Showing posts with label Memorial University. Show all posts

Q-Methodology And Fair Trade Recycling Negotiation - The News

Many readers already know about the E-waste research project, funded by a $469k grant secured by Dr. Josh Lepawsky at Memorial University, Newfoundland. The project involves research in five countries - Mexico, Peru, Bangladesh, and China. I'm kind of doing Ghana on my own, as is Grace Akese of Memorial U, so I include it even though it's not part of the research funding.

We introduced Lepawsky to Josh Goldstein, a Ph.D. in Chinese History at USC, and Dr. Ramzy Kahhat of Pontifica Universidad Catholica Peru (PUCP). Lepawsky and some grad students recently completed their first "assessment", based on indept interviews of workers at Retroworks de Mexico in Sonora.

E-Waste Tragedy 8: Four Questions on Top 10 Pollution (Blacksmith Institute, Jack Caravanos)

The Tragedy of Agbogbloshie, the scrap neighborhood of Accra, Ghana, has been a "scene of the crime" which Joe Benson is in prison for. Among the most credible sources for Benson's crime suspicions came a year ago this month, via Scientific American. Ghana is not more polluted than any other emerging urban city. So why, in 2014, is Ghana the butt of the Scientific American headline?

"E-Waste Dump among Top 10 Most Polluted Sites"

A list of the 10 most polluted places on Earth ranges from nuclear sites to e-waste dumps

Dec 17, 2013 |By David Biello

Searching for #PovertyPorn

Is this the truth? Is this metal scrapyard in Accra, Ghana, among, close to, remotely, being one of the ten most polluted sites on earth? Scientific American is important and credible, as is the original source - Blacksmith Institute.

No. Accra's scrapyard doesn't compare to Chernobyl or mining hotspots like Kabwe or OK Tedi. It's not pretty, but it is pretty similar to dozens of other auto scrapyards in Guangzhou, Mumbai, Detroit, Jakarta, Rio, etc.

How did the headline above place Accra's automobile, white goods, and electronics scrapyard - and only their scrapyard - on a list with Chernobyl, Ukraine, Kabwe, Zambia, and other mining, smelting, nuclear and petroleum disasters?

In this blog, I'll show you where the research by Blacksmith Institute, behind this headline, was accurate and plentiful. Unfortunately, one tragic citation led to false arrests, collateral damage, and potentially tarnished the brand of a really fine organization. As Dr. Josh Lepawsky has described in "Mapping E-waste as a Controversy: From Statements to Debates II", there has been a pollution of non-peer-reviewed "data" in the discussion of export policy. It will lead to the end of "top ten" lists from Blacksmith Institute.

Definition of PRIMUM NON NOCERE: the first thing (is) to do no harm

I have about 30 pages of blogs composed this summer, but the challenge is to update them as fast as the news changes.

Sometimes it's easier to point back at past predictions...
In the past year or so (not in order, and some still "breaking" news).

1. BAN denies "80% waste" statistic (denies ever saying it).
2. Peer reviewed studies from USITC, MIT, Memorial U, ASU, UNEP, etc. show 85-91% reuse.
3. Benson is reportedly released early #freehurricanebenson
4. Lord Chris Smith (UK Environmental Agency director) is replaced.
5. Vermont ANR terminates contract with CRT-landfill operation early.
6. Payment refused to local governments may be released.
7. Interpol may have hit the "pause" button on Project Enigma / Eden (unconfirmed)
8. A stampede of Europeans emerging from the trenches in Agbogbloshie to testify...

E-WASTE HOAX - NOT AS "BAN" ADVERTISED.

"Do not know what they are talking about. Making it up as they go along."

Following twitter (via Adam Minter) I ran across an editorial/blog in my favorite periodical, The Economist. I've linked to some well researched articles in the Economist here in the blog, e.g. about emerging markets and urban development. I continue to subscribe, buy subscriptions as gifts, and hold The Economist in high regard.

But holy cow... what kind of 2008 garbage is this piece by Editorialist Babbage? Where Gadgets Go to Die (7/21/2014). He's repeating statistics disavowed by BAN, referring to Greenpeace's 2009 campaign, and alluding to a vast unknown market for burning computers. In a Sci/Tech Column, for godsake! Oh the humanity?

