 has died from exhaustion. We are especially concerned that you have dismissed these workers' suicides as "normal" in China, as all those who attempted suicide were young migrant workers between 18 and 24 years old, manufacturing your company's products while working up to 36 hours at a time without overtime pay, being paid poverty wages, and denied democratic union representation.

As students who purchase Apple products, we demand that you, CEO of one of the most innovative and successful companies in the world, forge the path for responsible corporate development by calling for an exhaustive independent investigation into Apple's purchasing practices, the payment of living wages, legal working hours, and democratic union elections in Foxconn supplier factories to ensure that workers voices are heard and that they manufacture your products with dignity and respect.

Sincerely,

Toby Miller

cc:
Apple Director of Supplier Social Responsibility Robert Bainbridge
Apple Executives
Foxconn Executives

Take Action!
Instructions:
Click here to take action on this issue

Tell-A-Friend:
Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this, or simply forward this message.
Tell-a-Friend!

What's At Stake:
At Foxconn, a major manufacturer of Apple's iPhone, iMac, iPad and iPod touch, a disturbing wave of suicides recently caught the media's attention. But Apple has been on notice for 5 years as the target of a campaign by USAS' Hong Kong partner Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM). Despite persistent attempts by SACOM to get Apple to stop the abuses at Foxconn, Apple CEO Steve Jobs outrightly denied the problem until just days ago. As recently as June 2, Jobs denied the factory was a sweatshop and dismissed the suicides as insignificant. Since January, 13 young workers at Apple's supplier factory in Shenzhen, China have committed suicide, and just a few days ago, a young worker died from exhaustion. The cause? Working as long as 36 hours nonstop without overtime pay, earning poverty wages, facing humiliation by company managers and being denied independent union representation. While the economic crisis has pushed hundreds of electronics suppliers out of business, Apple has enjoyed record profits on the backs of its young Chinese workers. Under the direct pressure of Apple and other buyers, its supplier Foxconn has not been paying production line workers at its Shenzhen plant enough to even meet basic needs, compelling workers to labor up to 100 hours of overtime a month, close to three times the maximum 36 hours permitted by Chinese labor law. Furthermore, Foxconn, responding to heavy public scrutiny, recently manipulated consumers to believe that it raised the wages of its workers out of its own benevolence, although it was actually in light of an anticipated raise in the government's minimum wage. This week, Apple released its newest edition of the iPhone, selling for $200 a piece, but this price doesn't include the short lives of those lost who were being paid pennies per phone. We call on Apple to mandate that Foxconn to raise the unit price of their orders to reflect the true cost of labor, to hold democratic union elections, and to halt production for the month of June so that Apple and Foxconn review the company's management method that has resulted in such tragedies. In order to demonstrate to Apple and Foxconn that students, one of its target markets, will not stand for sweatshop abuse, United Students Against Sweatshops is asking all its supporters to send a message to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Campaign Expiration Date:
July 15, 2011

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for United Students Against Sweatshops.
This message was sent to toby.miller@ucr.edu. Visit your subscription management page to modify your email communication preferences or update your personal profile. To stop ALL email from United Students Against Sweatshops, click to remove yourself from our lists (or reply via email with "remove or unsubscribe" in the subject line).

NEW YORK TIMES ENTERS 21ST CENTURY--UNSTEADILY

2010-06-08T00:37:00.000-07:00

JUNE 7, 2010, 12:14 PM
New York State Cracks Down on E-Waste

By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Stuart Isett for The New York Times Aluminum scrap from old computers, television sets and other electronics.
There’s a far better place than the trash bin for your old computer monitor. Like plenty of other electronics items, it may contain toxic substances like lead, mercury and cadmium that are hazardous to the environment and human health if mismanaged.

Starting next spring, consumers in New York State should find the disposal process a bit easier. Under a new law governing electronic waste, manufacturers across the state must offer free programs enabling people to drop off their items for proper recycling or reuse.

The collection programs will be required starting April 11; after that, manufacturers will not be allowed to dispose of electronic waste at landfills. Starting Jan. 15, 2015, consumers will also be prohibited from throwing out e-waste in their garbage or dumping it at a landfill.

Based on each manufacturer’s market share of electronic sales in New York, the state will mandate that each company recycle or reuse a certain amount of electronic waste each year.

Those who collect more waste than required can bank, trade or sell “recycling credits” for the excess waste they collect. Those who do not collect their share will face fines that will go toward state-run recycling programs.

The state law is more stringent than an electronic waste law approved in New York City in 2008; while the city’s version requires manufacturers to offer collection programs, it does not require them to recycle a certain percentage of what they sell.

The City Council voted to include such a requirement, but Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg refused to sign it, saying it could penalize manufacturers for the failure of consumers to recycle.

The new state law covers electronics like television sets, computers, printers, keyboards and DVD and MP3 players, but excludes items like refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers and microwaves.

New York is the 23rd state to pass an e-waste law. Maine was the first, in 2006. Until New York acted, South Carolina was the most recent to approve one, in a vote in early May.

E-SCHOLARS OUT THERE--SIGN ON IF YOU FEEL YOU CAN

2010-06-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

Appeal by concerned international scholars:
Create humane labor standards at Foxconn
and end “stealth manufacturing” in Information Technology!--sign on via wlchan@sacom.hk

June 8, 2010

The tragic series of suicides among young workers of the “Foxconn City” factory compound in Shenzhen, China, has alarmed the world. Until now, only few people knew that this is the largest electronics factory in the world, employing more than 300,000 workers. The factory is run by a large multinational company from Taiwan, Foxconn (a subsidiary of Hon Hai group), which is one of the largest electronics manufacturing companies in the world. It produces for the most famous brand names in the global IT industry such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Nokia or Sony. Since contract manufacturers like Foxconn and their global customers try to keep their manufacturing operations hidden, this system has correctly been labelled “stealth manufacturing”.

Most of the workers in electronics contract manufacturing and its preferred “low-cost locations” in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, Hungary and other countries in Eastern Europe earn wages below the prevailing national standards. They work in clean and modern factories, but their work is reminiscent of the assembly lines of the early ages of mass production. The workforce of the new factories is made up of rural migrants, most of them women. As global contract manufacturing has grown, labor standards have collapsed and trade unions have been marginalized.

In reaction to the tragic events at Foxconn, a group of nine Chinese sociologists from leading universities in the country have taken the unusual step of issuing a collective appeal. According to their opinion, the crisis at Foxconn reveals deep-ranging problems in China’s current model of economic development, based on low wages, long working hours, and discrimination against rural migrant workers. They challenge the factory regime at Foxconn and call on the Chinese national and local government and the concerned enterprises to allow migrant workers to become “true citizens of the enterprise”.

From an international point of view, we have to call for rigorous action from multiple parties to establish labor standards, occupational and environmental health, and workers’ dignity in manufacturing world-wide, particularly in supplier manufacturing factories. The noted British business journal The Economist is aptly stating that “a firm and an industry that has become accustomed to obscurity will have to get used to the limelight” (May 29, 2010).

Changes in the labor policies of the contract manufacturing sector must be based on a comprehensive effort to restore transparency and public scrutiny over the contract relations between brand name and contract manufacturing companies. Meticulous attention needs to be devoted to labor, health and environmental standards, as well as to democratic participation of workers at the workplace. The so-called “Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC)” – a code of conduct and mechanism of consultation established by major IT companies – has failed completely to secure basic standards of work, environmental justice and social responsibility throughout the electronics industry and its “supply chains”.

Workers must have a right to:
Representation and collective bargaining by trade unions to defend their interests and rights.
Information about, and protection from, hazardous materials used in manufacturing.
Guarantees of working hours and work intensity that will not threaten physical or mental health.

Communities, government agencies, and the public have a right to know:
What are the working conditions in contract factories and whether the basic rights of workers are respected?
What hazardous materials are used in manufacturing and whether the manufacturing process complies with internationally accepted standards of occupational safety and health?
Where, by whom, and under which conditions brand name products are manufactured?
What are the financial and economic conditions of manufacturing contracts between brand names and their suppliers, and whether suppliers and manufacturers are squeezed?
What impact corporate decisions on the allocation of manufacturing contracts, downsizing and closings of factories, and the establishment of new manufacturing facilities have on communities?

In the light of these urgent questions, we call on the relevant companies and government agencies in China and internationally to support an independent international investigation of the economic, financial and social backgrounds of the tragic events at Foxconn. Such an investigation should be led by the International Labour Organization with participation from independent academic experts, trade unions, labor and environmental NGOs, and other organizations with relevant expertise in the field, excluding those who are linked to corporate interests or have received substantial funding from the affected corporations in recent years.

SIGNATORS: (list in formation; A – Z; as of 6 JUNE 2010, UK Time)

Amanda Bell, Columbia University
Anita Chan, University of Technology, Sydney
Boy Luethje, University of Frankfurt
Eileen Boris, University of California, Santa Barbara
Ellen David Friedman, Sun Yat-sen University
John Trumpbour, Harvard University
Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University
Katie Quan, University of California, Berkeley
Meei-shia Chen, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Peter Evans, University of California, Berkeley
Robert Ross, Clark University
Stephen Philion, St. Cloud State University

GLOBAL CRIME & E-WASTE

2010-06-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

INTERPOL produces report on the links between organized crime and electronic waste disposal

07 July 2009

INTERPOL has published a new report entitled Electronic Waste and Organized Crime: Assessing the Links, aimed at all persons concerned with environmental crime.

Electronic waste (e-waste) is the collective term for all the pre-owned products such as computers and televisions discarded by our modern consumer society. As these products often contain hazardous chemicals and metals, the management and appropriate disposal of e-waste is regulated by national and international laws and agreements in order to minimize the risk of damage to human health and the environment. However, due to the stringent regulations in the European Union and Americas these products are often shipped to other countries in order to avoid expensive recycling and disposal costs. If handled inappropriately, e-waste can release poisonous or hazardous materials into the environment or water supplies, posing a serious health threat to communities.

Prepared by the INTERPOL Environmental Crime Programme and its Pollution Crime Working Group, this report represents a milestone in their efforts to develop global and multi-sector responses to the many issues surrounding the illegal e-waste trade and the levels of criminal organization behind them.

"This report is an important resource for environmental enforcement agencies and national police agencies worldwide. It will help raise awareness of the scale of the e-waste problem, and provide a springboard for global action in the fight against pollution crime", said the Manager of the INTERPOL Environmental Crime Programme, David Higgins.

NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL ON NY LEGISLATION

2010-06-05T07:05:00.001-07:00

Kate Sinding’s Blog
NYS Passes Cutting Edge E-Waste Law
Print this page
Posted May 29, 2010 in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
Tags: assemblymansweeney, computers, e-waste, electronics, electronicwaste, environmentalprotectionfund, EPF, EPR, erecycling, ewaste, extendedproducerresponsibility, governorpaterson, newyork, newyorkcity, newyorkers, NRDC, nysassembly, nyssenate, paterson, producerresponsibility, productstewardship, recycling, senatorthompson, televisions, TVs, waste
NY's Legislature passed, and the governor signed, what is arguably the most progressive electronics recycling law in the country last week, finally ensuring that all of the state's residents will have access to free and convenient recycling for their old and unwanted TVs, computers and other electronics.

Passage of the e-waste measure caps three years of hard work and intense lobbying by proponents. Special kudos go to the leadership of both legislative houses (especially Assemblymember Bob Sweeney and Senator Antoine Thompson, respective chairs of the Environmental Conservation Committees in each house), as well as Governor Paterson, all of whom worked extremely diligently to make the legislation a reality.

New York now joins 22 other states in mandating that manufacturers bear the responsibility for taking back their toxin-containing used electronics from consumers for responsible recycling. This approach not only gets these dangerous products out of our landfills and incinerators where they can contaminate water and air, it also removes the burden of handling this fastest-growing part of the waste stream from municipalities and taxpayers. Equally importantly, by shifting the costs of end-of-life waste management to the manufacturers, it encourages them to design products in the first instance that are easier - and hence cheaper - to recycle in the first place. Ultimately, this should result in products that have fewer toxic components, and more reusable and recyclable components, requiring less use of virgin materials.

