Showing posts with label dell. Show all posts

Why RERA/SEERA is BAD Export Policy - baby projects thrown out with the bathwater

Much time away from the blog this spring... The RERA/SEERA (Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, rebranded as the Secure E-Waste Export and Recycling Act) made it's sneaky appearance in the House "America Competes Act" in February 2022. I've been writing letters, and editorials against Section 30612.

That's scary. Under the Texas (always Texas, since Green Thompson) amendment, and now

S.1260 - United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021.

But rather than blog about it again, I want to list the cool projects Good Point is working on that might be ruined by the anti-export law.

1. Reopen refurbishing factory in North Africa.

Can You Lose 50 Pounds In 12 Months? The Hot New #Clickbait #EWaste Diet!

Can You Lose 50 Pounds In 12 Months?

Shameless promotion of "e-waist"

Technically, I'm not sure I make it. I've only lost 46 pounds, to be honest (that's strictly going by my physical medical exam, not home scales).

The Editor of Resource Recycling Magazine, Dan Lief*, told me that the staff (Cara Bergeson, Bobby Elliot, Colin Staub, Rick Downing, Jared Paben, Jef Drawbaugh...) had assigned me a nickname of "Clickbait Robin". That was a gentle chiding, suggesting that some of my stories - like Retroworks de Mexico, perhaps - were more fluff than substance. Low-calorie fare.

Coming from a journalism family (Dad was Mass Communications Professor at U of Arkansas, his parent and grandparents worked at / owned a County newspaper), I don't take it as an insult that I get my point of view out there any way that I can. Chaz Miller, Jim O'Keefe, Brian Taylor, DeAnne Toto, Rachel H. Pollack, Dan Sandoval, and even Cole Rosengren know that I can be tongue-in-cheek, and deadly serious, at the same time. If you are going to use a weight-loss, or journo name-drop, as your clickbait, you better have really lost the weight, and be truthful if it's 46 (this AM, seems 47 lbs) and not 50 pounds you've lost.

(Mark Hickey at Waste360... have not met anyone there yet, and the trade paper's silence on the controversy over racial profiling of used electronics traders really should be addressed)

NGO "#EarthEye" Gets OEM Cash for GPS Trackers: Do It Right Dell

Summary: We applaud the next generation GPS Tracking study - if it's a truly random distribution and random sampling of end points. It's not the tracking that was bad in 2016, it was the opportunity for bias distribution and biased sampling of end points. Dell should ask MIT Ethics Review Panel (via legal department) how to do a reputable GPS used electronics tracking study.

Randomly track and place all used electronics inputs. That means putting some trackers in 25 year old CRT TV junk that no one imports, some in working product that should be reused, not selectively sabotaging good enough looking stuff internally.

Randomly distribute the randomly selected used electronics. That means blindly send the goods so you don't send specific selected stuff to a specific recycler.

Randomly select end point export markets. That means you don't "obscure" good repair markets (cringeworthy 2016 study hid best and brightest in Hong Kong).

What Dell can Learn from MIT Senseable City Lab "Partnership" with Basel Action Network.

In 2016, Basel Action Network sent GPS Trackers out in the field and provided MIT with a textbook study of how to do it wrong. Sampling bias, financially involved research team, etc.

In 2018, BAN has announced they have a new partner - Dell. Above the fold are the steps Dell can take to avoid MIT's mistakes, and do this study right. I will applaud the tracking if the samples are done fairly, because then they will tell just as many stories about good Tech Sector outcomes overseas, as well as good stuff that got destroyed - not just bad stuff that didn't get fixed. I'm all for science.

Multiple pals on Facebook and Email sent me last weekend's article about Eric Lundgren, spectacled and lightly bearded electronics reuse guru. Friend of Kyle at IFIXIT and other TechSoup sorts, Lundgren has made a colorful career doing press-catchy projects, like building electric cars out of e-waste, and other tinkerer tricks.

I have nothing against Eric and think it sucks he has been sentenced to jail for importing Microsoft Operating System licenses from China. Whether he was going to give them away to poor people without computers, or sell them (as alleged by Microsoft and FBI informants), jail seems like overkill. Here was Microsoft's side of the story, which sounds truthy as well. And here is the view at IFIXIT.

Oh, and here is the petition circulated by PIRG... with a photo at the top looking very Agbogbloshie-like (reminding us that PIRG and Greenpeace still have not corrected their 80-90% primitive ewaste export hoax that put #FREEJOEBENSON in prison for much longer than Eric Lundgren is scheduled to serve).

Ok, I can fix this. Have been trying for 20 years. Had the solution in 1998. Tried to implement it in Massachusetts.

Spoiler in yellow. I solved this over a decade ago. Why can't I get traction?

THE SOLUTION IS FOR GOVERNMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL VOLUME PURCHASERS TO PROCURE ONE "SPARE TIRE" LICENSE ON EVERY PC THEY ORDER.