I do encourage followers of the blog to read the article and to comment, and to refer Babbage and Economist SciTech to BAN's retraction of it's overseas dumping "statistics" and recognition of the UNEP reports from a year ago. Find links at "How the Basel Action Network Saved Africa" posted a year ago last month.

And here's some breaking news about "collateral damage" Hurricane Joe Benson I just received

Just a quick note to let you know that Joe was moved, last Friday, to Maidstone Prison.

Maidstone is an open prison so at least the conditions he is in will be improved.

It should be a lot easier for Juan to get an interview with Joe.

His date of Birth is 15th April 1960. We still don't have a prison Number but give it a try anyway.

This makes me sick. The EU is ruining Africa for everybody.

Not bathwater: Baby bassinet found at Mexican dump 2008

Here's a novel idea. Habeus Corpus. Find the body. Make sure a crime has been committed before you start arresting people. Witch hunts and mob justice have plagued democracies for thousands of years, and our system of justice has learned, over the centuries, that accusations need to be investigated before arrests take place.

Environmental Crime enforcement thus reminded itself last week. Interpol, the Lyon, France-based international police force, announced that it would take a year to re-study the WEEE or used electronics trade. Why is a study a victory for Fair Trade Recycling? It's called "back to the drawing board"... Interpol studied it once, gobbled up some baloney Basel Action facts, and started an enforcement campaign it is now going to revisit. Mockingbird will be retried.

11/7/2013 "The impact of pollution caused by the dumping and mishandling of waste is global, affecting the quality of our air, water and soil," said Cees van Duijn, a Specialized Officer with INTERPOL's Environmental Security Unit.

"Through Project Eden INTERPOL will support its member countries in their efforts to implement national legislation and regulate the international movement of waste to ensure healthier local environments and help protect the overall integrity of our environment worldwide," added Mr Van Duijn.

With the recent launch of the Countering WEEE Illegal Trade (CWIT) Project, INTERPOL and its partners will conduct extensive research into the illegal e-waste market in Europe and provide technical and policy recommendations.
- See more at: http://www.noodls.com/view/1E03CF366C333C703F1EE40A61E2A293816DCAF3#sthash.ysnd6TSY.dpuf

Now Interpol's "Project Eden" doesn't sound all that big a departure from the past 12 months of seizures, arrests and enforcement. Why do I assume there could be good news here?

"INTERPOL and its partners will conduct extensive research..."

What caused Interpol to take a breather, and to make sure of its prosecution? WR3A, the World Reuse, Repair and Recycling Association, monikered "Fair Trade Recycling", perhaps played a role. Our organization introduced Interpol to researchers from Memorial University, PUCP Peru, USC, MIT, and Middlebury College. We introduced them to importers from Ghana and Mexico and Burkina Faso. We introduced them to recent studies by UNEP and US International Trade Commission. And I took a few days from my vacation in July to meet Interpol at their offices in Lyon, en route to Geneva and Copenhagen, and to my meeting with Mr. Collateral Damage himself, Joseph Benson.

TVs replaced at London hotel by flatscreens make false arrests

Fair Trade Recycling applauds legitimate investigation of the used WEEE and electronics export trade. Cees (pronounced "case") van Duijn, the head of Interpol's environmental unit, met with me in Lyon in July, extended his hand, and promised to do what is right. And I believe him. He was not there when the enforcements and seizures and questionable arrests based on "80%" baloney statistics got started. He was not holding a torch, and does not seem to be in the lynching business.

We are on the heels of a year of arrests and seizures of exporters of used electronics, following a great E-Waste Hoax. Interpol had taken a fake, false, hootenanny statistic from a puny Seattle non-profit, and based on the fake number, had seized hundreds of containers or used computers, displays, televisions, and cell phones. Items, it turns out, which are reused or repaired 91% of the time.

Habeus Corpus means "Habeus Stuff", habeus #ewaste. Start at the crime scene, start at the dump. "Stuff" is not, by itself, evidence of environmental injustice. Just keep the facts straight, that's where justice begins.

Fair Trade Recycling Announces Agreement with RE:Solve (Resolv.org)

Mobilizing Information about Fair Trade Recycling Standards in Used Electronics

WR3A.org, dba Fair Trade Recycling, is soliciting donations from members and supporters to fund the transition of our NGO to a venue in Washington DC. The outcome will be a mature, responsible, diplomatic organization which is better able to defend the best practices in recycling, and to defend them and those who practice them from thinly veiled accusations of exploitation and other "dirty little secrets".

WR3A is changing, but it's not going away. We are going into a new phase of the organization's development. The message of Fair Trade Recycling is moving out of Vermont, to Washington, DC. We are mobilizing the message about fair trade recycling.

Fair Trade Recycling is joining the Solutions Network at Resolve.

Below are three other projects housed at ReSolve's Solutions-Network.

CONFLICT-FREE TIN INITIATIVE

In September of 2012, the Conflict-Free Tin Initiative was announced by Industry partners convened by the Dutch government. The Conflict-Free Tin Initiative project intends to start a conflict-free tin sourcing program in South Kivu, an eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The initiative pilots new tracking and tracing procedures to ensure the conflict-free status of the supply chain. Following the conflict-free testing phase of the pilot, the initiative will address other mine-site sustainability issues. View project

CONFLICT FREE SMELTERS

The Conflict-Free Smelters (CFS) Program of the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and Global E-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) seeks to end supply chain support for the sale of illicit minerals from Eastern DRC and the surrounding region. As smelters/refiners (smelters) build systems and demonstrate compliance with the provisions of the EICC-GeSI Conflict-Free Smelter (CFS) Program, they may encounter transition or start-up costs associated with participation in the program. It is recognized that these costs may be most significant to small and medium smelting enterprises. The CFS Early-Adopters Fund is designed to offer smelters an extra incentive for early participation by helping to offset these transitional costs. View project

SOLUTIONS FOR HOPE

In July of 2011, the Solutions for Hope Project was announced by Motorola Solutions Inc., a leading manufacturer of mission critical public safety and enterprise wide communications equipment and AVX Corporation, a leading tantalum capacitor manufacture. The ‘Solutions for Hope Project’ was launched as a pilot initiative to source conflict-free tantalum from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Tantalum is a metal used in capacitors for electronic products and is derived from the mineral coltan, which is in rich supply in the DRC. View project

Nalanda University India ruins: A-Waste?

The Fair Trade Recycling Association has been asked by professors at Memorial University and Middlebury College to suggest a "reading list" for students preparing to attend the Fair Trade Recycling Summit. The Summit will be streamed online from Middlebury College on April 16, 2013.

Colleges and universities outside of Middlebury are watching, from classrooms in the faraway reaches of Africa, South America, and California. I thought I'd post the readings which have been discussed and may be assigned to the classes at Middlebury College. It's a great bibliography for a serious term paper in environmental studies or international economics or political science.

Big Works are from 1960. Environmental Studies they should be aware of them and we can recommend a chapter of each.

"Silent Spring" by Rachael Carlson, created awareness/knowledge of an "invisible toxic enemy".

"The Waste Makers" by Vance Packard, is about the corporate bias against reuse and repair, and the extent to which "planned obsolescence" will grow. Republished featuring an introduction by Bill McKibben of Middlebury College.

The question is whether the "Waste Makers" are using cognitive risk marketing (from Silent Spring) to make environmentalists exaggerate fear of "e-waste" recycling.

Specific, Shorter, Background Reading on "E-waste":

Vermont Fair Trade Recycling Summit Update

Earth Week Event: Fair Trade Recycling (of "e-Waste") Summit in Vermont

There is considerable interest in our April 16 Vermont Fair Trade Recycling Summit, a free conference paid for by Middlebury College, Memorial University, and WR3A. In fact, we are out of seats already.

The good news is that the Summit will be broadcast via Live Streaming throughout the day. We are preparing a number of videos to fill the gaps between sessions.

I'll post a list of speakers and presenters and panelists this week. We are immensely honored at the number of Guests who have chosen to attend in person rather than via the Skype options offered to the presenters.

Fair Trade Recycling Summit Nations Represented (confirmed participation to date)

Angola * Burkina Faso * Canada * China * Egypt * Holland * Indonesia
Malaysia * Mexico * Peru * Switzerland * USA