The New York measure takes advantage of what we have learned about how these programs are best structured, building off the successful e-waste laws that already exist in 22 states, including Washington, Oregon and Minnesota.

Key features of this landmark law include:

Requiring product manufacturers to take financial responsibility for the collection and safe disposal and recycling of used electronic equipment.
Covering a broad scope of products, including televisions, computer monitors, computers, keyboards, mice, printers and cables.
Imposing strong collection standards that give manufacturers latitude to create collection programs that fit their specific business model so long as they collect the statutory minimum amount of waste each year. The standard starts at three pounds per capita in year one, rising to four in year two and five and year three. Thereafter, the mandatory minimum standard is allowed to "float" (within a prescribed range) based on what was collected in the prior year.
Allowing for free e-waste recycling for a wide range of consumers, including individuals, schools, municipalities, small businesses, and small non-profits.
Passage of the measure also effectively negates a nearly year old industry lawsuit challenging New York City's 2008 e-waste recycling law. The state bill would preempt the city law, the proposed implementation of which spurred litigation because of objections to a regulatory requirement that manufacturers provide direct collection from residents for items weighing over fifteen pounds. The state measure is not expected to lead to any similar regulatory requirement and is therefore not expected to face industry challenge.

Unfortunately, passage of the long-awaited e-waste law did not come without a cost, as the program was passed as part of larger deal that resulted in major cuts to the state's Environmental Protection Fund (EPF).

The EPF pays for a broad range of environmental programs that includes open space protections, land purchases, clean water safety investments, ocean conservation research, zoos, parks and much else. Last year, the Paterson administration cut the Fund from a high water mark of $255 million to an appropriated $212 million. This year, as Paterson threatened the state legislature (and the public) with the closings of numerous parks and park facilities across the state, he demanded that the EPF line be reduced to $133 million, nearly $90 million less than last fiscal year. This at a time when the main revenue-generating instrument for the EPF, the Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) has grown in the past three months over last year. Legislative leadership, at the end of an arduous week of negotiations, accepted Paterson's deal in return for keeping the Parks open and passing the landmark e-waste law.

Nonetheless, the e-waste law represents a major victory in another challenging legislative session in Albany and should be a cause for serious celebration by all New Yorkers who have been waiting too long for a free, convenient and responsible way to get rid of those unwanted TVs and computers taking up space in their closets, garages and attics.

IT NEWS REPORTS

2010-05-16T16:29:00.001-07:00

Computer Aid International's CEO Speaks Out Against E-waste In Ghana After BBC ExposÃ©
RealWire
2010-5-14
The image of thousands of electronics products dumped in a remote village in Ghana (BBC Three programme Blood, Sweat and Luxuries: Gold and E-waste, 11th May) highlights the continuing issue of e-waste being illegally exported to the developing world.

Tony Roberts, founder and CEO of Computer Aid International, has voiced his concern about the situation and called on governments and companies to end the toxic trade:

"The limitations of the current legislative framework for e-waste are highlighted by Blood, Sweat and Luxuries. Computer Aid International launched a campaign in September 2008, against e-waste dumping in the developing world, however two years on this issue remains unresolved.

"Fraudulent traders are continuing to operate in the UK and Europe, posing as legitimate reuse and recycling organisations and enticing unwitting businesses to use them for disposal of electrical equipment. These traders do not declare the contents of their shipments as hazardous e-waste, but falsely claim consignments consist entirely of electrical equipment destined for productive reuse.

"Because of these traders, hazardous materials reach the developing world, where many children and marginalised communities face serious health risks while disassembling the equipment.

"Computer Aid International has called upon on the UK government to remove the loop holes in the UK WEEE Directive that allows sham reuse, and is emphasising the importance of taking action, to prevent the UK's hazardous waste being exported to the developing world. As a charity we actively support the Environment Agency in arresting and prosecuting these e-waste cowboys.

"Computer Aid also calls on computer manufacturers that shirk responsibility for their equipment dumped in developing countries, to fund end-of-life recycling in Africa, in exactly the same way that they already do within the EU.

"UK companies can easily ensure that their own PCs do not fall into the hands of unscrupulous traders by taking seven steps. They need to make sure they use a reputable organisation that will guarantee the legal disposal of unwanted goods. It's easy to check companies on the Environment Agency website to make sure they are registered as an Approved Authorised Treatment Facility (AATF) to handle e-waste legally and responsibly.

"Companies should also consider the implications of their decisions on the environment, and ask themselves do we want our data to end up in a dump in Ghana?"

Computer Aid International is a leading non-profit provider of ICT for development, having professionally refurbished over 160,000 PCs for use in schools, hospitals and community projects in more than 100 countries such as Rwanda, Chile and Zambia. The charity focuses its efforts on socially responsible reuse schemes instead of mass recycling or disposal.

Computer Aid International also offers corporate peace of mind through its PC decommissioning service, which guarantees complete data destruction using the Kroll Ontrack data wiping software. Corporate benefactors are also provided with the assurance of compliance with all UK legislation, including the WEEE Directive, Data Protection Act and Environment Act.

To find out more about donating to Computer Aid International, contact the charity directly on 020 8361 5540, email enquiries@computeraid.org, or visit: www.computeraid.org.

Follow Computer Aid on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Computer_Aid for regular updates on their work.

FROM 2003, ALTERNET, BUT STILL GERMANE--BY MICHAEL NIMAN

2010-05-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

Kodak's Toxic Moments
Community activists are taking a campaign against the film maker's foul New York facility to the world stage.
May 29, 2003 | Maureen Reynolds, a former neighbor of Eastman Kodak's sprawling Kodak Park facility in Rochester, New York, suffers from more than her share of Kodak moments -- believing that Kodak poisoned her and her neighbors. She wasn't suspicious when her three-year-old son developed asthma. Rushing him to the hospital for adrenaline shots was traumatic, but these things happen. She also wasn't suspicious about the thin layer of ash on her car's windshield. She even noticed ash sometimes on her young son's glasses. Cities have dirty air, however, and a little ash isn't uncommon.

Things started getting strange, however, when Reynolds' herself developed asthma at age forty. During the next ten years she developed cancer, neuropathy, fibromyalgia, arthritis and the autoimmune disease, Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC) -- a rare disorder that only affects one person in a million.

Reynolds moved out of her Kodak Park neighborhood four years earlier, after living there for 23 years. As Reynolds began to confront the downturn in her health, she noticed that many of her old friends from the neighborhood were suffering similar fates -- plagued by fibromyalgia and a host of other diseases. Curious, Reynolds starting focusing on the rarest disease that she suffered from -- PBC. PBC, which primarily attacks women, is related to Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC), which primarily affects men. What she learned was startling. PSC is one of a host of ailments from which Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange suffer. After a little more research she discovered that, like her Kodak Park neighbors, these same veterans also suffer from neuropathy, diabetes, asthma and cancers of the thyroid and pancreas.

#1 in Dioxin

The most potent ingredient in Agent Orange is dioxin -- which is often blamed for health problems suffered by those exposed to the herbicide. Reynolds' former neighbor, Kodak, has been releasing massive amounts of the same toxic substance into the Kodak Park environment. A 1992 trial burn at Kodak's incinerator released more dioxin into the environment than all of New York's other tested hazardous waste incinerators combined. Dioxin is a sore subject in Western New York since it was also found to be responsible for much of the sickness in Niagara Falls' Love Canal neighborhood.

According to the EPA, Kodak released more dioxin into New York's environment in 2000 than any other source. Kodak isn't just number one in dioxin emissions, however. As of 1999, they've also ranked as New York State's leading producer of recognized airborne carcinogens and waterborne developmental toxicants. They've also gained notoriety as New York's number one source for releases of suspected endocrine, gastrointestinal, liver, cardiovascular, kidney, respiratory and reproductive toxicants as well as neurotoxins. Kodak alone released more toxic chemical emissions listed in the federal Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) than all of the 144 major polluters in Erie (Buffalo), Niagara (Niagara Falls) and Monroe (Rochester) counties combined.

During the 13-year period from 1987 to 2000, thanks primarily to Kodak's toxic stew of emissions, Rochester ranked number one in the U.S. for overall releases of carcinogenic chemicals, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG). Kodak alone was responsible for over 90 percent of the 64.4 million pounds of carcinogens released during that period into Rochester's air and water.

Cancer in Kodak Park

The end result of this dumping is a toxic-laden environment poisonous to human life. Hence, it should come as no surprise that according to the National Institute of Health and the National Cancer Institute, the Rochester area is in the top ten percentile for death rates from 13 different types of cancers. The New York State Department of Health found that "women living near Kodak Park had approximately an 80 percent greater [than average] risk of developing pancreatic cancer," which is often fatal. That rate increased to 96 percent among women who lived in the Kodak Park area for at least 20 years, leading the Department of Health to suggest that the longer people live near the Kodak facility, the greater their risk of getting pancreatic cancer becomes.

Children seem especially susceptible to toxins in the Kodak Park area environment. One concerned area mother conducted a door to door survey in the Kodak Park neighborhood, eventually documenting 33 cases of brain cancer in children living within five miles of the Kodak facility. Currently the parents of five of these children are suing Kodak for $75 million, holding the corporation responsible for poisoning their children. The concern about children's health is further exacerbated by the realization that there are 21 schools located within three miles of the sprawling Kodak facility.

Kodak's Public Relations division has been active for generations working to keep community protest at bay. Charlie Roemer, who lives two blocks from the Kodak facility, remembers a time 40 years ago when the company used to placate the community by offering to repaint cars whose finishes were damaged by ash from their smokestacks. Roemer says the "persistent bad smells" that have continuously come from the plant since his family moved into the community 51 years ago are just something people in the Kodak Park community learned to tolerate. He recalls how his neighbors, during particularly bad air days in the 1960s, would chalk the stink up to "Kodak cleaning their stacks." On other days, especially during wind shifts, the stench of Kodak's effluent emissions into the Genesee River would overwhelm the neighborhood. In an effort to demonstrate how safe the stinky water was, the company at one time maintained a small aquarium near its discharge pipes, with fish allegedly swimming in waste water.

Let Them Drink Methylene Chloride

Groundwater studies conducted in and around Kodak Park in the late 1990s show, however, that fluid wastes from the Kodak plant are anything but benign. A 1996 study, for example, found methylene chloride concentrations as high as 3,600,000 parts per billion. The permissible legal level is five parts per billion. In a self-congratulatory Earth Day 2003 press release, Kodak claims to have reduced methylene chloride emissions by 50 percent. They don't mention, however, that the New York State Comptroller's office points out that Kodak "only undertook serious remediation efforts after numerous fines from New York State and the EPA." It's also no accident that the press release doesn't contain data about current emissions. Given Kodak's previous astronomical emissions levels, a 50 percent or even a 99 percent cut still leaves an unacceptable amount of methylene chloride entering the environment. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration classifies methylene chloride as a workplace carcinogen. The Environmental Protection Agency labels it a "probable human carcinogen." For Charlie Roemer, it's the probable cause of the advanced prostate cancer he was diagnosed with three months ago.

Many of Kodak's workers, like the residents in the Kodak Park area, have similar health horror stories. Ramona Miller worked at Kodak for 21 years, including working in a lab during a period when she was breast feeding her newborn baby girl in 1988. Miller blames her work at Kodak, which involved moving toxic samples in and out of drying ovens in what she describes as a "poorly vented environment," with the chronic health problems afflicting both her and her daughter. Her daughter suffers from bi-lateral spasticity, a form of cerebral palsy which Miller believes was induced by toxins accumulating in her breast milk. Miller herself suffers from various nervous system disorders. She continued, however, to work at Kodak while conducting research about the various chemicals she was exposed to while breastfeeding. Eventually she started getting panic attacks when she approached Kodak Park, much as a crime victim would when revisiting the scene where she was victimized. Miller finally left her job a Kodak last year. Kodak hasn't acknowledged any responsibility for Miller's health problems nor those of her daughter.

