Electronics scrap
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week fined electronics recycler Jet Ocean Technology of Chino, California, just over $10,000 for illegally exporting cathode-ray tubes from old television sets to China.
Jet Ocean is only the second electronics recycler to be penalized for shipping and deliberately mislabeling the tubes, which contain the brain-damaging metal lead. It falsely labeled the cargo as ‘mixed metal scrap’ when it shipped it out — and as ‘scrap metal’ when China (after being warned by Greenpeace of the true contents) refused to accept delivery and returned it.
An investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) earlier this year found that the EPA had ‘no plans and no timetable for developing the basic components of an enforcement strategy’ to ensure proper disposal of harmful e-waste. The EPA does nothing to prevent e-waste export or keep it out of landfills, nor does it offer any tracking of toxic components to ensure proper disposal.
As it stands, the U.S. produces three million metric tons of the estimated 50 million metric tons of electronics garbage produced worldwide annually.
Much more on this important problem HERE.
Source: Scientific American