E-Waste and Recycling Facts - Central Coast News KION/KCBA

• Major appliances and other large metallic discards needlessly use scarce landfill space when they can effectively be separated from the waste stream and recycled.
• These big items are not only large but also can be heavy. Disposal of these items as waste instead of recycling can be costly, since waste disposal costs are calculated by weight or volume. But when you separate them from your waste, recycling them is free!
  
  
• Over the past year, the Authority has recycled 340 tons of e-waste from SVSWA's 3 facilities in the Salinas Valley. [Source: ECS (the Authority's e-waste recycler)]
• ECS is an e-Steward Certified company, committed to globally responsible e-waste recycling practices. That's important because the e-Stewards Standard is the only e-waste standard that:
  • Is "All-In-One" – encompasses a certified ISO 14001 environmental management system and R2 (Responsible Recycling) Practices.
  • Prohibits all toxic waste from being disposed of in solid waste landfills and incinerators
  • Requires full compliance with existing international hazardous waste treaties for exports and imports of electronics, and specifically prohibits the export of hazardous waste from developed to developing countries
  • Prohibits the use of prison labor in the recycling of toxic electronics, which often have sensitive data embedded
  • Requires extensive baseline protections for and monitoring of recycling workers in every country, including developed nations where toxic exposures are routinely taking place
  • Is written for international use
• It's important to know where your e-waste recycling goes. [SOURCE: http://e-stewards.org/the-e-waste-crisis/ ]:
  • Electronic waste contains very toxic substances, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, beryllium and brominated flame retardants. When the latter are burned at low temperatures they create additional toxins, such as halogenated dioxins and furans – some of the most toxic substances known to humankind.
  • The toxic materials in electronics can cause cancer, reproductive disorders, endocrine disruption, and many other health problems if this waste stream is not properly managed.
  • Many of the toxic constituents are elements, which means they never disappear, even though they may change form.
  • Other toxic chemicals in electronics do not break down over time and instead, accumulate in the food chain and biosphere. Not only do these toxins present risks to communities and the global ecosystem, but also to electronics recycling workers, even in developed countries.
  • In the U.S., as little as 11%-14% of e-waste is recycled properly. The remainder is most often dumped or burned – either in formal landfills and incinerators, or informally dumped or burned. These inappropriate disposal methods for electronic waste fail to reclaim valuable materials or manage the toxic materials safely. In effect, our soil, water and air are easily contaminated.
  • An estimated 70-80% of the e-waste that's given to other recyclers is exported to less developed countries. Once there, primitive technologies such as open air burning and riverside acid baths are used to extract a few materials. The rest of the toxic materials are usually dumped.
  • Unlike other countries in the world, the U.S. sends a significant portion of its hazardous e-waste to U.S. prisons to process in less-regulated environments without the worker protections and rights afforded in the private sector. Moreover, such operations amount to government subsidies, undermining the development of responsible private-sector recycling infra-structure and distorting the economics of recycling.

Confidential data exposed to the world

• When we give an old computer to a recycler, we are also giving them stored data, unless it has been ‘wiped' of data. Most of the time, the hard drives aren't secured, their information isn't wiped – making it publicly available if in the wrong hands. In fact, in a recent study, everything from bank records to classified missile test results were found on a random sample of hard drives on eBay. The Ponemon Institute estimates that 70% of data breaches come from offline computers, usually after they have been disposed of by the equipment owner.
• SVSWA's E-waste recycler removes hard drives and shreds them to prevent data theft.