Well, since EPA and Basel Secretariat won't defend themselves from the bully in Seattle, it seems to fall on me to defend sanity. Should poor people be allowed to accept donations from, and do business, with well meaning rich people? My answer is yes. HR2284 says no, and makes that opinion law.
Using Halloway (post yesterday) as a jumping off point, let's look at all the assumptions for the case banning trade in used electronics between rich nations and poor.
They keep saying 80-90% of electronics exported are burned in horrific condtions.
" ..it has been widely reported that 90 percent of the USA's e-waste ends up in either China or Nigeria—a figure that appears to originate from an estimate made by Jim Puckett, Director of the Basel Action Network. "
It has been widely reported, indeed. The figure "appears to originate" from Basel Action Network. Basel Action Network credits the statistic from a 2002 interview they did with my buddy Mike at DMC. My buddy Mike says, via this blog, that he was including ALL exports - clean baled steel, demanufactured copper, aluminum, plastic - everything that comes out of electronics. And he meant exports to Europe (printed circuit boards) as well.
The actual studies with actual data show an imperfect but rational marketplace. 85% of used electronics imported into Africa are working or repaired. The other statistic is that MOST Africans can only afford a used device - for now. China has a plan to change that.
African business people can't afford to pay $10 to ship an item worth $3.52 in scrap. BAN says that a good unit would pay for the transport of the bad units... but that's only if the African Geek is willing to donate his share of the profits to disposing YOUR junk. Meaning he would have to charge you, or lose his money. The more rational step is for the African to be very careful about picking and choosing items he can repair and reuse.
- The goods from the USA are mostly good.
- The bads at the dump are mostly generated over there (after decades of reuse).
- The mostly good were mostly purchased at thrift and second hand shops in the USA/EU
- China and other rapidly-ermerging nations are a new source of cheap and "gently used" goods
The question for China and USA is, how do we make money selling into this market? Do we resell our used cars and electronics for their best value, giving us an incentive to take care of them? Or do we just withdraw, to keep our consciences shiny and our Goodwills and Salvation Armies beyond the reproach of export markets? Because THAT's where the Africans (and Haitians, and South Americans) buy from, the used goods marketplaces in USA and Europe. And the number of "rich" people (used goods owners) doubles each year - and they are cropping up everywhere.
Salvation Army and Goodwill have competition. Not just from for-profits like Savers and eBay. The used goods market is growing as the world economy grows. New consumers are created as wifi and electric cable wrangles its way into the slums, and as slumdogs become middle class, they generate their own used display devices, laptops, and cell phones. The cup of used goods runneth over. But the solution is not to ban the poorest from getting the leftovers.
