"E-Waste" Crimes: Those Who Can't Fix, Protest

Here, a polluting Pakistani suffers 
under the weight of used computers 
(publishing a newspaper).


Here, how used materials discarded 
by wealthy nations can be used 
to create internet for thousands.


Here, how Afghans built 
open source internet network 

TIME Covers Pakistani Hindu Newspaper-from-ewaste

from the trash.

Thankfully, all of these horrible e-waste crimes can be averted by building big metal shredders, passing Stewardship laws which subsidize the shredding, and then ban the export of used electronics.

Look, if they pollute, informal recycling practices need to be reformed.  Guiyu is apparently a pigsty. But a complete ban on trade?  Let's roll up our sleeves and study the problem, use Q method research, interview the importers, find out which of their practices are externalizing harm without fair benefits, find out which activities are "illicit" because they pollute and which are "illicit" because they allow the population to inform themselves about a dictatorship.

The proposal to "ban all trade" is a wolf in sheeps clothing.   The Green-Thompson "E-waste Export Ban" Bill will be applauded by dictators and ayatollahs worldwide.   Fair Trade Recycling is a simpler and better solution.  The only people opposed to Fair Trade are people making money out of shredding solutions.  And by that, I mean principally, the non-profit organizations who get payola from shredding companies.  They use poor kids pictures to make people think they are doing good things, but do nothing but take away jobs and internet from the poor countries.  Oh, and the manufacturers, they still get to export to the third party refurbishing and warranty repair factories in the Green Thompson bill.



If you are under 30 and care about the environment and the world, first thing you do is question the 40 and 50 somethings who still "protest" for a living.  Those who can't fix, protest.  They are not capable of adding value to society, so they create false value by leveraging lazy journalists to print shark attack and man-bites-dog (recycler bites environment) articles.   The good news is, if you are in college and want to make a career changing the world, there are a lot of stupid ideas to fix.  


The three links above are about Geeks in developing nations, who fix.  Factories like the monitor refurbisher in Indonesia which BAN.org closed created hundreds of jobs in sustainable employment.  Fair Trade is one solution.  Prohibition, however, seems to have the edge.

"We have been to the techno-trash dumping grounds of Africa and Asia and seen the children being poisoned. This is why we created the e-Stewards Certification in the first place."   Jim Puckett, the director and founder of the Basel Action Network (BAN).