The comment section of this week's
Bloomberg Editorial by Adam Minter is probably a lot of "inside baseball" to a lot of people. But there are a couple of gems. Take this comment by Jim Puckett, Executive Director of Basel Action Network.
"Despite your reading diligence however, it is unfortunate that you did not start by questioning the baseless assertions made by Adam Minter in his reckless article. Never has BAN ever stated that 80% of US e-waste is exported."
(-Bloomberg News)
Well, well, well...
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| "Never has BAN ever stated that 80% of US e-waste is exported."- Jim Puckett |
My, my. That's a bold statement to make on the world wide web. I've taken a few moments to search the term "Puckett" and "80%" and "exports". Jim's paragraph goes on to explain that BAN knew there was no harmonized tariff code, and that BAN relied on experts (surveys?)... really trying to isolate the statistic back to 2002, in his paper "Exporting Harm".
"That expert was cited in our report claiming the 80% estimate. Realize however that we never claimed it was anything other than an informed estimate and we never said it applied to all US e-waste generation but rather the percentage exported of that which was delivered to recyclers. "
That Expert (see bottom) reported on his estimates via the comment field of
this blog a few years ago (Adam Minter, a new acquaintance, actually saw this exchange with the expert). And Jim Puckett participated as well. Here is a flashback "
Finally! The Source of the "80%" Statistic Steps Forward!" And the expert's talking about baled material, shredded material, tested working material... not just primitively burned material (see the exchange in blue at bottom of this post).
Still, the assertion here is this:
"Never has BAN ever stated that 80% of US e-waste is exported."
Reckless indeed. Do we really have to go all the way back to 2002 to find the statistic Bloomberg's columnist Adam Minter is trying to hold up to the light? Oh, wait! I've got
INTERNET!! Let's take a little voyage via Google and Bing's memory lane. Search boxes will help jog our memory for some use of the claim between 2002 and 2013.
Bing! In January 2013, just a few months ago, CAER (a group Jim Puckett cites in his comments, funded by Wendy Neu, a BAN Board member) used the state to promote RERA:
"We believe that currently about 80% of electronics claimed to be recycled in the US are really just “packed and stacked” into shipping containers and exported. Aggregators of used electronics work through brokers to ship equipment overseas and get paid pennies per pound for this mixed assortment of electronics. We see solicitations from these brokers all the time.
Boink! Here's another post from less than a year ago... With the following quote from the Press Release (from Placentia, CA), attributed to
Jim Puckett, in late 2012:
"Approximately 80% of electronic waste currently delivered to recyclers is actually exported to developing countries."
Pluke! From 2011 in support of RERA legislation banning sale of intact units:
"we estimate that 50-80% of e-waste that gets into recyclers’ hands is exported to developing countries, where it causes great harm."
Now to be fair, the three quotes above do perhaps limit the 80% to that which gets to recyclers, not the entire denominator of used electronics generated.
But OOPS... here they go again.
