Recycling Is Not a "LIE": Part 3. Alexander Clapp says I'm an Expert?

 

Waste Wars: A Journey Through the World of Globalized Trash

Forthcoming from Little, Brown & Company

Try out this logic.  

"Health Care Is a LIE, because everyone receiving health care will eventually die".

So I just found out that Alexander Clapp, author of the NYTimes Opinion editorial saying that Recycling Is a Lie, quotes me personally as an expert. Page 135. 

Yet, he does not respond to my direct messages, offers to dialogue, or follows (Linkedin, BlueSky, XTwitter)... So I'm following his posts and will buy a used copy of his book when it is available, but this "Health Care Is a Lie" logic is patently false.  

The 2006 NIH Report by Charles Schmidt, where the misleading quote is pulled from, was based on a trip I made to Asia 20 years ago with Total Reclaim of Seattle president Craig Lorch, and native (2nd generation) Mandarin speaker Lin King of WR3A.org and University of California (recycling program manager).  I had not been to Africa since 1987, and was trying to explain to Mr. Schmidt that the HUGE CONTRACT MANUFACTURERS IN ASIA - SUBCONTRACTORS FOR DELL, HP, ETC. were certainly not importing 80% waste. When he asked about Africa importers, I knew that they were not running 50+ huge factories with up to 1500 employees, 3 shifts a day, seven days per week.  And during that interview, I was also trying to remain friends with Mr. Jim Puckett who was making the (false) claim that 80% of used electronics trade violated the Basel Convention.

AFTER this interview with NIH Schmidt, the following occured.

1. I went to visit our buyers in Africa - with my whole family - and learned that they were Tech Sector professionals who knew WAY more about the electronics they were purchasing than USA recyclers did.

2. I sent multiple emails to the 2006 study author between 2006 (when I complained about the coverage even then) leading right up to 2013, when I invited him to attend the Middlebury Fair Trade Recycling Summit. See email to the author at bottom, with the list of speakers and experts meeting to discuss the "e-waste hoax" BAN had by that time created.  

3. 2013 was the year Jim Puckett of BAN disavowed his own claims in the 2006 Charles Schmidt NIH study - actually claiming he had never ever made the 80% illegal export claims.

In a sample email to Schmidt copied above, I was imploring him to update the 2006 study I'm quoted from, and he submitted my offer to his editor at NIH, who in 2011 turned it down.  Instead, Adam Minter that year visited multiple importers (and domestic Chinese e-waste buyers) for his book, Junkyard Planet.  Which like his second book, Secondhand, interviewed me and our WR3A members directly and on multiple occasions visited them.  

@Alexander_Clapp has a knack for sensational headlines.  He is based in Athens and has often written about Eastern Europe, where my son attended United World College and where used auto repair and used computer repair built the critical mass of users for development of infrastructure after the fall of the USSR.  But in the case of plastic and electronics recycling, it would appear that Mr. Clapp does not know what he is talking about, and is making it up as he goes along. 

It appears the he is citing me on page 135 to create an impression that like Adam Minter, Jacopo Ottaviana, Juan Solera, etc. that he had visited and met with the Tech Sector.  Misquoting me from a 2006 interview may have given him cover with his editor and publisher - whom I will be contacting in Part 4: Recycling Is Not A Lie.

I could have given Alexander Clapp context on every African country and Basel Convention reference he blurted out on this page. In the text above, Alexander Clapp suggests that Ghana's interference of Basel Convention Annex B 1120 vs. Uganda's is the reason he sees more e-Waste reported in Ghana. But look at Electricity per household in Ghana v. Uganda.

If a metropolis like Accra has 5M people with electricity, it generates more e-Waste than a country without electricity, or without the secondhand devices that consume, and operate upon, that electricity.

Little Brown and Company is a very well respected publisher.   In my 20s, I drove a paper recycling route in Boston (at EarthwormRecycling.org) and picked up paper from Little Brown for office paper recycling - starting in 1987.

Mr. Clapp also has contacts at the non-profit Pulitzer Center, whom we will also address - just as we did the editors of the article quoted by Clapp, the National Institute of Health. I'll be getting links to some of those people in Part 4 (unless Alex wants to give me a call and hear me out, like Minter, Oli Franklin-Wallis, Vince Beiser, Jacopo Ottaviana, CBS 60 Minutes Solly Granatstein, and other serious journalists did.  I didn't always convince them (and it's hard to give up a diabolical sounding headline), but it usually resulted in nuance... something Clapp's NYT Op Ed clearly lacks. 

Robin Ingenthron <robin@retroworks.com>	Apr 5, 2013, 5:29 PM SAVE AS TEMPLATE
to Charles

Charlie,

I wanted to invite you again to the Vermont Fair Trade Recycling Summit at Middlebury College.   There will be about 20 experts, including the outgoing Executive Director of the Basel Convention Secretariat in Switzerland, and Andrea Boron, author of a just completed USA International Trade Office Research paper.  Adam Minter, author and Shanghai correspondent, 5 university and college research groups (including Memorial U, Univ Peru, MIT, USC, Thunderbird, Univ Guatalajara, Univ Paul Cezanne, Univ Amsterdam, etc.)  Six African importers are also expected (4 confirmed).  Seating is at capacity, but I can guarantee you a spot if you are interested.