THE "SPARE" LICENSE KEY WOULD BE GLUED ON THE BACK, AND USED FOR A CLEAN REINSTALL AFTER THE HARD DRIVE WAS WIPED.

THIS WOULD ELIMINATE E-WASTE AND MAKE THE PCS AFFORDABLE.

WHEN I PITCHED THE IDEA TO MICHAEL DELL IN AUSTIN TEXAS, HIS FOLKS ESTIMATED THEIR COST FOR SUCH A LICENSE WOULD BE ABOUT $1.

I made a short career of this when another Operating System company, NewDeal Inc., hired me as a consultant to promote THEIR Operating System as the backup. New Deal collapsed during the "dotcom" crash, and my Spare Tire licensing idea never got off the ground.

More about Lundgren's case and how OEM Operating licenses work below. Wouldn't surprise me if that's Lundgren using Accra's slum as a backdrop.

Real Time reporting on BAN Report - Dell Reconnect Fallacy

Click BELOW for Real Time Analysis Blog on Controversial NGO + MIT Allegations #trackingewaste.

- NGO False Claims Act Rebuttal
- Methodology / Fallacy in Sampling Data
- False Claims vs. Goodwill Industries, Dell ReConnect
- EStewards Accusations vs. Total Reclaim / Seattle
- Alternative Explanations for "conclusions" reached by NGO
- Research leads, links to vetted data.

Unlike normal blogs, this one is being updated with information about the "scandal" of alleged e-waste exports to Hong Kong and other countries, made to support NGO's claim that it's paid e-Stewards certification, or national legislation, would cure environmental problems overseas without resulting in collateral damage (impugning reuse and refurbishment operations, boycotting geeks of color, sacrificing tradeable commodities covered under WTO "cores" law, racial profiling of recycling operations, false attribution of Basel Convention standards Annex IX B1110, fallacy in sampling data, sampling bias, etc.). The chief counterpoints to this blog (the story we are debating) can be found at the links below.

http://kcts9.org/programs/circuit

BAN Web page (just going online) http://www.ban.org/trash-transparency

MIT SenseAble City http://senseable.mit.edu/monitour

Like every one of these blogs, the views here are only my own and do not represent my company, any research or journalists I cooperate with, or the not-for-profit Fair Trade Recycling group (WR3A). The views are put forth in belief in debate, rebuttal, and defense of a trade which has received exaggerated and hyperbolized accusations, often against Emerging Market Tech Sector businesses who have little ability to respond to "profiles" created in the Western Press.

For ten years the Blog has told everyone that the NGO was making up the "80% Export" e-scrap myth out of whole cloth, and knew it was misleading reputable journalists in an "e-waste hoax" campaign that benefited the NGO financially. For ten years we have documented that the NGO uses photos of poor people, implying it benefits them, but never spending a single penny to assist or aid them in any way. For ten years this blog has alerted Interpol, EPA, trade associations, university researchers, interns, legislators and journalists of misleading and incomplete information being generated about the import and export of second-hand and secondary market commodities.

I do not know how long I will update this piece on the NGO's accusations against Goodwill Industries and certified and non-certified electronics recycling companies, and the overseas markets they may or may not trade with. My passion for this is driven by victims in developing and emerging markets who are a) recycling material their own country traded in to them in upgrade, b) refurbishing newer second hand equipment imported from the USA and other "rich" nations, and c) general disgust as an environmentalist that organizations seeking to benefit from "strategic metals retention" or "planned obsolescence" or "protecting shredding investments" may be funding a propaganda campaign against the people I called (over ten years ago) "Geeks of Color".

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Ken 'Bundy' Brown 2003 Band "Gray market goods"

Got my ticket, my seat assignments, and going through the visa process. And I'm working on a cluttered pile of photos and journals, hoping to turn some of my writing into something a little more mainstream.

From time to time though, I'll return here. My goal is to make the blog shorter and sharper. A lot of the posts have emphasized the same point, rewording the collective outrage of the geeks of color in different ways. It can be done humorously, like the April Fools "African Matrix Blog" (scarily foreshadowing the methodology of the E-Waste Tragedy "scrapumentary"), or with college thesis flair, or angrily. But the goal now is to provide insight in modest bites.

Here's the key difference between exports of used electronics to African and Indonesian geeks and the exports to the ports controlled by (mostly Taiwanese) businesspeople in China. The Chinese market, in the 1990s, was more like Africa today, importing for direct reuse and consumption in Chinese cities which could not otherwise afford brand new product. That's like used German cars being sold in Poland in the late 1980s, or used brand name appliances to Russians in the 90s. That's what Hurricane Hamdy, Hurricane Benson, and other African traders have been engaged in. It's pretty simple, a secondary market taking gently used and electively upgraded material from wealthy neighborhoods and reselling them in emerging neighborhoods. Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries, St. Vincent de Paul, eBay.