The hazards of working at Kodak are widely known. A 1987 article in the Journal of Occupational Medicine cites one of Kodak's own studies showing "an elevated number of deaths due to pancreatic cancer in workers exposed at Kodak Park to methylene chloride.

For workers and neighbors who believe they were injured by Kodak's legal and illegal dumping of toxics into the environment, finding lawyers willing to sue the politically powerful Kodak in what is essentially a company town is a difficult proposition.

Crime and Politics

Politics is a game Kodak has learned to play well, contributing funds generously to both Democratic and Republican war chests. In 1994 the EPA fined Kodak approximately $8 million for environmental violations at Kodak Park. The EPA's laundry list of environmental crimes Kodak was guilty of included illegal disposal of hazardous wastes, illegal use of incinerators and waste piles, failure to notify the EPA of groundwater contamination, making undocumented shipments of hazardous wastes, and having a 20 year history of leaky underground pipes, among other violations. In 1995, however, Governor George Pataki's Economic Development Commissioner, Charles Gargano, in a letter to Kodak's former CEO, George Fisher, wrote, "Your leadership at Kodak is an inspiration to those of us trying to reengineer state government and make it more responsive to the needs of our business customers."

Such indifference to the criminal activities of, and tacit support for, the state's largest industrial polluter is shocking. But the letter to Fisher also had another purpose -- that being to announce a $20+ million state aid package composed primarily of tax credits. As the state money and tax abatements poured in during 1996, Fisher's compensation package as CEO soared to over $9 million.

Recidivism in Kodak Park

Despite the generosity of the Pataki administration, Kodak remained the state's number one industrial polluter. Showing no remorse for his company's past criminal activity, in May of 1996 Senior Vice President Richard T. Bourns told the New York State Assembly Subcommittee on Manufacturing, "In 1994 we believed that unjustified environmental regulations were the greatest competitive disadvantage associated with manufacturing in New York. Simply put, regulations that did nothing to help the environment were costing jobs." The upside for Kodak, according to Bourns, was that, "Under Governor Pataki, that is beginning to change." Still, for Kodak, this change wasn't coming fast enough. While complaining about the same state income tax that partially financed the Pataki administration's handouts to Kodak, Bourne warned that "Unless New York makes significant changes to be more competitive, Kodak investment will increasingly go elsewhere."

For environmental and community activists, this is exactly what the problem is at Kodak: Their investment is going elsewhere. Michael Schade, Western New York Director of New York's Citizens' Environmental Coalition (CEC) argues that pollution control efforts at Kodak are not up to date. His organization is demanding that Kodak phase out emissions of extremely toxic chemicals. Kodak, despite modest investments in environmental safeguards made in lieu of fines, has still shown itself to be a serial environmental offender, being found guilty by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation of violations dating from 1993 to 1999, which included dumping wastes into the Genesee River. Thanks in large part to Kodak, that river has the dubious distinction of receiving more toxic wastes than the Hudson River.

While continuing to poison the environment at Kodak Park, the company has attempted to make rhetorical gains in the fight against the perception that it is a polluter. One of Kodak's many Earth Day 2003 pronouncements boasted how the EPA, recently under the command of Bush appointee Christie Whitman, announced that "Eastman Kodak Company is a remarkable example of how organizations can combine environmental concerns with smart business strategy." Both the Whitman EPA and Kodak point to the company's new motion picture film cleaning technology which reduces the use of ozone depleting chemicals. Critics argue that Kodak is making small highly publicized improvements while maintaining a toxic status quo in Kodak Park. In an image-driven world, such a frontal assault against reality can be quite effective, hence environmentalists and public health advocates must be more vigilant than ever in working to expose Kodak's toxic legacy.

Just Say No! to Kodak

Things may be changing soon, however. CEC and a host of other groups located around the world have been turning the heat up on Kodak. On May 7th, Kodak shareholders voted on a resolution that would have forced the company, literally, to clean up its act. Using neighboring Xerox, which saved $300 million over three years by adopting a more environmentally friendly closed-loop production system, shareholder proponents of the resolution argued that in the long run, a clean company exercising respect for the environment would be a more profitable company as well. The resolution won the support of the New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office, which manages the state's retirement fund. Hevesi, whose office pointed to Kodak's "long history" of releasing "bioaccumulative pollutants" at Kodak Park, argued that "Adopting and practicing sound environmental policies not only preserves our natural resources, but makes good business sense." Though it was voted down, supporters see the six percent of the vote that it garnered as a success, arguing that such numbers are promising for a first-time shareholder resolution.

Activist organizations also organized the first-ever National Day of Action for Clean Air at Kodak. Protestors from Washington State to Texas, Illinois and New York, picketed drugstores selling Kodak film and related products. In this new Kodak moment, CEC's Schade argued that, "For the health and safety of our communities, we need to raise our voices and expose the true picture of Kodak's pollution. It is critical that we stand up and demand the right to a clean and safe environment for our children." Suddenly, after decades of suffering alone, this is no longer just the Kodak Park community's issue. Activists from diverse nations around the globe such as India, Norway and Malaysia are banding together bring the message to Kodak that the global market will not tolerate what they are doing in Rochester. Given Kodak's international presence and their need to protect their brand image around the world, continued community activism will mean it's only a matter of time before Kodak listens and cleans up its act.

JO LITTLER SENT THIS ALONG FROM THE GUARDIAN

2010-05-08T05:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Jo!

Chinese workers link sickness to n-hexane and Apple iPhone screens
Staff suffer health decline after supplier's use of toxic chemical to clean western gadgets

Tania Branigan in Suzhou
guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 May 2010 18.50 BST

A lawyer acting for 44 of the poisoning victims said several had named Apple. There is no suggestion the firm was responsible for the use of n-hexane. Photograph: AP

Next month, amid the usual hoopla, Apple is expected to officially unveil its latest gadget: the much-awaited iPhone 4G. But halfway round the globe from the company's California headquarters, a young worker who has spent months in an eastern Chinese hospital wants consumers to look beyond the shiny exterior of such gadgets.

"People should know what we do to create these products and what cost we pay," said Bai Bing as she perched on a bed in her ward.

She is one of scores of young workers in the city of Suzhou who were poisoned by the chemical n-hexane, which they say was used to clean Apple components including iPhone touch screens.

Wu Mei – who, like the others, asked the Guardian to use her nickname – recalled her fear as her health suddenly deteriorated last spring.

At first, she thought she was simply tired from the long working hours at Wintek, a Taiwan-owned electronics giant supplying several well-known brands. She was weaker than before and noticed she could not walk so fast.

"Then it became more and more serious. I found it very hard to go upstairs and if I squatted down I didn't have the strength to get up. Later my hands became numb and I lost my balance – I would fall over if someone touched me," she said.

By summer, she was admitted to hospital, where doctors struggled to diagnose the cause. "I was terrified. I feared I might be paralysed and spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair," she said.

Because she was using n-hexane directly, she was one of the first and worst affected.

But more and more workers from the same room were suffering headaches, dizziness and weakness, and pains in their limbs.

An occupational diseases hospital which saw several victims diagnosed the problem in August and Wintek stopped using the chemical. But thanks to the previous months of exposure, at least 62 workers would require medical care. Many spent months in hospital.

Some believe more employees left Wintek after being taken ill, before they realised what was wrong.

Prolonged over-exposure to n-hexane can cause extensive damage to the peripheral nervous system and ultimately the spinal cord, leading to muscular weakness and atrophy and even paralysis, said Paul Whitehead, a toxicology consultant and member of the UK's Royal Society of Chemistry. It can also affect male fertility. Recovery can take a year or more.

The chemical's potential risks are well-known in industry, as are safe exposure limits. But the Wintek manager who decided to switch from alcohol to n-hexane for cleaning – apparently because it dried more quickly – did not assess the dangers. It was used without proper ventilation.

The change was obvious; workers disliked the pungent smell of n-hexane. But they had no idea it might affect their health. "We hadn't even heard of occupational illnesses before," said Wintek worker Xiao Ling.

"I'm very, very angry," added Wu. "I thought they behaved too badly."

Asked if they knew what products they were working on, three of the affected Wintek employees said team leaders told them they were working for Apple. They instantly recognised pictures of an iPhone and said they were cleaning touch screens, adding that items for other brands were not affected because Apple had isolated its production line. A lawyer acting for 44 of the poisoning victims also said several had named Apple.

Wintek, which does not discuss its clients, said it had replaced the factory's general manager.

It now notifies workers whose jobs may involve risk in advance, has tightened procedures for the introduction of new chemicals, and carries out medical checks. It has paid medical fees for those affected and says it will pay compensation according to the law.

Given that the assessment and appeals process for compensation can take as long as a decade, lawyers hope the firm will pay quickly as well as fairly.

Other patients at the hospital say they too became sick while using n-hexane on Apple products.

Bai Bing said she and her colleagues were cleaning components including Apple logos – the kind that appear at the bottom of desktop screens – when she fell ill.

Her employer, Yunheng, could not be reached, but work safety officials in Suzhou have said eight employees were poisoned there as they carried out work sub-contracted by another firm, Surtec.

A Surtec employee confirmed that it made Apple logos, but a spokesman said it knew nothing about Yunheng or the poisoning.

Wintek has previously faced questions about its treatment of workers, with disputes in Taiwan and at another plant on the mainland. The Suzhou case only grabbed public attention when lingering concern over the poisoning and anger over unpaid bonuses sparked a mass protest.

Wintek blamed a misunderstanding and said bonuses had been paid and the dispute – like the other conflicts – resolved. It added that it had worked to improve communications with workers.

There is no suggestion that Apple was responsible for the use of n-hexane.

Apple declined to answer questions about the poisonings or about the firms involved, saying it does not reveal who it works with, although its spokeswoman added that Wintek had been "quite proactive" in discussing the issue. Instead it pointed to its code of conduct, which sets strict requirements for working and environmental practices, adding that many suppliers say they are the only customer carrying out such checks.

But the 2010 audit shows that manufacturers are routinely breaching the code. The majority – 54% – broke the 60-hour weekly work limit more than half the time. Another 39% failed to meet occupational injury prevention requirements; 17% failed on chemical exposure standards; and 35% did not meet wage and benefits requirements, with 24 of the 102 factories audited paying less than minimum wage for regular hours.

Three facilities used underage workers and three had falsified records. Apple said it terminated the contract in one of the latter cases, and required suppliers to make improvements and submit to reviews following other breaches.

It has also trained more workers about their rights. The firm argues that publishing the audits provides a level of transparency.

But until it identifies its manufacturers, outsiders have no way of assessing how well its policies are working and what action it is taking to deal with problems such as the n-hexane poisoning.

"Apple is the most paranoid about commercial and product secrecy. That's getting in the way of ensuring workers' rights are protected," says Geoff Crothall of China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based organisation campaigning for workers' rights.

The US giant – which last month reported quarterly profits of more than $3bn – could afford to monitor factories with serious issues "day in, day out" if it wished, he added.

"Apple products are not cheap and most Apple customers are willing to pay a premium – so why not add a tiny little bit extra to ensure working and environmental standards are met, as well as product quality?" he asked.

In the meantime, while Wintek says most of the poisoned employees have returned to work, at least some are opting to protect themselves by leaving factory life.

"I want to be as far as possible away from chemicals and the electronics plants," said Bai Bing. "I want some job, safe."

Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Interesting consumer studies from Retrevo (2)

2010-05-06T08:55:00.002-07:00

Consumers’ Views on Buying Environmentally-Friendly Electronics Products

How important is being “green” (environmentally friendly) to you when buying consumer electronic products, e.g., buying products that typically use less energy, include the energy saver tag?