There is far, far more expertise and research at this Middlebury College Summit than you had access to for your original article.  The key things that have happened just in the past months:

1) Interpol arrested and seized 240 tons of used electronics from 40 African businesses

2) USA EPA arrested a USA shipper (to Egypt) who sold 100,000 CRT monitors for $2.1M ($21 each)

The published reports which will be provided by Kummer, Boron, Kahhat, Harris (all here in person) show a range of 85%-90% of the imports are reused.   (I also found a BAN report, done by their researcher in Kenya in 2006-07, which estimated that 90% of imports were reused).   The UN has also conclusively shown that the material at dumps (Agbogbloshi Ghana, etc.) was in use for decades, essentially generated by African cities, though compounded by the 10-15% fallout from recent imports.  (I will send links to all these documents if you are interested, many are linked at fairtraderecycling.org)

The event in Vermont will be April 16 from 10-5PM.

The researchers from the Universities are going to demonstrate that Interpol used data published by NIH (estimates by Puckett) which Puckett knew to be untrue (Kenya study) and which resulted in false arrests.    BAN has been sued by a Chicago company, and three other suits have been threatened.   You guys gave Puckett's numbers credence, this is a very significant group of scholars, officials, researchers, and participants.  I beg you guys to consider this opportunity to hold our feet to the fire.

Personally, I am very embarrassed that I was so deferential to you during our interviews in 2006.  I had strong suspicions that the story was off, based on math and on the actual purchase orders I'd received from Africa.   Because I was afraid to protest more publicly, a lot of good people have been hurt, and I'm trying to make amends.  I hope you understand

List of speakers below.

Robin Ingenthron, president, Fair Trade Recycling.

·         Andrea Boron, US International Trade Commission.  Used Electronics Exports (February 2013).
·         Adam Minter, Author, “Junkyard Planet”.  Adam is a reporter for Bloomberg, based in Shanghai, who writes columns for BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, Recycling International, and The Atlantic.
·         Katharina Kummer Peiry, EcoConsult (Geneva, Switzerland). Former Executive Secretary, Basel Convention Secretariat 2007-12.  Former UNEP staff, Nairobi Kenya.
·         Eric Harris, Assoc. Counsel/Dir. Of Govt. & Intl. Affairs, ISRI, (Washington, DC).  Industry representative to UN PACE program.
·         Josh Lepawsky, Geography, Memorial University (Newfoundland, Canada).  Chief researcher, $479,000 Fair Trade Recycling research grant.
·         Ramzy Kahhat, Professor of Engineering, University Pontifica Catholic de Peru, FTR grant.
·         Stephen D’Esposito, President , and  Juliana Birkhoff, Vice President of Collaborative Practice, RESOLVE (resolv.org)
·         Jean Frederic Somda, International Attorney and former Prosecutor General of Burkina Faso
·         Martijn Van Engelen, Aatelco CEO, founder of Fair Trade Electronics in Holland, exporter.
·         Reed Miller, Researcher, MIT.
·         Lynn Rubenstein, Exec Director, NERC.org.  Board Member, R2 Solutions.

They will be joined by international group of importers, recycling regulators, activists, technicians, and geeks.  (Some participating by video).

• Jinex Mindevil, CEO, Ace TV, Lima Peru
• Ruediger Kuehr, United Nations University, Inst for Sustainability, Germany
• Michael Durfor, Executive Director, NRRA, Epsom, New Hampshire
• Colin Davis, VP, WR3A (Fair Trade Recycling), Middlebury, Vermont
• Kyle Wiens, CEO, IFIXIT, producer of documentary “The Fixers”
• Charles Brennick, President, Interconnection, Seattle Washington (WR3A Board)
• Mostaem Billah,Memorial University, Bangladesh
• Jim Lynch, TechSoup Global, California
• Allen Liu and Ow Young Su Fung, CEO and VP, Net Peripheral, Malaysia
• Gordon and John Chiu, CEO and VP, Advanced Global Technology, U.S.A and Peru
• Roberto and Alice Valenzuela, Retroworks de Mexico, Mexico (WR3A Board)
• Mike Rohrbach, Founder, CCLAC.org, Arizona (WR3A Board)
• Timothy Anderson, President, World Computer Exchange, California, U.S.A (WR3A member)
• George Hinkle, CEO, ARCOA Recycling, (WR3A Board)
• Muhammed Wahab Oboi, Importer of electronics, Ghana (WR3A)
• Sarah Commes, PCRR, Refurbishers Group
• Hamdy Moussa, CEO, Medi-Com, Egypt, (WR3A)
• Joshua Goldstein, Professor of Chinese History, USC Los Angeles
• Nancy Jo Craig, CCARC.com, Refurbishers Group, Louisiana
• Oscar Adrian Orta, University of Guadelajara, Mexico (WR3A)
• Adelaide Rivereau, WR3A, Masters in Waste Mgt, Univ Paul Cezanne, France
• Eric Prempeh, Technician, Good Point Recycling, Ghana
• Robin Ingenthron, WR3A, American Retroworks Inc., Good Point Recycling, Vermont
• Brenda Wijnen, University of Amsterdam (WR3A)
• Eva Carreira, WR3A staff, Vermont (WR3A)
• Miguel Macuiza-Artur, Worla Aid, Angola
• Qasim Munir, Good Luck Traders, Lahore, Pakistan

The event will be STREAMED LIVE.  If you are studying, researching, preaching, questioning, or otherwise fascinated by international recycling and scrap trade, you will want to watch this event online (seating is sold out) or participate via live streaming.