White's move...
In the comments section on Sunday, reps from @RecyHub posted the following questions about the Fair Trade Recycling Model. As a reminder, WR3A/FTR encourages export of used electronics to Africa, hand picked by Africans, under defined purchase orders and contracts, to meet the desire and needs of African cities.
EU RecyHub writes:
First, it is now very well established that the junk show in primitive scrap yards is primarily generated by Africa's cities themselves. The two problems - child labor and difficult-to-manage components - are products of the emerging nations themselves. A trade ban does nothing to address these problems.
Second, and on the contrary, the WR3A / fair trade recycling model uses the value of the goods to create incentives to address these problems. Instead of paying $7,000 for a containerload of televisions, the African trader could pay just $4,000 in return for a contract to eliminate child labor, recycle the plastic, etc.
This is the only model which creates $3k (or $4k, $5k, $7k) to fund proper recycling. African traders import from wealthy countries because the scrap is so much higher in (reuse) value, and OECD nations are foolish to shred that value. Keeping it out of the hands of African techs is a lose-lose proposition.
Check.
In the comments section on Sunday, reps from @RecyHub posted the following questions about the Fair Trade Recycling Model. As a reminder, WR3A/FTR encourages export of used electronics to Africa, hand picked by Africans, under defined purchase orders and contracts, to meet the desire and needs of African cities.
EU RecyHub writes:
There are some issues in my mind that I think are not cleared out by your model:
- Child labour. In Agbogbloshie there are kids working with the e-waste, burning cables. Somehow, they should be considered in a model that takes into account human development, not only economical development.
- Non-recyclable parts. Not 100% of the components are recyclable. There are hazardous parts that need to be removed and treated separately, and there are plastics that don't have any secondary market value. Those parts will be travelling together with the reusable electronics.
How do you approach these two issues?
First, it is now very well established that the junk show in primitive scrap yards is primarily generated by Africa's cities themselves. The two problems - child labor and difficult-to-manage components - are products of the emerging nations themselves. A trade ban does nothing to address these problems.
Second, and on the contrary, the WR3A / fair trade recycling model uses the value of the goods to create incentives to address these problems. Instead of paying $7,000 for a containerload of televisions, the African trader could pay just $4,000 in return for a contract to eliminate child labor, recycle the plastic, etc.
This is the only model which creates $3k (or $4k, $5k, $7k) to fund proper recycling. African traders import from wealthy countries because the scrap is so much higher in (reuse) value, and OECD nations are foolish to shred that value. Keeping it out of the hands of African techs is a lose-lose proposition.
Check.
