USITC study on US exports: "Made In Polaroid"

I'm in Washington, DC.

Preparing testimony for the US International Trade Commission's study on used electronics exports.

I'm going to describe a remote, exotic, primitive place.

The "non-OECD".   83% of the population of the earth lives there.

All the hard drives and all the smart phones are made there, and (a little more shocking to some readers) more than 50% of the patents, design and engineering of those devices also originated there.   Hold onto your chairs - "Polaroid" LCD televisions (a significant share of the market) are not being made in Waltham, Massachusetts.

In fact, they are made in this same, exotic, faraway land of "non-OECD".   In the same kind of factory that makes - Sony!  Oh, you thought Sony was made in Japan?  That's SO 1995.



This faraway land of non-OECD has pictures like this:

Black People In BAN Photos, Can Only Use Mufasa's Photo with Permission from Jim

Sorry, I'd like to post the photos right here.  But Jim at BAN "owns" these images and only gives permission to use them to people who agree with him.

But here is another photo of the land of "non-OECD"

Rolls Royce Expands Jet Aircraft Engine Manufacturing in Singapore

I've written about Singapore's "rolls" in the battle for the world's "Good Enough Market", including this blog about Rolls Royce's start in Singapore... at an engine re-manufacturing plant.

Rolls Royce experience with these "geeks of color" evidently impressed the Brits, and in February 2012 they announced they will open a billion dollar facility, expanding on the 1,600 employees already in Singapore.

When a jet airplane part is made less-than-perfectly, planes fall out of the sky and everyone on board dies.

That's why Rolls Royce has a lab for taking in failed parts to study and change manufacturing of failed or broken parts.  That's part of what they refurbishing factory did in Singapore.
Teo Mei Shi is part of a new "failure investigation" laboratory set up in Singapore, tasked with figuring out what went wrong when an engine malfunctions in any way.
Yes, that exotic, faraway place called "non-OECD".  I ran across another person's blog titled "Made in Polaroid" ... I love the title, and hope that my friends in Waltham can appreciate the humor with which I'll make today's presentation.

Places like Signapore can change from Jungle ports into high tech Silicon Valleys in a lifetime.  I am really pumped for the idea that we will see things like this in Egypt and Ghana before I die.   And when the "non-OECD" world, our neighbors outside of US, do better and better, I will feel more comfortable with letting my kids and grandkids "play outside" with the non-OECD neighbors.

The Agenda for the hearing is copied below this design image of the Rolls Singapore factory.  What I find crazy is that all the experts are recyclers and people in USA E-Waste GroupThink land.  No one from Taipei, no one from RIT, or Harvard or MIT or Memorial University...  That's a recipe for a report that stakes a safe bet halfway between BAN's images of primitive dirty children recycling and the truth, another wishy-washy call for reform, and checks and balances.  All of it good - but this is TRADE office, this is Commerce, this is "dad" deciding what's safe to do.    EPA's job is to worry about the environment.




TENTATIVE CALENDAR OF PUBLIC HEARING

Those listed below are scheduled to appear as witnesses at the United States International
Trade Commission’s hearing:

Subject:

Inv. No.:

Date and Time:

Used Electronic Products: An Examination of U.S. Exports

332-528

May 15, 2012 - 9:30 a.m.

Sessions will be held in connection with this investigation in the Main Hearing Room
(room 101), 500 E Street, S.W., Washington, D.C.

PANEL 1: FOR-PROFIT RECYCLERS:

ORGANIZATION AND WITNESS:

TIME ALLOCATION:

10 minutes

Lane Epperson, President and CEO

Forever Green By Way of Recycling, Inc.
Chantilly, VA

10 minutes

Gordon F. Scott, Owner

Synergy Recycling, LLC
Madison, NC

10 minutes

Joe Clayton, Director of Sales

LifeSpan Recycling Co. Inc.
LifeSpan Technology Recycling
Boston, MA

10 minutes

Dag Adamson, President

-1-

PANEL 1: FOR-PROFIT RECYCLERS (continued):

ORGANIZATION AND WITNESS:

Regency Technologies
Twinsburg, OH

TIME ALLOCATION:

10 minutes

Jim Levine, President

10 minutes

Bill Long, General Manager

PANEL 2: REFURBISHERS/EXPORTERS:

ORGANIZATION AND WITNESS:

TIME ALLOCATION:

10 minutes

Jim Lynch, Director of GreenTech & Electronics
Recycling & Reuse Programs

10 minutes

Charles Brennick, Director

American Retroworks, Inc.
Middlebury, VT

10 minutes

Robin Ingenthron, President

PCRR Rebuilders & Recyclers
Chicago, IL

10 minutes

Willie Cade, Owner

10 minutes

Kyle Wiens, CEO

-2-

PANEL 3: GLOBAL COMPANIES, ASSOCIATIONS, AND NGOs:

ORGANIZATION AND WITNESS:

Sims Recycling Solutions
Roseville, CA

TIME ALLOCATION:

10 minutes

Renee St. Denis, Vice President of Business
Development

10 minutes

Holly A. Chapell, Director of Governmental Affairs

International Precious Metals Institute
Cheshire, CT

10 minutes

John Bullock, Chair, Environmental and Regulatory
Affairs Committee

Basel Action Network
Seattle, WA

10 minutes

Jim Puckett, Executive Director

Coalition of American Electronics Recycling
New York, NY

10 minutes

Wendy Neu, Executive Vice President, Hugo
Neu Corporation

National Center for Electronics Recycling
Parkersburg, WV

10 minutes

Jason Linnell, Executive Director

Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc.
Washington, D.C.

10 minutes

Joseph Pickard, Chief Economist and Director
of Commodities

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