It seems that I'm becoming an eco-freak. Whatever... :) So - we just bought biodegradable laundry detergent, laundry softener and dishwasher soap. We try to buy organic food as much as we can (well, that probably wouldn't bother me that much back home, but since I found out how it is with genetically modified food in the US, it just seems much better this way). I don't use the dryer for my clothes (I never did, really, we don't have one at home, there's no eco reason for that :)). Well, there are still plenty of things that I could do and I don't do them. Perhaps it will just come gradually. And I guess that one of the reasons behind that is one of the classes that I'm taking this year. I've learned so much from the Environmental Sociology class so far! And also from other things... For example - did you know that laundry detergents often contain oil-based cleaners (or whatever it's called)? I did not. Also - my family has always recycled paper, plastic, glass... I had a hard time in South Africa where I couldn't recycle but I somehow understood that. But why is it harder to recycle here than back home?
Anyway, what I wanted to share with you today is the problem of e-waste. I don't know much about it. I just watched two documentaries yesterday about e-waste and I was shocked. In short, some developed countries just dump their e-waste, which is highly toxic and dangerous, in the developing countries, which, of course, have no facilities to deal with it. The result? Poor people work on "recycling" old computers etc. which is slowly but surely killing them and destroying their environment completely. Often, some developed countries claim it's actually help - they claim that the computers and other stuff they send to Africa or Asia is for the people to be used. Well, very often, it can't be used!
There are four international treaties that deal with that: the Basel Convention on the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes (1989) with the Basel Ban Amdendment (1995) effectively banning hazardous waste exports from OECD and Liechtenstein to all other countries; The London Convention Protocol (1996) on forbidding most forms of ocean dumping; the Rotterdam Convention (1998) requiring prior informed consent on export of certain dangerous product chemicals; and the Stockholm Convention soon to be adopted in May 2001 which will effectively move to phase-out and reduce the release of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (you can find more about them on the Basel Action Network website). On the BAN website, you can also find out which countries signed and ratified the treaties and which have not (the list). When you look at the list and watch the videos that BAN made about this problem, you'd find out that the biggest exporter of e-waste is the US, also the only developed country that hasn't ratified any of the treaties, thus exporting safely, because it's legal, and killing people (besides that, it was found out that it's often US state governments and other state agencies that do that and thus you can actually find lots of information that should be kept confidential when you go, say, to Nigeria to one of the e-waste stores and get a computer from there).
Well, all I can say about this is that it's terrible. I wouldn't like to see my kids playing at a place like that:
Or have all this carcinogenic stuff in my neighbourhood. I guess nobody would like that, including the US government members. How can they be ok with doing this? I mean - what other countries than the developed ones should be able to deal with e-waste in the right way?
Well, so if there's a time when I need to get a new cell phone, laptop, computer because the old one isn't working anymore, I'll just make sure to dispose of it in a way that doesn't harm other people's healt and other people's environment. I guess we should all do that.
Anyway, what I wanted to share with you today is the problem of e-waste. I don't know much about it. I just watched two documentaries yesterday about e-waste and I was shocked. In short, some developed countries just dump their e-waste, which is highly toxic and dangerous, in the developing countries, which, of course, have no facilities to deal with it. The result? Poor people work on "recycling" old computers etc. which is slowly but surely killing them and destroying their environment completely. Often, some developed countries claim it's actually help - they claim that the computers and other stuff they send to Africa or Asia is for the people to be used. Well, very often, it can't be used!
There are four international treaties that deal with that: the Basel Convention on the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes (1989) with the Basel Ban Amdendment (1995) effectively banning hazardous waste exports from OECD and Liechtenstein to all other countries; The London Convention Protocol (1996) on forbidding most forms of ocean dumping; the Rotterdam Convention (1998) requiring prior informed consent on export of certain dangerous product chemicals; and the Stockholm Convention soon to be adopted in May 2001 which will effectively move to phase-out and reduce the release of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (you can find more about them on the Basel Action Network website). On the BAN website, you can also find out which countries signed and ratified the treaties and which have not (the list). When you look at the list and watch the videos that BAN made about this problem, you'd find out that the biggest exporter of e-waste is the US, also the only developed country that hasn't ratified any of the treaties, thus exporting safely, because it's legal, and killing people (besides that, it was found out that it's often US state governments and other state agencies that do that and thus you can actually find lots of information that should be kept confidential when you go, say, to Nigeria to one of the e-waste stores and get a computer from there).
Well, all I can say about this is that it's terrible. I wouldn't like to see my kids playing at a place like that:
Or have all this carcinogenic stuff in my neighbourhood. I guess nobody would like that, including the US government members. How can they be ok with doing this? I mean - what other countries than the developed ones should be able to deal with e-waste in the right way?Well, so if there's a time when I need to get a new cell phone, laptop, computer because the old one isn't working anymore, I'll just make sure to dispose of it in a way that doesn't harm other people's healt and other people's environment. I guess we should all do that.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment