There are many good recyclers, and we are all exporters.
The purpose of certification is to "out" the liars, not to debate the outliers.
During the past week (blogs below), I've written several essays concerning marketing themes which are "attacking the category".
Negative campaigning, also known more colloquially as "mudslinging", is trying to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one's own positive attributes or preferred policies. In the broadest sense, the term covers any rhetoric in which one refers to one's opponent in an ad hominem manner. [
wikipedia 2012.02.08]
Negative imagery of competitors' export practices probably accounts for "80% of advertising" for ewaste recyclers (a statistic I just manufactured... see how easy it is for Americans to make things - up?)
Export policy is important, it does matter.
Below are five distinct export categories, and the niches they serve. How we manage and certify the first four will help us all to control the 5th (see post
"Ewaste Travel in Scrap Metal" 2010). Mixing CRT glass and mercury bulbs into bales of scrap metal is one dumping problem, but ship captains stranded with cargo refused at port is another cause of the same "export for dumping" problem. Basically, there are five ways for your "e-waste" to get from Here to There.
FIVE CATEGORIES OF E-WASTE EXPORTS
1. Export No Intact Unit Category: Some of us feel safer exporting raw materials only, and market the "no intact unit" standard as an option. These companies attract business from OEMs concerned with reuse (market cannabalization), counterfeiting, or the "grey markets" somewhere in between. It's a legitimate recycling category. These companies represent an excellent choice, for example, for an OEM with faulty parts taken back under warranty that they don't want redistributed. These recyclers export bales of steel, plastic, copper, aluminum, and circuit boards, sold openly on the commodities market. (slideshow of
China's metal recycling companies, which buy shredded material for hand sorting - The Atlantic Monthly 2008)
2. Export of Tested Working Category: Some of us sell to retail markets, such as schools or direct retail shops, which are not in the repair business and are willing to pay more for something "fully functional" and "tested working". The recyclers who sell to the direct-reuse market tend to wipe hard drives, reinstall MAR licenses, and do other things to ensure their exports are what the buyer ordered. (Slideshow of
Egyptian repair / direct reuse markets, 2008)
3. Export for Repair and Refurbishing Category: Within the remote corners (83% of the world), there are mind-blowing repair and remanufacturing companies. Some of these began as contract manufacturers (e.g. CRT factories) and performed warranty repairs as well as assembly. Some have turned to full-fledge cores refurbishers, creating thousands of jobs in emerging markets, taking back things like old CRT tubes or smallish LCDs and recutting and re-vamping them. They make things like monitor-television-DVD combos, which are sold in vast quantities to people earning $3,000 per year, who cannot afford to buy all 3 separately. They tend to be very picky, but not about things like 120 volt power supplies... whether the power supply works or not, it's getting replaced for sale in a 220 volt country. It's a very legitimate category. The fact they buy non-working power supplies as well as working power supplies is evidence that they are the opposite of primitive.
Slides of the factories I've visited are available here.