Which of the characteristics below do you consider makes an electronics product “green” or environmentally friendly?

Have environmental factors, such as energy efficiency or use of recyclable materials, ever been a determining factor in a consumer electronics purchase for you?

How do you dispose of your old or unused electronics?

View Participant Demographics

Interesting consumer studies from Retrevo (1)

2010-05-06T08:55:00.001-07:00

Thu, 02/25/2010 - 03:16 — Wendy
Is There Any Hope For Green Gadgets?
There’s a story about a teacher who asks a class this question; “which is worse, ignorance or apathy?” When called on by the teacher, one student responded, “I don’t know and I don’t care.” Would you think this a common attitude about the environment and gadgets? Although this latest Retrevo Pulse study on green gadgets revealed a large group of "not so green" gadget buyers, on the positive side, a significant number of environmentally friendly gadget enthusiasts also stepped forward.

Greenies vs. Meanies
When Retrevo asked consumers if they feel guilty when they don’t buy a green gadget, we were disappointed to learn that nearly 60% of respondents felt no guilt for not buying green gadgets. Among that group 42% indicated they didn’t care if the gadget they bought was green or not while another 16% said price trumped green. On the bright side, nearly 40% said they do consider green when shopping for gadgets, even if they don’t end up buying green.

Do You Trust the TV That Wears the Star?
Do you know what Energy Star ratings mean? Do you trust them? The respondents to this study apparently do, with 80% indicating they trust the ratings. The bad news is we found that only 36% of the next generation of consumers (under 25) use energy ratings to help decide what to buy compared to 55% of those over 25.

Does Anyone Even Know How to Be Green With Gadgets?
Retrevo offered several answers to the question about knowing how to be green with gadgets. More than 60% claimed they knew how to be green however, more than half of those saying they knew, said they didn’t always put that knowledge into practice. The good news is that apathy and ignorance over green gadgets prevailed in only 18% of the respondents while over 20% said they were interested in learning how to be green.

What Would it Take to Make Consumers Turn Green?
The most popular responses to the question, “what would make you be more ‘green’ with gadgets?” involved tax or cash incentives (50%) along with making it easier to recycle gadgets (50%). Cash for clunker gadgets like old CRT TVs or rebates on new energy efficient LCD TVs could help save consumers money and would save energy too.

Different Shades of Green
The results of this study offer a mixture of good and bad news for gadgets and the environment. We were encouraged by the number of consumers who feel they know how to be green with gadgets, know what the energy ratings mean and apply this knowledge when shopping for gadgets. We were also glad to see a large group of consumers eager to learn more about how to be green with gadgets. Unfortunately, from the glass half empty side of the study we see lots of apathy and ignorance when it comes to being green with gadgets but lots of opportunity to educate and motivate consumers.

Bottom Line
It's clear that many consumers get the message about being green with gadgets however in order to get them to put their "green" into action the industry and the government needs to step up and make it easier and worth the effort.

About the Report
The Retrevo Gadgetology Report is an ongoing study of people and electronics from the consumer electronics shopping and review site Retrevo.com.

The data for this report came from a study of online individuals conducted in February 2010 by an independent panel. The sample size was just over 1,000 distributed across gender, age, income and location in the United States. Most responses have a confidence interval of 4% at a 95% confidence level.

For more information contact:
Jennifer Jacobson
Director of Public Relations
press "at" retrevo.com

new body

2010-05-06T08:49:00.001-07:00

New Clearinghouse to Encourage Cooperation among State Electronics Recycling Programs

Las Vegas, Nev. – January 7, 2010 – Today at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show, two leading non-profit organizations in advancing recycling efforts across the country announced the formation of the Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse (ERCC). The ERCC will serve as a forum for coordination and information exchange among state and local agencies that are implementing electronics recycling take-back laws. While the laws vary in their structure and impact, there are many basic areas of overlap that can be implemented in a consistent manner. The ERCC, which will be administered by the Northeast Recycling Council, Inc. (NERC) and managed by the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER), will serve to identify and coordinate joint approaches to those common challenges.

“Despite the patchwork of state requirements on electronics recycling, the ERCC will play a valuable role in reducing administrative overlap and simplifying compliance efforts for manufacturers and other impacted stakeholders,” said NCER Executive Director Jason Linnell. The ERCC is not starting from scratch in creating a multi-state cooperation forum. The governance, dues structure, and basic activities are modeled on the successful organization currently managed by NERC known as the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse (TPCH). “TPCH has demonstrated over the years that providing this type of coordination can provide benefits to and reduce costs for state governments and the regulated community in addition to providing consistency to the impacted industry, and we are excited to extend this model to electronics recycling programs,” said NERC Executive Director Lynn Rubinstein.

The ERCC is divided into two basic types of membership. The first are the voting members, who are states and local governments that are implementing electronics recycling laws. The ERCC also includes an affiliate, non-voting membership consisting of industry and other organizations. The ERCC provides affiliate members a forum to efficiently and effectively meet with state regulators to discuss the various aspects of their legislation, and a single resource destination for important information needed to make timely decisions that affect issues in multiple states.

NCER will host a press event on Thursday, January 7th at noon Pacific standard time in room S221 of the Las Vegas Convention Center to announce the ERCC and recognize the Founding Members. The ERCC will kick off key projects in the coming months to collect and maintain updated data on collection volumes, manufacturer contact information, and return share. Additionally, Member States will be able to pursue projects such as combining manufacturer registration forms and joint access to needed market research data. More information and news will be posted to the ERCC website located at http://www.ecycleclearinghouse.org

**30**

About the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER): The NCER is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization based in Parkersburg, West Virginia that is dedicated to the development and enhancement of a national infrastructure for the recycling of used electronics in the U.S. For more information about the NCER, visit its website at http://www.electronicsrecycling.org/.

About the Northeast Recycling Council (NERC): NERC's mission is to advance an environmentally sustainable economy by promoting source and toxicity reduction, recycling, and the purchasing of environmentally preferable products and services. For more information on NERC or any of their projects visit its website at http://www.nerc.org/.

National Center for Electronic Recycling offers..

2010-05-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

Per Capita Collection Index (PCCI)

The NCER has a created an electronics recycling index, known as the Per Capita Collection Index (PCCI) designed to measure changes in the amount of used electronic equipment, such as computers, televisions and monitors collected in representative programs across the United States.

Index formula:

IPC = [P1+P2+P3+P4+P5+P6]
6

P1 through P6 are the pounds per capita values of the six collection programs noted below. The index is stated as pounds collected per capita and will be re-calcuated each year. Although the numeric value of the index is noteworthy, the percentage increase from year to year is more indicative of changes in collection volumes.

The index is comprised of comprehensive collection programs collecting larger used consumer electronics such as televisions, monitors and computers.
The index value is rounded to one decimal place.
Per capita values are not adjusted to account variations of products across different collection programs.
The index is based on reported collection amounts from six programs:
State-wide programs in California, Maine and Delaware
A large municipal collection program (Hennepin County)
Two smaller municipal collection programs (Branford, CT and Frederick County, VA)
The per capita collection rate for each of these jurisdictions is averaged on an unweighted basis to calculate the national NCER Per Capita Collection Index. Specific calculations are included in the table below.

Program collection total population of area served LBs Per Capita 2009 LBs Per Capita 2008 LBs Per Capita 2007 LBs Per Capita 2006
California 162,004,676 36,961,664 4.4 5.9 5.0 3.5
Maine 7,912,292 1,318,301 6.0 4.0 3.5 3.0
Delaware 3,999,184 885,122 4.5 4.1 3.7 3.3
Hennepin County 5,735,624 1,156,212 5.0 4.7 4.8 4.0
Brandford, CT 152,009 28,969 5.2 5.0 4.4 4.8
Frederick County, VA 512,872 115,882 4.4 3.6 3.8 3.5
180,316,657 40,466,150 4.9 4.5 4.2 3.7

The NCER 2009 Collection Index increased 8% over 2008

IMPORTANT SITE

2010-05-02T16:49:00.001-07:00

http://thegreengrid.org/

Slow Surf has good tips on reducing your e-output

2010-05-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

http://slowsurf.org/

join this facebook group--against facebook!

2010-05-02T16:03:00.001-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=311700724500&v=info

and gp's account:

Facebook update: Renewable energy now
19 February 2010
Facebook.com shouldn't run on coal. Enlarge Image
International — Facebook recently announced it will build a massive data centre in Oregon, U.S., packed full of the latest energy efficient computers to serve the hundreds of millions of friends connecting on their near-addictive social networking website. But the company plans to run the place on electricity made by burning coal--Yes, the dirtiest source of energy and largest single source of global warming pollution in the world.

Greening Facebook from within
Facebook should be run on 100 percent renewable energy. That clear demand started spreading on the social network website this week, and will grow until the company announces a decision to really go green. The new data centre won't be ready until 2011, and people power has moved the company before.

Take action on Facebook
Share this article on Facebook
Try Google Buzz to share
Blog: How Facebook (and other IT companies) can help kick coal off your computer
Spanish: Queremos que Facebook utilice 100% energía renovable
When Facebook members have spoken strongly in the past on privacy and other changes that impact their profile pages, the company has been forced to change its policies.

In addition to keeping coal from powering your profile page, big electricity consumers like Facebook can also play an important role by using its influence to demand policies that dramatically increase the supply of renewable electricity being put on the grid, so we can all use renewable energy--and not coal--to power the internet.

Facebook's relationship to coal: "It's not complicated"
PacifiCorp is the power company which Facebook chose to supply their new US$ 180 million data centre in Prineville, Oregon. According to PacifiCorp's website, over 83 percent of the utility's generation capabilities come from coal, geothermal, and natural gas resources

Meanwhile Facebook says that the new building and all the technology within it will be state of the art, energy efficient stuff. Saving energy makes good business sense, and it's good for the environment too. But data centres still consume massive amounts of energy to run computers, backup power, and related cooling equipment. If Facebook's data centre runs on fossil fuels, then it's contributing to climate change.

Dump coal, support the energy revolution
Facebook should commit to stop using coal and choose renewable power for all its servers as soon as possible. What's more, to be a climate leader Facebook should also push for strong clean energy and climate policies in the U.S. and globally.

Which side are you on?
Data centres are heavy users of electricity. It's been a while since Facebook was run on a small computer in a Harvard University dorm. As the popularity of facebook.com continues to grow, so too will Facebook's need for more data centres.

Join our groups:

English: We want facebook to use 100% renewable energy
Spanish: Queremos que Facebook utilice 100% energía renovable
Companies who run their data centres on energy from burning coal are supporting the biggest source of man made CO2 emissions in the world. Our activists will continue to protest against coal-fired power plants. But getting companies like Facebook to switch to renewables is necessary for the energy revolution too -- reducing demand for coal, and investing in a green future instead.

GREAT STORY FROM FRANCE 24, WITH SUPERB VIDEO

2010-05-02T16:01:00.001-07:00

France24 (http://www.france24.com/en)
Home > Can IT ever be green?
Can IT ever be green?

By admin
Created 17/04/2010 - 12:52
GREEN IT.jpg
Ipad, I phone, Google, facebook, small and smart they may be but behind these devices lie huge energy hungry data centers. This week ENVIRONMENT looks at Green IT.

ENVIRONMENT
2010-04-17 11:40-WB EN ENVIRONMENT
They may be virtual but websites have a very real carbon footprint: their files are stored on servers and these banks of servers, need a lot of power. The world's data centres are said to produce the same level of CO2 as the Netherlands and Argentina put together.

Every time you turn on your computer, make a search in Google, or update your facebook status you’re burning CO2 as the information you send and receive whizzes round the world and add to the carbon cloud.

In an old school data centre, a high density of machines means a lot of heat is produced. The information warehouse needs constant cooling and so energy guzzling air conditioning needs to be on all the time. Some companies are now looking for ways of reducing their energy needs for economic as well as environmental reasons.

