Green Retail – Business Alignment for a Cleaner Future

Part 2 - E-Waste

As consumers, in our mad rush to obtain the latest gadget, cellphone, tablet, e-reader, gaming system, television… (and on and on and on) we often lose sight of many of the true costs associated with our consumption.  In no area is this more clear than e-waste.

For those of us who try to take an environmentally conscious view of our technical and business operation, it may seem incredible that many still aren’t aware of e-waste, or even understand the term. So, to generally define what this means:

e-waste : The term is a short form for electronic waste. Any discarded electronic or electrical devices or their parts. It is generally used for all types of wastes that contain electrically powered components. Examples include computers, cell phones, televisions, and refrigerators.

However, when seeking a true definition of what e-waste really is, it’s easy to slide down a confusing rabbit hole of contradictory definitions, differences in scope, conjecture and opinion.  For instance, the EPA has no fewer than five separate definitions combined with seven separate determinations… and that’s just one government agency!  For the sake of this article, and in order to focus on our scope, we’ll restrict our definition of e-waste to the following;

• Company cell phones and devices
• Work computers (and peripherals)
• Registers
• Printers
• Video displays
• General electronic waste(calculators, adding machines, power staplers, etc) 

The EPA estimates that in the Retail sector alone, more than 5 million cell phones, 1 million computers, hundreds of thousands of peripheral devices (such as video displays, general electronic waste, etc.) and tens of thousands of tons of general electronic waste are discarded improperly or ineffectually each year. 

What’s the big deal?

Well, this really is quite a big deal. According to dosomething.org, the nation’s largest nonprofit for young people seeking social change, the facts surrounding this waste are staggering;

1. 80 to 85 percent of electronic products were discarded in landfills or incinerators, which releases toxins into the air.
2. E-waste represents 2 percent of America's trash in landfills, but it equals 70 percent of overall toxic waste. The extreme amount of lead in electronics alone causes damage in the central and peripheral nervous systems, the blood and the kidneys.
3. 20 to 50 million metric tons of e-waste are disposed worldwide every year.
4. Cell phones and other electronic items contain high amounts of precious metals like gold or silver. Americans dump phones containing over $60 million in gold/silver every year.
5. Only 12.5 percent of e-waste is currently recycled.
6. For every 1 million cellphones that are recycled, 35,274 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.
7. Recycling 1 million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by 3,657 U.S. homes in a year.
8. E-waste is still the fastest growing municipal waste stream in America, according to the EPA.
9. A large number of what is labeled as "e-waste" is actually not waste at all, but rather whole electronic equipment or parts that are readily marketable for reuse or can be recycled for materials recovery.
10. It takes 539 pounds of fossil fuel, 48 pounds of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water to manufacture one computer and monitor 

And beyond these facts and statistics, where all of this waste leads is horrifying.

Guiyu child, sitting amongst a mountain of electronic refuse

Beyond the impact to our environment, poisoning of water tables, and all the myriad of other detriments that this represents, there is a true human cost, measured in suffering and death, surrounding this waste.

In Guiyu, in the Guangdong Provice of China, there are 4 villages, comprising over 60,000 workers, and their families… as well as the single largest e-waste dumping ground on earth.  The work performed here is primarily not automated; workers and their families receive very little training or protection from the hazardous materials to which they are exposed.

According to NPR, reporting on this story;

• Many of the primitive recycling operations in Guiyu are toxic and dangerous to workers' health, with 88% of children suffering from lead poisoning.
• Higher-than-average rates of miscarriage are also reported in the region.
• Workers use their bare hands to crack open electronics to strip away any parts that can be reused- including chips, or valuable metals such as gold, silver, etc.
• Workers also "cook" circuit boards to remove chips and solders, burn wires and other plastics to liberate metals such as copper; use highly corrosive and dangerous acid baths along the riverbanks to extract gold from the microchips; and sweep printer toner out of cartridges. Much of this waste ends up in the nearby river.
• Children are exposed to the dioxin-laden ash as the smoke billows around Guiyu, and finally settles on the area.
• The soil has been saturated with lead, chromium, tin, and other heavy metals.
• Discarded electronics lie in pools of toxins that leach into the groundwater. making it so polluted that the water is undrinkable. To remedy this, water must be trucked in from elsewhere.
• Lead levels in the river sediment are double European safety levels, according to the Basel Action Network.[4] Lead in the blood of Guiyu's children is 54% higher on average than that of children in the nearby town of Chendian.
• Piles of ash and plastic waste sit on the ground beside rice paddies and dikes holding in the Lianjiang river.

While this is the single largest site for e-waste in the world, there are of course many others. New Delhi in India is another popular destination for e-waste.  With similar poor worker safety and environmental conditions, Discovery reports that many workers in this area begin as children, and by the time they reach the age of 35-40, they are no longer capable of working due to disabling health conditions.

So what can we do about it? 

Obviously, this is a somewhat complicated question, and one that doesn’t have a single answer, but here are a few fairly straightforward guidelines that will generate a positive environmental impact for your company.  According to ComputerWorld, there are many things that the CEO and CIO can do to have a meaningful impact in this area;

E-waste policies. CIOs are often responsible for IT purchases and life-cycle management. With effective policies at all stages of an asset's life cycle, they can minimize and manage e-waste.

Purchases. When making IT purchases, up-front consideration of how disposal of those products will be managed can help reduce e-waste and cut handling costs. Not all assets are created equally. Some have reusable or recyclable components, some contain more hazardous materials than others, and some are covered by return programs under which the manufacturer assumes responsibility for appropriate disposal.

Reduce. One way to reduce e-waste is to reduce consumption. By adopting purchase policies with longevity in mind, CIOs can extend asset life cycles by simply using equipment longer.

Reuse. Purchases that allow mixing and matching of components -- for example, power cables, hard disks and peripherals -- can maximize equipment reuse, extend life cycles and reduce e-waste. The more unique a piece is, the less likely it is to be upgraded or widely compatible and reusable with other equipment.

Recycle. Despite efforts to reduce consumption and reuse equipment, most electronics will still require disposal at some point. A comprehensive e-waste policy should address recycling of products whose manufacturers don't have take-back programs. CIOs can contract with companies that collect surplus equipment, follow secure data-wiping processes, refurbish equipment (if possible), disassemble electronics to recover precious metals and recyclable materials, and appropriately handle hazardous waste and minimize landfill.

Community outreach. Stepping away from the supply chain, there are opportunities to reduce e-waste with the side benefit of improving your company's image. CEOs can use their influence to reach out to employees and members of their communities and educate them about the need for waste reduction.

Employees can play a big role by thinking about ways to reduce e-waste at all stages of the asset life cycle, including initial requests for equipment and all phases of use and maintenance.

By stepping out front, CIOs can minimize future headaches as well as potential fines and bruises to the company's reputation, all while helping to clean up the planet and potentially make a contribution to the bottom line.

The bottom line 

The bottom line is that this is a big problem, an everyone/everywhere problem, and one that is not going to simply go-away if we ignore it.  We owe it to ourselves and to our future generations to take action on this issue right away.  The actions are easy, they’re beneficial to the company, cost very little money, increase your company’s profile, and can even result in cost savings over time…

So why not take the plunge?  Take action today, and you, and your company, can be reaping these benefits for all of your tomorrows.

Please note that this is by no means a comprehensive review of the environmental impact of e-waste, which has implications ranging far beyond the content covered here. My goal is simply to increase awareness and provide some easily implemented guidelines that generate a large positive result.

(Green Retail – Business Alignment for a Cleaner Future is a monthly article focusing on areas in which small changes can yield large rewards for both the company as well as the planet.)