In a direct resale market, you are selling a used car with the odometer reading is correct.
In a direct resale market, you could be selling a used car with the odometer rolled back.
In a brand new market, you could be selling a brand new car.
In a brand new market, you could be selling what looks like a brand new car, but is basically "spray and pray" (new coats of paint on an old or recalled motor).

(Here's some background music by Ken "Bundy" Brown via Youtube. I'm a huge fan of Leo Kottke and Ry Cooder, and would place Gray Market Goods in that style or vein. His older stuff is a more Little Feat-ish.)

Africans Import Used Electronics Because They Are: ______

A) "Africans buy used because they are Smart."

Emeagwali 1998 "Superbrain of Africa"

- The 1990s used equipment is less susceptible to ESD (electrostatic discharge)

- Equipment which lasts 15 years drops 50% in cost after 2 years.

- Warranty laws that protect consumers in "rich" nations make their used equipment more valuable.

- Capacitors that cost $2.15 can repair a Dell Optiplex worth $800.

- CRTs cost less, but withstand heat and are less prone to theft.

- If you have access to electricity and earn $3,000 per year, a $21 CRT monitor is smarter than a $800 monitor that may or may not work.

- If you are worried about burglary, CRTs are heavier as well as less valuable.

- If you buy new, there's a 33% chance you lose all your money.

- African reuse of WEEE is 85%-91% after repairs. Brand new has a 33% failure rate.

@TheGuardian finally reports the other side of the "ban on exports" story, as Dell's eyes adjust to the light. Maybe Africa's "superbrains" are not as primitive as the "experts" told us. Hope they have stronger legs than HP's Africa venture of 2009 (year that "e-waste export hoax" hit top gears).

StEP into recycling

Here is a roadmap for recycling used electronics in Africa, in 5 Simple Steps.

1. Correctly report the problems.

African cities have had TVs and electronics for several decades and generate their own "e-waste". Most of the "ewaste" filmed (BAN, Greenpeace) at dumps was not recently reported, but "takeback" from reuse markets which import newer product. We want to further reform the trade, not to nuke it.

2. De-Criminalize Purchase for repair and reuse in the EU.

The reuse people are not "going back to Eden" if you boycott them. They are tinkerers who create good jobs and affordable product in African marketplaces. We want to improve their jobs, not to nuke them.

3. Use value of exports to incentivize domestic African takeback infrastructure.

Many Africans who purchase imported reuse goods also do repair for domestic electronics. The abandoned repairs are a form a product takeback infrastructure. In fact, it's EXACTLY the same as the evolution of electronics repair and sale in Massachusetts in the 1970s.

TV repair shops learned they could make more money if they offered a choice of Retail Replacement as well as Repair, letting the consumer make a choice. When the consumer chooses not to repair (or worse, asks for the unit to be repaired but then changes their mind and doesn't return for it), the TV repairperson becomes a takeback operation. When Masschusetts DEP enacted the first "ewaste" law in America (CRT Waste Ban), it was a TV repair family which created the largest TV recycling operation in the USA. Africa is on the same path.

4. Recycling, Reconciliation and mass balance.

Hand-labor recycling is actually cleaner and produces better results than mechanical shredding. Just don't burn the items you disassemble, and recycling is still profitable. The caveat is CRT glass and mercury backlighting.

Left purely to the free market, Africa will have little incentive to properly recycle CRT glass (the most expensive component). The value of reuse exports should be adjusted, reducing sale price to Europe or the USA according to the actual recycling and takeback, and should be monitored, or they will accumulate the same CRT glass piles the USA has accumulated.

This system preserves Tinkerer Blessing jobs (compared to StEP's OEM-funded solution). It will also work in India and other emerging markets. But there's one immediate step we need to take first.

5. Where scrap recycling, repair, and refurbishment already exist, nurture it.

Major CRT glass recycling operations have been shut down by friendly fire. In Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southern China, semiknockdown (refurbishing) factories, glass washing operations, and warranty-repair-turned-takeback operations have been closed. It is not too late to save repair in Africa.

As Recycling Director for the Massachusetts DEP in the 1990s, I tried always to preserve existing expertise and infrastructure. Massachusetts had not prepared Salvation Army, Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul for new freon rules in the 1980s, and created a "white goods" glut. I was determined not to do that, and we took care of our scrap paper packers, our TV repairpeople, and our charities. The Massachusetts model of charity partnerships was later adapted by Dell in its Goodwill ReConnect program (I met with Michael Dell and Pat Nathan personally in 2001, suggesting the partnership would take them out of the BAN attack on Dell's Unicor prison recycling program at that time).