German host 1&1 stores 30 000 servers underground at its premises in Karlsruhe. The servers are powered by generators with less then 20% thermal loss and the computer hardware is chosen according to its energy efficiency. What’s more, the buildings cooling system uses the air outside to help get temperatures down.

“For ten years now we have been doing our utmost to build energy efficient databases. When we started, the term green technologies did not exist.
We did it for financial reasons and because by doing so, we behave in a responsible manner through investing in alternative energies,” notes Mathias Loacher, head of infrastructure at 1&1 European data centres.

Since 2007, the company supplies all of its data centres and offices with electricity produced from renewable energies. This has allowed it to reduce its CO2 output by 30,000 tonnes per year, and to describe itself as the first green host.

A plus for the companies Green credentials but also for its budget. Energy costs represent over 50% of a company’s budget.

Today, data centres represent already 3% of worldwide energy consumption, a figure that is on the increase. Every PC and internet search adds to the problem as the information retrieved from the internet is stored on serves, in a virtual world known as ‘cloud computing’.

This ‘cloud computing’ is the target of Greenpeace’s latest environmental campaign.
Facebook in particular has been served notice. The leading social network site has millions of members, most of who visit daily. Facebook is currently building its first data processing center in Prineville in the U.S, which is to be powered by a coal plant but it says that it is just using the main energy supply of the area.

But the main website in the crosshairs of the environmentalists is search-giant Google. Each year, Google deals with billions of requests to its site, requiring thousands of servers worldwide.

Surfing the web causes pollution but there are ways of limiting CO2 emissions while surfing the net. A website called slowsurf.org proposes a list of tips to do just that.

Finally ENVIRONMENT looks at one mobile telephone that uses 100% renewable energy.
Recharging the phone couldn’t be easier; the owner just places it in the sunlight. Even if it's cloudy you’re assured a quarter of an hour of conversation.

The telephone is proving very popular in Kenya where electricity remains rare. Solar telephones are selling like hot cakes. But not everyone is happy about it. In the slums of Kibera, David Moukaka makes a living by offering to recharge mobile phones. Its 20 centimes a charge and he gets around half a dozen customers a day. Unfortunately for David, the electricity cuts are increasing and so more and more people are turning to solar power.

COMPUTERS FOR AFRICA?

2010-05-01T17:27:00.001-07:00

Uganda Flooded With E-Waste ‘Clones’ EARTH911.COM
by Lori Brown
Published on April 30th, 2010
No Comments

According to a UN report, 27,000 computers were imported into Uganda in 2007. Of these units, only 4,000 were used computers. The vast majority of the rest were clones. Photo: Flickr/buhugu.org
For the people of Uganda, living on $2 a day is a reality. Purchasing a new computer probably doesn’t fit in to that reality. In fact, there are a mere 10 installed computers per 1,000 people in Uganda.

Knowing that, charities have popped up right and left to send donated computers to Africa. These tend to be the computers donated out of genuine good will by an individual trying to “help somebody in Africa.”

But countless other computers are sent overseas to Africa each year, either by companies looking to adopt the out-of-sight out-of-mind mentality to their e-waste problem (albeit a violation of the Basel Action Network) or by “cloned” computer manufacturers looking to sell PC’s assembled from non-major brand parts at discounted prices.

Regardless of how the computers get there, parts of Africa have turned into a literal e-waste dumping grounds, where there is little or no means of properly treating and disposing of their hazardous components.

Omaha-based nonprofit, Computers for Africa (CFA), provides refurbished computers and labs; as well as hardware, maintenance and repair lessons; to students in rural Uganda. The organization receives computer donations from local businesses, then works with high school and college students to upload new software, clean, test and configure them to excellent working condition.

The computers aren’t merely shipped overseas. They are shipped to the local CFA coordinator who has carefully vetted the applicants for factors including administrative leadership, sources of affordable energy and overall planning for the computer program. This commitment ensures the computers don’t become tech-trash a year after they are sent over.

Teachers from the recipient schools attend a two-week course in computer maintenance and repair and attend periodic workshops to keep skills up to date.

The organization hopes the adoption of quality refurbished technology will help control the influx of cloned computers as “dead clones are accumulating all over the country with little public outcry,” Herbert Busiku, Director of Ugandan Operations for CFA, told The Huffington Post.

A May 2008 report from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) put the number of computers imported into Uganda in 2007 at 27,000 units. Of these units, only 4,000 were used computers. The vast majority of the rest were clones.

INDIA LEADS AGAIN

2010-04-29T17:35:00.001-07:00

India Plans Laws on E-waste Management
New draft rules by the Indian government aim to make vendors responsible for recycling end-of-life products
John Ribeiro, IDG News Service
Thursday, April 29, 2010 04:30 AM PDT
The Indian government plans to enact new rules that makes a producer of electrical and electronic equipment responsible for the collection and appropriate disposal of e-waste generated at the end of life of its products.

The draft of the new rules, called the E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2010, was made available for public comment on the Web site of the Ministry of Environment and Forests on Wednesday.

Under the draft rules, producers include manufacturers of products under their own brand, as well as those who sell under their brand products that are manufactured by contractors. Importers of products for sale in India are also included under the classification.

The proposed rules will also ban the import of used electrical and electronic equipment for charity in the country.

A lot of e-waste is brought into India under the pretext of being reused and donated to local charities, as the import of e-waste is otherwise restricted, Greenpeace campaigner Ramapati Kumar said on Thursday.

A number of social organizations and environmentalists have expressed concern that developed countries are dumping their e-waste in India, where it is recycled under hazardous and unregulated conditions.

The management and handling of waste in India is currently governed by legislation such as the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986, and Hazardous Material (Management, Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rules of 2008.

Current rules address mainly the handling and disposal of industrial waste generated in manufacturing, and do not take into account the e-waste generated by products like computers at the end of their lifecycle, said Vinnie Mehta, executive director of Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT), a trade body of the IT industry.

MAIT, Greenpeace, and other organizations have been pushing the government for the adoption of better e-waste rules.

The new rules proposed by the government attempt to regulate not only producers, but also recyclers and intermediaries such as operators of collection centers. Consumers are also required under the proposed rules to turn in end-of-life products for recycling.

MAIT is hoping the Indian government will subsidize some of the operations required to recycle products, in line with similar government incentives for environment-friendly programs.

The government may also have to pick up the cost for recycling of unbranded products which account for about 40 percent to 50 percent of electronics products sold in the country, Mehta said.

There will also be a lot of e-waste already in the market on the date the new rules come into force. The government calls it "historical waste", and MAIT expects that the government will help finance that part of the clean-up operation as well.

1998-2010, PCWorld Communications, Inc.

SO-CALLED INNOVATORS WAKE UP--FINALLY--BELATEDLY--SUFFICIENTLY?

2010-04-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

REPORT
The Greening of Silicon Valley:
It Looks Like the Next Big Thing
California’s high-tech giants have long used renewable energy to help power their Silicon Valley headquarters. Now, companies such as Google, Adobe Systems, and eBay are preparing for the next step — investing in off-site solar and wind installations and innovative technologies that will supply their offices and data centers with green electricity.
by todd woody

From the street, Adobe Systems’ San Jose headquarters looks like any other collection of skyscrapers that dot the downtown of the self-proclaimed capital of Silicon Valley.

But ascend to a skyway that connects two of the software company’s towers and you’ll find a wind farm. Twenty vertical turbines that resemble a modern art installation slowly rotate in the breeze that blows through a six-floor plaza. Down in the parking garage, a dozen electric car-charging stations have been set up. Adobe, which makes the ubiquitous Flash player software, will install 18 more chargers this year to accommodate workers expected to be first in line when the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, and other battery-powered vehicles roll into Silicon Valley showrooms later this year.

Adobe also plans to install fuel cells — possibly using carbon neutral biogas made from cow manure — to generate the three megawatts of electricity consumed by its downtown data centers. And since the company has limited roof space to install solar panels, it is considering joining a co-op that would purchase land outside the city for a solar farm, according to Randy Kennedy, senior director for global workplace solutions for Adobe.

“Once you’ve got your buildings running pretty energy efficient, you start to look at the source of your energy, and that’s where we are now,” says Kennedy, as the wind turbines slowly spin in the winter wind, generating about 24 kilowatts of electricity. “We’re a technology company and people have to step up and be early adopters in the green area or it won’t go anywhere.”

Silicon Valley companies have long gone green — racking up LEED points by installing everything from solar arrays to waterless urinals to demonstrate their environmental street cred to customers, shareholders, Corporate campuses are laboratories to test new technologies to cut carbon footprints. and their young, climate-change-aware workforces.

But for companies in the environmental vanguard, their corporate campuses are laboratories to test new technologies to cut their carbon footprints and improve the bottom line. As climate change legislation remains stalled in Congress, and California struggles through the regulatory complexities of implementing its own global warming law, much of the action has shifted to the private sector.

Case in point: The unveiling of Bloom Energy’s breakthrough fuel cell technology in February. (Fuel cells generate energy without combustion by turning hydrogen, natural gas, biogas or other fuels into electricity through an electrochemical process.)

The Silicon Valley fuel cell manufacturer had spent eight years quietly developing a solid oxide fuel cell to deliver electricity at competitive prices while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. When Bloom finally lifted the curtain on its 100-kilowatt Bloom Energy Server in February, it revealed that Google, eBay, Wal-Mart, Federal Express, and other Fortune 500 heavyweights had already installed cube-shaped, SUV-sized devices at their Bay Area outposts.

“I’d love to see us have a whole data center running on this at some point when they’re ready,” Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, said at a press conference introducing the Bloom Energy Server. “Moving production of energy closer to where it’s used has a lot of environmental benefits and a lot of commercial benefits. It lets you choose your fuel source.”

Google
In 2007, Google added a 1.6-megawatt solar array to the roofs of its Mountain View, Calif. headquarters.
The Bloom Energy Server’s ability to deliver electricity at prices competitive with traditional fossil fuels currently depends on significant state and federal subsidies. The long-term durability of the devices also remains to be proven. But the fact that some of the world’s largest corporations have embraced the Bloom Box could be the key to giving the company and its competitors the scale to drive down costs and continue innovating.

No surprise that the first Bloom Box — which sells for $700,000 to $800,000 — was secretly plugged in at the Googleplex more than a year ago and hidden behind a fence. Bloom kept the development of its energy server shielded from public view, and Google did not want it known that it would be the first to use the Bloom Box.

The search giant’s interest in green technologies is pragmatically experimental. Back in June 2007, Google flipped the switch on what was then the world’s largest corporate solar array, a 1.6-megawatt solar system that covered the roofs of its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. When I climbed the roof to take a look a few months later, I remarked to a Google executive that the panels were covered in dust.

The dirt was deliberate, she said. Google didn’t just want to draw electricity from the panels, it wanted to test how they performed under different conditions, including how often they would need to be washed to maximize energy production.

Likewise, Google’s fleet of converted plug-in hybrid Toyota Priuses – the campus features some 100 charging stations – have been deployed as rolling laboratories for how electric cars perform.

While other Silicon Valley companies have moved to secure renewable sources of energy, Google has created, in effect, its own utility company, Google Energy, to procure electricity for its massive data centers and other Google’s interest in green technologies is pragmatically experimental. facilities. On Feb. 18, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved Google Energy’s request to become, as it stated in its license application, “a power marketer, purchasing electricity and reselling it to wholesale customers.” The company has said little about its plans for Google Energy. In it regulatory filings, Google stated that Google Energy “was formed to identify and develop opportunities to contain and manage the cost of energy for Google.”

Safeway, Wal-Mart, and scores of other big corporations have also been licensed to act as in-house utilities for their operations. But Google Energy has prompted much speculation about whether the company had greater ambitions in the energy field, given its big investments in solar power plant builders like BrightSource Energy and eSolar by Google.org, its philanthropic arm. It’s all part of Google.org’s ambition to make renewable energy competitive with coal.

