BAN should get credit when they get it right. And BAN should take credit when they got something right back in 2006... when it turns out they assisted the first study of Africa used computer imports - and found that 80% are reused. A link to the study follows.
As for this week's headline, BAN appears to have gotten a bad guy for a change. According to E-Scrap News, the loads of "ewaste" seized at the port of Jakarta, originating in Europe, are dirty loads... they sound like the office material we got from the Waterbury Office Irene Floods. The broker, WR Fibers, is not anyone I know or anyone that any of my former buyers in Indonesia have anything to do with.
Now, the free trade argument can still be made... note that sales of raw ore and blister copper - dirt from the ground with high metal content - is still legal to export. Digging it out of a mountain or rain forest doesn't seem to me to be safer than taking a percentage of metal from dirt second-hand. And I still wait to hear from the person who bought it, whether they are upset, or were paid to dump it, or see value (like ore value) that we don't recognize. But I'm relieved it's not another refurbisher being accused.
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| primitive environmentalism |
As for this week's headline, BAN appears to have gotten a bad guy for a change. According to E-Scrap News, the loads of "ewaste" seized at the port of Jakarta, originating in Europe, are dirty loads... they sound like the office material we got from the Waterbury Office Irene Floods. The broker, WR Fibers, is not anyone I know or anyone that any of my former buyers in Indonesia have anything to do with.
Now, the free trade argument can still be made... note that sales of raw ore and blister copper - dirt from the ground with high metal content - is still legal to export. Digging it out of a mountain or rain forest doesn't seem to me to be safer than taking a percentage of metal from dirt second-hand. And I still wait to hear from the person who bought it, whether they are upset, or were paid to dump it, or see value (like ore value) that we don't recognize. But I'm relieved it's not another refurbisher being accused.
