"E-Waste" Compliance Primer: Quiz Brought to you by Amazing People

Legal or Illegal: Go to Quiz (below video)

Warning:  Different Regulators answer differently

International commerce law, International environmental law, national commerce law, foreign national commerce law, national environmental law, foreign environmental law, civil law.

Your mission:  to provide affordable electronics collection, asset management, and recycling service (aka "e-waste" management).

Your gauntlet:  to perform your mission legally, satisfying all clients (collectors and buyers) and employees in all jurisdictions, state, federal, various foreign national, and international.  Warning, the rules change every time you cross a border, but your civil law agreements -what you are to do by contract - extends across those borders.

If you collect an object from the jurisdiction of person A and sell it to person B, it may be labelled a "waste" in jurisdiction A, when waste is not allowed by the jurisdiction where person B resides... though the object is considered a commodity there.  You must obey these rules, but still deliver the Object to the person best able to reuse it.

Having attempted to make reuse, recycling, and disposal of used electronics as rational and transparent as I can, using video, invitations to journalists, record-keeping, etc., I suspect that the standards and practices of supply and demand evolve too quickly to have the diagnostic codified into law or regulation.  But I confess, I believe in international trade and globalization, I find it really exciting.  I think People are Awesome, and having people do what they do best through Fair Trade will best eliminate exploitation and pollution.  Ultimately, this is not green-vs-polluter, this is trade-vs-boycott.

It's about seeing people for what they can do, not for what they cannot do.

So let's assume that a computer is under warranty but doesn't work.  In your home jurisdiction, it has been labelled as "e-waste".  Most OEMs replace the non-working warranty item with a new one, and take back the non-working one for repair, scrap, or auction.  That means, in Vermont, the returned one is considered by ANR as "e-waste" (IBM beware).

For the computer and monitor which is still under warranty but is not wanted by the consumer and is collected by the collector/transporter/recycler, which of the following people can work on the item?

Foreigner working in American e-waste factory, taking apart American goods.

Foreigner working in American e-waste factory, taking apart foreign goods.

Foreigner working in American e-waste factory, fixing American goods.

Foreigner working in American e-waste factory, fixing foreign goods.

Foreigner working in American e-waste factory, dumping/burning American goods.

Foreigner working in American e-waste factory, dumping/burning foreign goods.

American working in American e-waste factory, taking apart American goods.

American working in American e-waste factory, taking apart foreign goods.

American working in American e-waste factory, fixing American goods.

American working in American e-waste factory, fixing foreign goods.

American working in American e-waste factory, dumping/burning American goods.

American working in American e-waste factory, dumping/burning foreign goods.

Foreigner working in foreign e-waste factory, taking apart American goods.

Foreigner working in foreign e-waste factory, taking apart foreign goods.

Foreigner working in foreign e-waste factory, fixing American goods.

Foreigner working in foreign e-waste factory, fixing foreign goods.

Foreigner working in foreign e-waste factory, dumping/burning American goods.

Foreigner working in foreign e-waste factory, dumping/burning foreign goods.

American working in foreign e-waste factory, taking apart American goods.

American working in foreign e-waste factory, taking apart foreign goods.

American working in foreign e-waste factory, fixing American goods.

American working in foreign e-waste factory, fixing foreign goods.

American working in foreign e-waste factory, dumping/burning American goods.

American working in foreign e-waste factory, dumping/burning foreign goods.

For each of the above, dumping and burning should be an environmental and civil crime.  Whether the dumping occured on American soil or foreign soil multiplies the possiblity by two, but the crime (and civil contract violation) should be recognized wherever it occured.

For each of the above which involves proper recycling or reuse, we must add two possibilities to each:  that the scrap was consumed by an American mill or by a foreign mill, and that the reuse item was consumed by an American reuse market or American reuse market.

Of all the laws above, law which says "tested working" = ZERO

Sideshow Bob: "But their sum total is the greatest murder since Snape killed Dumbledore!"

Bart: "Oh, I haven't gotten to that part yet!"

Sideshow Bob: "It's a four year old book."

Bart: "I'm a slow reader."