“We’re looking to make investments in clean energy projects and to procure green energy,” Dan Reicher, Google.org director of climate change and energy programs, told me recently as Googlers bicycled by a conference room at the Googleplex, while other employees drove plug-in hybrid Priuses into solar panel-covered carports.

Reicher said that one way to do that would be as an equity investment in a generating plant somewhere. Another, he noted, is to become a big buyer of green electricity, especially for Google data centers around the U.S. “This interest in procuring green electrons is part of what’s driven Google Energy,” said Reicher.

Thus one could imagine a scenario where Google.org or Google Venture, its venture capital subsidiary, buys a solar power plant and signs a deal with Google Energy to supply the electricity to Google data centers and sell any surplus to other buyers, as is permitted by its government license. Silicon Valley companies are interested in embracing cutting-edge technology that offers big potential payoffs.

Though not as large as Google, other Silicon Valley companies are moving quickly to adopt renewable sources of energy. Applied Materials, which makes solar cell manufacturing equipment, installed a massive solar array at its Silicon Valley headquarters, while Yahoo for years operated a biodiesel-powered shuttle bus for its employees. Some Silicon Valley companies have offered workers subsidies for the purchase of Toyota Priuses and other hybrid cars.

At eBay’s sprawling San Jose headquarters, five Bloom Energy Servers sit outside a LEED Gold certified building. The Bloom Boxes are providing about 15 percent of the eBay campus’ electricity, or about five times as much energy as generated by its 3,248 solar panels, according to Amy Skoczlas Cole, director of the company’s Green Team.

And since the Bloom Energy Servers operate off the grid and supply electricity directly to the eBay campus, they reduce the load on the regional transmission system. (The energy servers presently run on natural gas, but eBay is working on a deal to purchase biogas generated from cow manure.) Install enough Bloom Boxes and utilities could forgo building expensive and polluting power plants that they fire up when demand spikes on a hot day when everyone runs their air conditioners. Such “peaker” plants usually sit idle but for a couple days of the year, utility executives say.

MORE FROM YALE e360

It’s Green Against Green
In Mojave Solar Battle

Few places are as well suited for large-scale solar projects as California’s Mojave Desert. But as mainstream environmental organizations push plans to turn the desert into a center for renewable energy, some green groups are standing up to oppose them. READ MORE EBay’s LEED building sports the de rigueur green bells and whistles, such as recycled materials and energy efficient lighting. But it’s the “bioswale” adjacent to the Bloom Boxes that is one of the most notable features. Designed to filter rainwater runoff from the buildings and reduce the burden on the public sewage system, the bioswale resembles a wide sloping culvert where native grasses and layers of dirt and sand enable rain to percolate into the ground.

Skoczlas Cole says innovations such as the Bloom Energy Servers and the bioswale fit the “disruptive DNA” of Silicon Valley companies like eBay’s, which are interested in embracing cutting-edge technology that offers big potential payoffs.

“This new disruptive technology made sense because the economics made sense, frankly,” she says, noting that state and federal incentives mean that eBay’s multi million-dollar investment in Bloom Boxes is expected to pay for itself in three years.

And that may be the greenest innovation of all to come out of Silicon Valley companies’ embrace of cutting-edge green technology.

POSTED ON 29 APR 2010
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Todd Woody is an environmental and technology journalist based in California who writes for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Grist and other publications. He previously was a senior editor at Fortune magazine, the assistant managing editor of Business 2.0 magazine and the business editor of the San Jose Mercury News. In an earlier article for Yale Environment 360, he wrote about a battle unfolding in California over plans to build dozens of multi billion-dollar solar power plants in the Mojave Desert.

Yale Environment 360

KEEP BUYING MORE!

2010-04-28T15:51:00.001-07:00

Sony launches electronics 'scrappage scheme'
Sony will offer customers discounts of up to £150 for trading in old electronic equipment when they buy new models
Rebecca Smithers, Consumer affairs correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 April 2010 10.26 BST

Sony's 'scrappage scheme' offers up to £150 off new purchases. Photograph: Yuriko Nakao/Reuters

Electronics manufacturer Sony is to introduce a "scrappage" scheme to encourage customers to upgrade their TV and other equipment before the World Cup this summer.

The scheme applies to TV, DVD-R, Blu-ray, home theatre, camera and other ranges, and offers a discount of up to £150 when old products are exchanged for selected new Sony models.

It aims to help reduce the mounting problem of TVs and other large electrical equipment being dumped by consumers in landfill.

Old items do not have to have been made by Sony and a spokeswoman said that even equipment in a poor state of repair would be accepted – and consumers struggling to deliver old equipment to retail outlets might be entitled to assistance.

The scheme starts tomorrow and runs until 11 July, the day of the World Cup final.

Sony ran a similar scheme last year, as did rivals Panasonic and Samsung. This time they have not announced a rival to Sony's offer.

Participating stockists include Sony Centres, Comet, Curry's, John Lewis, Tesco Extra and some approved independent stores.

The discounts include £30-£50 off Blu-ray players and DVD recorders, £50-£150 off the Bravia Essentials and Bravia Network TV range, £100-£150 off the Bravia Cinematic TV range, £30-£50 off home theatre systems, and various discounts from £5-£60 off Cybershot cameras, Handycam camcorders, headphones, Walkmans and pocket readers.

Andy Benson, commercial director of Sony UK, said: "We understand that consumers will undoubtedly want to upgrade their kit as they gear up for the World Cup this summer, but cost is still an issue for most of us coming out of recession.

"This campaign is not only timely in helping people take their entertainment to the next level, it is also a good way to encourage the responsible disposal of old technology."

FROM DAILY FINANCE

2010-04-25T21:20:00.001-07:00

Recyclable Material: The U.S.'s Most Controversial Export?

By JONATHAN BERR
Posted 5:40 PM 04/22/10 Green
Has our recyclable waste become one of the U.S.'s biggest exports?

It's definitely starting to seem that way. About 25% of all scrap material collected in the U.S. is exported, according to Jerry Powell, who owns three recycling publications including Resource Recycling. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce show that U.S. companies exported $6.8 billion worth of waste, scrap paper and paperboard in 2009, up from $5.2 billion in 2005. Scrap plastics rose from $452.6 million to $827.6 million, while sales of aluminum rose to $2.02 billion from $1.36 billion. One of the U.S.'s biggest customers for recyclable material is China.

"The vast majority of the worth in recycling has been offshore," Powell says, adding that many ships that ship goods to the U.S. return to China with recyclables in their hulls. "They need our raw materials. Huge volumes go to China."

The Environmental Protection Agency seems happy to offload America's recyclable refuse. The agency says it supports legitimate, environmentally-sound recycling practices regardless of where they take place. "Whether materials are recycled domestically or abroad is primarily a function of market demand for specific materials and the existence of recycling operations that are capable of handling specific materials," the agency said in a statement.

E-Wastelands

Environmentalists, however, aren't so accepting of the U.S.'s willingness to ship its discarded goods to shady companies overseas. The recycling of electronics, in particular, has become a problem of growing proportions. About 80% of electronics that Americans send off to recycling plants (known as e-waste) is processed overseas. In 2008, the Government Accountability Office scolded the EPA for allowing the export of discarded electronics to developing countries "where unsafe recycling practices can cause health and environmental problems."

Last month, the watchdog group Basel Action Network accused a Massachusetts company of illegally sending a shipload of computer monitors and other toxic materials to Indonesia. And, in one part of Ghana, hundreds of millions of tons of e-waste is dumped each year. The area has become the world's biggest e-waste dump and has been nicknamed "Sodom and Gomorrah" because the water is among the most polluted on the globe, according to PBS's Frontline.

The e-waste situation is only getting worse as consumer electronic devices become obsolete as quickly as they get introduced to the market. About 400 million devices are discarded annually in the U.S., according to environmental experts. Many devices are just too difficult to re-purpose because they were never designed to be recycled. The glass used in monitors contains lead, while the plastics contain chemicals such as flame retardants that make them too contaminated to be reused.

"Certainly, the amount of e-waste is increasing," says Lauren Roman of the Basel Action Network. "It is the fastest-growing part of the solid waste stream."

The Business of Recycling

Recycling isn't all bad, of course. After all, it is a much more environmentally-friendly approach than just trashing everything. It also helps local governments and taxpayers save money. Trash disposal costs towns money because of tipping fees, which average $35 a ton, that are assessed by landfill operators. And thanks to recycling efforts, those fees are down. The amount of municipal solid waste going to landfills dropped by about 7 million tons from 1990 to 2008.

Meanwhile, local governments actually earn money from recycled goods. After the newspapers and plastic bottles that you've separated and put on the curb are collected, they are sent to a material handling center. These facilities are owned by private haulers such as Waste Management or the local governments themselves. They then sell the materials they collect to customers in both the U.S. and overseas who use it to make new materials that may be recycled many more times.

For some companies, buying the U.S.'s unwanted paper, scraps and other goods has translated into big profits. Take Nine Dragons Paper, the largest container-board maker in China. Its founder, Zhang Yin, got her start shipping waste paper from Los Angeles to China in 1990 and is now one of the wealthiest people in that country.

"It's driven by economics," says Bob Garino, the director of commodities at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). "[Scrap] is a raw material. It's a commodity. It's a resource ... It saves a lot of money and it's cheaper than virgin material."

"There is a real competition for resources out there," says Ed Skernolis, vice president of recycling at Keep America Beautiful. "The markets have become more sophisticated over the past."

BEWARE THE CELL PHONE--PERHAPS--AND WAIT 20 YEARS

2010-04-24T20:15:00.001-07:00

The Independent

April 23, 2010
Study to examine cancer risk in mobile phone use
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Thousands of people are to be studied over the course of 20 or 30 years to see if the long-term use of mobile phones increases the risk of developing brain tumours and other medical disorders, as part of the largest ever study into the subject.

At least 250,000 mobile phone users will be monitored as part of the multi-million-pound Cohort Study on Mobile Communications (Cosmos), which aims to settle the debate over whether there are any serious health risks from using the devices once and for all.

Previous research has relied on studying people who have already developed illnesses, which has led to suggestions that they suffered from an inherent "recall" bias, such as people having more vivid memories of holding their mobile phones to the side of their head which developed a brain tumour. Cosmos will pick up diseases and symptoms as they arise and changes in people's health will be compared with their usage of mobile phones, taking into account both the number and duration of calls and the positioning of handsets.

Volunteers taking part in the study will be aged 18 to 69 and recruited through co-operating network operators. Between 90,000 and 100,000 people are expected to participate in the UK, with others joining from Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. The total cost of the study for the first five years is estimated at £5-7 million. The UK arm alone will cost £3.1m, jointly funded by the Government and industry.

Dr Mireille Toledano, one of the principal investigators from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said that Cosmos is the largest study of its kind to date and has the power to detect illnesses linked to mobile phone radiation or usage.

"Previous studies have looked at usage for less than 10 years and focused mainly on retrospective use. They've had a short observation period from the start and only been able to focus on brain cancers. We'll be prospectively monitoring mobile phone use and prospectively looking at any health developments," Dr Toledano said.

The scientists will be analysing trends for brain, head and neck cancers, but also multiple sclerosis and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Motor Neurone Disease, as well as strokes and heart conditions. They will be watching out for less serious problems such as sleep disorders, headaches, tinnitus and depression.

Data on fertility will not be included since this is one aspect of health that does not lend itself to a long-term prospective study. Findings will be released at periodic intervals. A report focusing on cancer will be published after 10 years

H'Wood Congratulates Itself, thanks to Ecorazzi

2010-04-21T22:53:00.000-07:00

Hollywood Studios’ Recycling And Reusing At All-Time High
Filed under: business, film-tv, movies, television — Michael d'Estries @ 8:32 pm

Hollywood is producing less trash — at least when it comes to the stuff that hits the landfill. As for what end up in the theater, well…(I’m looking at you Paul Blart: Mall Cop)

Just in time for Earth Day, the Solid Waste Task Force announced that last year major movie studios collectively diverted more than 40 million pounds — or 66 percent — of their studio sets and other solid waste from landfills. According to the report, that’s three percent more than they diverted from landfills last year, and 23 percent more than was diverted just 15 years ago.

“This marks an all-time high for the studios in reusing and recycling,” said MPAA President and Interim CEO Bob Pisano. “On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, I want to commend the studios for their dedication to environmentally responsible practices and for their commitment to combating global climate change. Their enthusiasm for going green sets a great example for other businesses and for individuals everywhere.”

Obviously, Hollywood is still considered a major polluter — but reports like this one show that, while change is slow, it is indeed taking hold at major studios. Let’s hope 2010 extends that commitment to recycling and reusing even further.

why is india always right on this?--from :the hindu:

2010-04-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

Published: April 21, 2010 19:41 IST | Updated: April 21, 2010 19:43 IST
Watch the waste

GEETA PADMANABHAN

THE HINDU TOUGH ON TRASH Greenpeace activists clearing hazardous electronic waste. Photo: V.V. Krishnan
Discarded computers, printers, copiers, mobiles… are we building e-mountains? How do we handle toxic tech trash? GEETA PADMANABHAN raises some serious questions

Citizens at Risk tells a chilling story about e-waste. Made by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Chintan Environment and Action Group and Arjun Bhagat/IMAK, the short film details what happens when computers from “US, Malaysia” come to the bylanes of Delhi to “die”. In the middle of mountains of e-scrap, barefoot children, standing on a street of lead-coated broken glass, perform the last rites. Covered in toxic dust, they smash screens with hammers, while women tear apart electronic components, boil and wash them in acid with bare hands, for money-earning metals. Acid pools are everywhere. The commentator talks of toxic hydrogen chloride fumes.

An elegant word, but there's nothing refined about e-waste. We generate it when we casually throw out computers, monitors, TVs, printers, copiers, fax machines, phones, keyboards, mouses, mobiles, laptops, projectors, cameras, audio equipment, toys, games and household appliances — e-waste is anything with a main plug or battery.

A billion dollar industry

Breaking computers is a billion dollar industry. The Printed Circuit Board has minute amounts of gold, silver, copper, palladium, aluminium and platinum. On its flip-side, e-waste contains toxic chemicals zinc, lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PVC and arsenic compounds. When the waste is burned, heavy metals are released. With water and acids, they seep into groundwater. The complex, informal system of recycling is peopled by rag pickers who know no techniques, have no protective gear.

“Our raddiwalas are smart guys,” says Prabhu Srinivasan, country manager, SIMS-Trishyiraya Recycling Solutions at MEPZ, Tambaram. “They'll pluck out the valuable parts such as aluminium in the condenser from your tube-light. The question is, where do the remnants go?” The garbage dump, of course. “Brominated flame-retardants (BFR) and poly vinyl chloride (PVC) in most mobiles and IT equipment are highly toxic,” says Arun Senthil Ram of Toxics Link. “When burnt, they release furans, dioxins and neuro toxins.”

The MAIT-GTZ e-Waste Assessment Study says we'll be creating 4.7 lakh tonnes of this special waste this year. Add to this 50,000 tonnes coming from abroad (“Not allowed,” says Prabhu) and those dumped in the name of charity/reuse from the West, you can visualise the e-mountains we build. What gives the issue urgency is the speed of discarding — e-gadgets get obsolete before you have completely unpacked them.

Licensed first-stage companies such as SIMS say they strip and segregate through clean practices. Phosphorous is sucked out of cathode ray tubes and disposed of safely. Glass is smelted to be made into picture tubes again. “We spend $4 million for safety training with Dupont,” says Prabhu. “Workers are insured and undergo a medical check-up every six months.” He makes presentations at IT hubs, asking for discarded e-appliances, lead batteries, cells and CDs. Weekly collections are his business capital, but he sees this as an opportunity to educate people about e-waste hazards. “The white goods boom that drives the flooding of e-waste must be controlled now,” he says. The radiation incident in Delhi is a wake-up call, a classic case of e-waste (from scanners, x-ray and other machines) going to unauthorised, ill-informed recyclers.

Three solutions

The film recommends three solutions: The government shuts down the lethal, illegal, backyard industry, throwing thousands of self-employed out of work; manufacturers upgrade this industry making it safe and profitable under Extended Producer Responsibility; or take the ideal road to make goods less toxic. “All manufacturers charge you for disposal, the environmental cost,” says Prabhu. “Only one promises to plant a tree if you recycle their gadget.”

Residential associations could collect e-waste and call Prabhu. “We'll give you a green certificate for that,” he says, dangling a carrot.

Garbage/landfill mining can be a clean, profitable business, says Mehul Kamdar, who works in this field. “With a well-written set of laws and a properly thought-out policy, reprocessing entrepreneurs can keep the environment clean and generate employment.”

Tamil Nadu has drafted an e-waste policy, says Arun.

Household users, bulk IT users and manufacturers never question what happens to our deadly waste. Some are repaired. Others are dismantled and the parts cannibalised in weekly markets (try Pallavaram on Fridays). As we proudly switch on a slim new desktop, the air outside gets thick with harmful gases from the old one, the ground is drenched in leached toxins. They'll come back to us as carcinogenic air, water and food.

WASTE TRIMMER

It’s energy efficient to rebuild old computers.

Recycling just a million cell phones would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Flat panel computer monitors/notebooks contain small amounts of mercury.

Cathode ray tubes in older TVs/computers have lead.

WHY CAN'T FIX BE IDEOLOGICALLY CORRECT WHEN IT ITS PRODUCTION CREDENTIALS SHOW IT KNOW THE TRUTH?

2010-04-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

Twentieth Century Fox To Install 158 kW Solar Photovoltaic System
Filed under: film-tv — Daelyn Fortney @ 7:53 pm
ECORAZZI APRIL 20 2010

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation has selected Solar Power, Inc to install a 158 kW DC solar photovoltaic system at the Fox Studios Lot located in Century City, California. The solar system will be mounted on the roof of Fox’s Building 99.

Solar Power, in a collaborative effort with Pacific Edison, will install a SkyMount commercial rooftop system which uses its dynamic structure, tilt angle, and unique mounting capabilities to optimize the performance of the system’s solar modules.

“This project is an important addition to Fox’s ongoing sustainability initiative and we are very happy to be getting it started,” said Hal Haenal, Senior Vice President of Fox Studios Operations. “This marks our first venture into on-site renewable energy and the teams at Solar Power, Inc. and Pacific Edison have helped to make the decision a very easy one for us.”

The SkyMount installation is scheduled to be completed this summer and could be the first of many solar projects across the Fox Studio Lot in the future.

USA TODAY GROWS UP?

2010-04-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY
More companies and recyclers are taking steps to ensure that old electronic devices such as TVs and computers aren't dumped in poor countries.
The Basel Action Network, a Seattle-based non-profit that largely exposed the overseas dumping of U.S. electronic waste, on Thursday launched a program to use third-party auditors to certify recyclers who don't export hazardous electronic waste.

The so-called eSteward recyclers will also agree not to dump the waste in U.S. landfills and agree to meet other criteria.

The certification is intended to provide companies and consumers with some assurance that the waste, which can include toxins such as lead and mercury, is disposed of safely.

The Government Accountability Office, in a 2008 report, declared that U.S. electronic waste was often disposed of unsafely in such countries as China and India. There, workers reclaim gold, silver and copper from the waste, often in open-air acid baths that leave a toxic sludge.

The Basel network also says it won assurances from 13 organizations, including Samsung, Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), Capitol One Financial (COF) and the Natural Resources Defense Council, that they'll use eSteward recyclers whenever possible.

Wells Fargo had already been using recyclers who pledged not to export. The eSteward pledge led to changes for others, says Jim Puckett, Basel's executive director. The Natural Resources Defense Council, for one, had not adequately tracked its e-waste, says the council's senior scientist, Allen Hershkowitz.

So far, Basel has certified three recyclers and seven sites.

Before eStewards, even companies that wanted to avoid export of electronic waste had to "hope for the best," when they handed their waste to recyclers, says Robert Houghton, president of Ohio-based recycler Redemtech. It is an eSteward and counts major companies among its customers. Now, "They can get some proof," Houghton says.

Basel's standards compete with another set launched in January. It was crafted by industry and backed by the Environmental Protection Agency.

That standard, dubbed R-2, doesn't ban the export of hazardous electronic waste but requires that it be handled safely. Instead of a ban, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries says, efforts should be made to help poor countries develop safe recycling.

Sian Wu kindly sent this to me

2010-04-20T11:57:00.001-07:00

The Basel Action Network (BAN), the group that first discovered the illegal dumping of toxic electronic waste in China and Africa, announced today the official launch of the world’s first global e-Waste Recycler Certification, called e-Stewards. This is the first such program backed by environmental organizations and major corporations alike. The rigorous certification program has not only been endorsed by Greenpeace USA, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) but has also drawn the support of major corporate “e-Stewards Enterprises” including:

Bank of America
Capitol One Financial Corp.
Ind. Distributors of Electronics Assoc.
Nemours Foundation
Premier, Inc.
Premier Farnell
Resource Media
Samsung
Sprout Creation
Stokes Lawrence
Wells Fargo

For Complete Press Kit: http://e-stewards.org/news/press-kit/

Quote from Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, NRDC Senior Scientist:
“Old electronics are among the most toxic forms of garbage in American homes – but too often recycling companies claiming to be green dispose of them in a cheap, dirty and unjust way.” “There are safe, better ways to recycle our electronic waste without threatening public health and the environment in developing countries. The e-Stewards seal of approval will help consumers identify good recyclers from the bad.”

Quote from Mick Schum of WeRecycle, one of the first certified e-Stewards Recyclers:
“We are making history here. Today, e-Stewards Recyclers and their customers are taking a significant step forward to achieve the most responsible level of management for electronic equipment. Now we can distinguish ourselves from the exporters and dumpers. As consumers, you can finally say you are doing the right thing with your old electronics and as Certified e-Stewards Recyclers, we can prove it.”

Blogger resources:
View BAN’s video, eStewards: Taking Responsibility in the Digital Age: http://vimeo.com/10383952

View this slideshow of images from BAN’s investigations of digital dumps around the world: http://ow.ly/1yyE4 If you use any of these images, please credit Basel Action Network and link back to www.ban.org

Fact sheet on e-Stewards announcement: http://ow.ly/1yTBL

Find an e-Stewards recycler near you with this map: http://ow.ly/1yyKf

Pauline Overeem was kind enough to send this along

2010-04-20T11:29:00.001-07:00

To: NLC Key Contacts
From: Charles Kernaghan

RE: Microsoft supplier in China Forces Teenagers to Work 15-hour Shifts Under Sweatshop Conditions

Producing computer mice & webcams for Microsoft, HP and other companies

The National Labor Committee is releasing an in-depth report, "China's Youth Meet Microsoft: KYE factory in China produces for Microsoft and other U.S. Companies."

Over the course of a three-year investigation of the KYE factory in Dongguan, China, unprecedented photos were smuggled out of the factory, of exhausted teenagers, seen slumping over asleep on their assembly line during break time.

* KYE recruits hundreds (up to 1,000) "work-study" students 16 and 17 years of age, who work 15-hour shifts, six and seven days a week making webcams, mice and other computer peripherals. Some of the workers appear to be just 14 or 15 years old. A typical shift is from 7:45 a.m. to 10:55 p.m. Most of the students work for three months, but some stay longer.

* Along with the students, KYE prefers to hire only women 18 to 25 years old, who are considered easier to discipline and control.

* Workers report that before the recession, they were at the factory 97 hours a week, while working 80 ½ hours. In 2009, workers were at the factory 83 hours a week, while toiling 68 hours.

* Workers are paid 65 cents an hour, which falls to a take-home wage of 52 cents an hour after deductions for factory food.