The same partnership approach can succeed in Africa. Rather than demonize, demoralize, insult and ridicule the scrap boys and repair technicians, the entrepreneurs like Joseph Benson or Hamdy Moussa or Souleymane Sao, we need to defend them. Touche pas a mon pote, E-Stewards.

Hobsons Choice For the "E-Waste" Market

Take it or leave it.

When an E-Steward company, or a state or enterprise influenced by its negative campaign, is approached by an Egyptian, Indonesian, or Nigerian who wants to set up the fastest growing cities in on the planet with affordable internet, they have one choice.

They can either replace the bad capacitors themselves, replace the hard drives themselves, buy new laptop batteries themselves... etc. etc. Or they can destroy them.

The fastest growing, highest use, internet market in the world, is in the cities of emerging markets. Cairo, Jakarta, Lagos... and dozens of others with billions of people clamoring to learn, to be entertained, informed, and connected to their family, friends, and associates. They are starving for things like affordable display devices.

When a Nigerian, Egyptian, or Indonesian electronics repairperson (a terrific job choice in emerging markets) wants to buy a Dell, HP, or Samsung computer from the USA, they have once choice: buy from someone willing to sell to them, or go without.

The Watchdog, the Gatekeeper, the certifier wants to change that choice. The E-Steward Program charges YOU money to not attack you for selling junk. This changes the choice for suppliers / sellers in the USA. I used to decide based on the demand - what people wanted to buy. Now that's changed by the requirement that I pre-repair it, and the risk that if I do sell it, I may be attacked. The effect has been to constrain the supply - the buyers choice of goods.

The Watchdogs say this is to protect the buyers from getting "junk". The test of whether something is junk? In the marketplace, it's called "the marketplace"... what people are interested in buying. The buyers, the Geeks of Color, the Technicians, the "Good Enough Market". The Watchdog, having convinced everyone that 80% of these decisions are bad ones, intervenes, and places themselves between the buyer and the seller. A referee can be good - if the ref understands scoring and other rules of the game.

Under E-Stewards, the ref has raised the stakes on any missed calls, and so they design a rule to be something much easier to measure than willingness to buy (repeatedly). They can't be bothered by the background checks on buyers and fair contract language that Fair Trade Recycling pursues. Keep it simple e-Stupid. "Fully Functional", "Tested Working", "Plug and Play"... E-Stewards and PACE gave up when we sent them 20 page purchase orders with quantities, tests, sizes, buyer qualification rules and other parameters. Too long to read. To difficult. So they created "tested working" as a standard. Sounds good. The effect was to remove sellers unable to test and buyers who preferred buying newer goods for repair (rather than old ones "working").

1: Take the highest demand in the world
2: Restrict what they can buy
3. Profit!!

They get applause from the Anti-Gray Market Alliance members who make brand new product, who restrict the right to repair and use patent trolls and copyright extension to squeeze the largest demand in the world into the tiny space of brand new product. Profit.

Postscript: Entrepreneur E-Waste Recycler 2

January 2, 2012: It being the winter break, I've tinkered with and re-edited yesterday's post on Entrepreneurism several times. It's better, if not yet shorter, than when it was first posted. I left the crazy long Mad Man title as kind of a warning that it would be difficult to skim. The post centers on an essay by Kentin Waits, published in OpenForum.com

Five Essential Characteristics of the Entrepreneural Mind.

1. Creativity
2. Suspicion of Predictors
3. Comfort with Uncertainty
4. Openness to Experimentation
5. Functional Humility

This morning, I thought about people who are really looking to get into the recycling business, people who are thinking of becoming entrepreneurs. For that audience, my own shanzai essay is a little one sided.

There are of course other true entrepreneurs who have entered the "e-waste" business on completely different terms than I have. It takes creativity, suspicion, comfort with uncertainty, and experimentation to design an automated shredding and chopping and grinding machine, and to take a chance on not exporting when everyone else is donig so. I don't look down on any of the companies which established the USA's domestic recycling infrastructure. In fact, companies like mine NEED them to keep from sending toxics along for the ride, and for improving the junk in loads from 30% to 15% and better.

I can't even blame those who helped to fund the insulting and racist campaign that turned my Egyptian friend Hamdy and his brother Essam, both with medical degrees, into "waste tourists" and criminals. Or at least, they were suspicious dark skinned exporters who no one felt comfortable trading with. And the other recyclers can't blame me for taking credit for my own risk. My ewaste company was on Hamdy's side when their friends twittered down the dictators regime. If some of the 30,000 computers I sold there since 2001 played a part, I'm glad.

If some of those computers wind up in a Cairo dump 12 years later, with wire yokes scavenged by Zaballeen recyclers, the monitor would still have served its purpose 5 times as long as if it had been shredded after it was upgraded. And it will have helped 5 times as many people. And it did something besides play "Doom" or "Second Life". Heck, the computer itself lived a second life.