* Workers have to report early, unpaid, for military-like drills. Management controls every second of their lives.

* The work pace is grueling as workers race to complete their mandatory goal of 2000 Microsoft mice per shift. During the long summer, factory temperatures reach 86 degrees and the workers are drenched in sweat.

* Security guards sexually harass the young women. Workers are prohibited from talking, listening to music or going to the bathroom during working hours. Freedom of movement is restricted and workers can only leave the factory compound during regulated hours.

* Fourteen workers share each primitive, dirty dorm room, sleeping on narrow bunk beds. To "shower" workers fetch hot water in a small plastic bucket for a sponge bath. Workers report that the food is awful.

KYE management claims factory conditions are excellent, and that they are in full compliance with China's labor laws. But the young women describe the factory as a prison, where everyone who can flees within six months. It is almost impossible to find a worker who has been at the factory for more than a year or two. As usual, the codes of conduct for Microsoft, HP and the Electronics Industry Council have zero impact.

------------

Pauline Overeem

Network Coordinator

GoodElectronics

bbc on greenscreen

2010-04-09T14:49:00.001-07:00

Colour e-readers shift to video
By Dan Simmons
Reporter, BBC Click
A colour e-reader that supports video and potentially web browsing has been shown off by Dutch researchers.

The prototype uses screen technology - based on century-old science - that its makers say is up to four times more energy efficient than LCD screens.

Once established in the e-reader market, Dutch firm Liquavista hope to see its displays integrated into other devices in the future.

But analysts question whether consumers will be enticed by the greener gadgets.

Liquavista said it expects the first e-readers using the "electrowetting" technology to be available by the middle of 2011 and the technology to then become more widespread.

"You certainly could see this technology in your smartphone, in your mobile phone, in your web tablet, in your PC, in your notebook," said Guy Demuynck, head of the firm.

"But eventually you could see it in your home as your television screen in your living room," he added

Sunshine screen

Electrowetting has been known about for more than a century but is only now being perfected by several companies, for instance, to create auto-focus lenses for cameras.

It involves small electrical charges moving coloured oil within each pixel.

Most current e-readers use e-ink technology - small black and white beads that are manipulated with electrical charges.

Pages on current e-book readers can take up to two seconds to load each page. The new display can change images at a speed of up to 60 times per second, its manufacturers said.

This is fast enough to run video, which typically needs a refresh rate of 50 or 60 frames per second.

Liquavista uses the electrowetting to also add colour to a screen, but unlike liquid crystal displays (LCD) such as those on laptops, it can work without a backlight.

When used in sunlight, the new type of display can bounce the natural light through the oil filters back at the reader.

The brighter the sunshine, the more vivid the screen becomes; when used in a darker environment, the e-reader switches to the backlight automatically.

Johan Feenstra, Liquavista's founder, said the display combines the best of both technologies.

"On the one side there's the LCDs which bring video and colour, as we know from our TV screens. On the other side, there's the electrophoretic displays [e-ink e-readers] which bring low power consumption and readability in all lighting conditions," he said.

The company said the technology is three to four more efficient than LCD screens because of the higher level of backlight passing through each pixel.

James McQuivey, media technology analyst at tech research firm Forrester, agreed electrowetting has the potential to make the transition to devices and public displays such as billboards and bus stop posters.

But, he predicted some obstacles: "The challenge is physics really - it's to get things [oil] to respond quickly enough, and in sunshine - to get enough light to reflect back off the screen."

Green premium?

Despite the novelty of a colour e-readers that play video, the efficiencies of electrowetting may be the factor that holds the greatest potential for this technology.

Eventually, if placed into laptops these screens could deliver battery lives measured in days rather than hours.

"Electricity is not freely available everywhere in developing countries so it means of course if you can run this device for a long time on your batteries," said Mr Demuynck.

He told the BBC that consumers increasingly expect new devices to have low power consumption.

However, Mr McQuivey questions whether people are prepared to pay more for a greener device, where an alternative is readily available.

"Consumers have become spoilt by LCD technology. They are used to charging their devices twice a day and won't pay a huge premium for something that simply doesn't need charging as often," he said.

"So the question is how quickly these new screen technologies can be produced at scale and at what cost," he added.

Liquavista said the manufacturing process is very similar to that for LCDs so existing production lines could be adapted rather than building new facilities.

"That would give it a big advantage over competing new screen technologies like e-ink or OLED which require largely new production processes," Mr McQuivey said.

In the longer-term, Liquavista is exploring other possibilities for the technology with UK e-reader firm Plastic Logic. They hope to produce a flexible colour magazine that can update itself and run video within three years.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8610962.stm

Published: 2010/04/09 11:09:26 GMT

WE LOVE THE WEEEMAN

2010-04-05T07:31:00.001-07:00

http://weeeman.org/

a gringo college takes things seriously!

2010-04-05T07:20:00.001-07:00

useful site from champaign-urbana

http://www.sustainelectronics.illinois.edu/

anyone for offsets?

2010-04-04T15:28:00.001-07:00

Pearl Jam Seeding the Forest To Offset CO2 From 2009 Tour
Filed under: Eco-Celebs, business, donations, music — Elizah Leigh @ 4:42 pm
ecorazzi

A 20 year American rock institution with humble Seattle roots, Pearl Jam has enjoyed longevity in spite of their formerly dubbed grunge sound fading into the sunset. Now, they just play good old fashioned classic rock music which serves as the backdrop for their enduring environmental activism which interested fans can explore at great length right on their website. Mitigating carbon emissions from their global concert tours is nothing new for the quintet who’s been actively making eco-amends since 2003, but compensating for the 5,474 metric tons of CO2 generated from their latest 32 date 2009 tour admittedly seems like a tall order.

Pearl Jam founding member and guitarist Stone Gossard acknowledges that it is an unfortunate cost of doing business, explaining: “A band on tour generates a lot of carbon. We are constantly moving, using carbon-dependent forms of transportation and a great deal of energy.” As always, Pearl Jam is offsetting their tour-generated CO2 by financially supporting yet another eco-organization that works intently to help the environment, this time the Cascade Land Conservancy (CLC). The forest group’s $210,000 Puget Sound urban restoration project – in which 33 acres of land will be purged of invasive plant species and replaced with native botanicals and trees – is currently being bankrolled by the band and with an anticipated completion date of 3 years.

Taking advantage of their inherent carbon sink capabilities, it’s no small task to reforest a vast plot of land but the eco-benefits are many, including restoring the delicate balance of local ecosystems and offsetting “intense human pressures” that have resulted in the decline of this natural resource. This partnership could be considered a reunion of sorts in light of the fact that back in 1997, select members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarten also funded a Cascade foothills forest preservation project with the very same organization. Gossard is hoping that other bands and businesses will follow their lead by taking responsibility for the CO2 they generate – we would all be able to breathe a lot easier, Mother Nature included.

ecosia

2010-03-26T18:08:00.001-07:00

They didn't pay me to post this--but it's a greenish search engine--Toby

Go to ecosia.org

What Is Ecosia About?
Ecosia is an eco-friendly Internet search engine backed by Yahoo, Bing and the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). It basically works like any other search engine but, unlike others, Ecosia gives at least 80% of its advertising revenue to a rainforest protection program run by the WWF.
Because of this, Ecosia users can save about two square meters of rainforest with every search they do – without paying anything. Furthermore, all Ecosia servers run on green electricity, so they do not cause any CO2 emissions. By using Ecosia, you can turn your web searches green.
How Does Ecosia Generate Income?

Yahoo and Bing not only help us to provide excellent search results; they also supply us with the sponsored links that we need to generate advertising revenue. Sponsored links are short, relevant text ads, which are placed by companies aiming to sell their products and services to users of the search engine. Companies pay for each click on their sponsored link and every click on these ads generates a few cents of revenue for the search engine.
About 2% of Ecosia searches lead to a click on a sponsored link. Doing a mixed calculation of normal clicks and clicks on sponsored links, Ecosia earns about 0.13 Euro cents per search. We donate at least 80% of this income to the WWF. Thanks to these donations, we can save about two square meters with every search.
How Does Ecosia Save The Rainforest?
Ecosia does not conduct the rainforest protection scheme itself; instead we donate to a rainforest protection program run by the WWF. The current WWF project is located in Juruena National Park in the Amazon region of Brazil. Click here to learn more about the current rainforest protection project.
Why Should I Use Ecosia?

Every year a rainforest area larger than England is burned or cut down. Therefore the deforestation of the tropical rainforests is the single most important source of CO2 emissions in the world and about 20% of all global CO2 emissions are caused by rainforest deforestation.
Each Ecosia search protects a piece of rainforest, so by making Ecosia your search engine, you can actually help the environment one search at a time. An average internet user can protect about 2,000 square meters of rainforest every year by using Ecosia – this is about the size of an ice hockey field.
By making Ecosia your default search engine, you can turn your web searches green, reduce your carbon footprint and make a real difference to the planet. Instead of causing CO2 emissions with your searches, you can actually help to avoid climate change because your searches will help to save endangered rainforests.
Ecosia is also the best choice if you are concerned about privacy. Some search engine companies store your web searches for several months and even analyze them to create a profile of you. They sometimes even sell this information to other companies. Ecosia, in contrast, deletes all user-related data within a maximum of 48 hours.
How Can I Make Ecosia My Search Engine?

Whenever you want to search with Ecosia, you can simply go to the Ecosia homepage, type in your search terms and click the search button.
However, there is also a more convenient way to use Ecosia. Just click on the “install” link at the bottom of the Ecosia homepage and the Ecosia search will be added to your browser. You can then conveniently type your searches into your browser’s search box, so you don’t have to visit the Ecosia homepage every time you want to search for something. Once you have installed Ecosia, you can also see how much rainforest you have already saved.
Help To Spread The Word!
If you like Ecosia, we would be delighted if you recommend us to others. Since we donate most of our revenue, we cannot afford to spend much money on advertising. So we need YOU to spread the word. Please click on the “share” link to see how you can help spread the Ecosia gospel. We would dearly appreciate your help.
Remember that every new Ecosia user helps to save about 2,000 square meters of rainforest every year. If only 1% of global internet users accessed Ecosia for their web searches, we could save a rainforest area as big as Switzerland every single year. Together we can really make a difference!

movie studios and e-waste

2010-03-26T17:59:00.001-07:00

Movie Studios Make Strides In Diverting Waste, Recycling Sets
Filed under: film-tv, green and famous, movies — Luke Warner July 13 2009 ecorazzi

A recent report shows that movie studios have diverted 63% (40.2 million pounds!) of their solid waste (read: sets and the like) to recycling processes rather than landfills. Because of these efforts, they’ve reduced emissions by an amount equal to removing 7,315 cars from the road, according to an April press release from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

This news slipped under the radar, as press releases from something called the “Solid Waste Task Force” are bound to. This group is actually a rather exciting and relevant joint program of the MPAA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, created with the goal of combating climate change and reducing Hollywood’s ecological footprint.

The MPAA also featured highlights of the recent green practices of a some major studios. Hit the jump below for some of the best:

Disney has created an Environmental Steward position on every live-action film to coordinate best environmental practices.

Fox has bought 4 5-ton hybrid trucks for production use. Emissions will be 60% lower than a standard 5-ton diesel.

During the very green creation of the film Wolverine, recycling information was printed on the call sheets, food waste was diverted to a local farm, and water dispensers were used instead of water bottles.

All of Disney studios DVD and Blu-Ray packages are now 100% recyclable.

Warner Bros. has completed Stage 23, their new LEED building equipped with efficient lighting, cooling technology to ensure minimal consumption at peak times, environmentally preferable construction materials, non-toxic paints and concrete with the highest fly ash component, along with many other eco-friendly choices.

It’s great to see the MPAA and the studios taking some real steps to reducing waste, increasing efficiency and creating a more sustainable industry. It’s a shame that this info wasn’t carried by the mainstream press. Looks like there’s still more work to do…