page_title: Electronic waste
section_title: Global trade issues
hierarchical_section_title: Electronic waste / Global trade issues
caption_attribution_description: English: A side by side comparison of several batteries, with ruler and matchstick for scaling purposes. In order the batteries are: Sawyer Battery 4.5 V (3LR12) battery D (LR20) cell C (R14) cell AA (LR6) cell AAA (LR03) cell AAAA (LR8D425) cell A23 (8LR932) battery 9-Volt (6LR61) battery CR2032 battery LR44 battery Matchstick, silver cm ruler and a blue inch ruler used for scale. The grid in the background is 7mm square. Nederlands: Een vergelijking van verschillende batterijen naast elkaar, met een lucifer en een liniaal om de schaal aan te geven. Het rooster op de achtergrond heeft vierkanten van 7mm. De volgorde van de soort batterij is in de engelse vertaling te vinden bij de beschrijving en als aantekening op de afbeelding. Français&#160;: Une comparaison côte à côte de plusieurs piles, avec règles et quadrillage pour des motifs d'échelle Dans l'ordre les batteries sont: 3LR12 – ou pile 4,5&#160;V- LR20 R14 LR6 – ou parfois AA LR03 – ou parfois AAA LR8D425 – ou parfois AAAA 8LR932 – A23, 12&#160;V 6LR61 – ou pile 9&#160;V CR2032 LR44 Le quadrillage est espacé de sept millimètres, la première règle en centimètres, et la deuxième en pouces. Magyar: A különböző elemek méret szerinti összehasonlítása. A különféle típusú elemek balról jobbra haladva: 3LR12 – 4,5&#160;V-os elem, azaz zsebtelep LR20 – D, azaz góliátelem R14 – C, azaz bébitelep LR6 – AA, azaz ceruzaelem LR03 – AAA, azaz mikroelem LR8D425 – AAAA elem 8LR932 – A23, azaz 12&#160;V-os ceruzaelem 6LR61 – 9&#160;V-os elem CR2032 lítium gombelem LR44 gombelem A méretek szemléltetésést segíti a gyufaszál, a centiméter osztású vonalzó, a hűvelyk osztású vonalzó, valamint a 7&#160;mm osztású négyzetrács.
context_page_description: Electronic waste or e-waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. Used electronics which are destined for refurbishment, reuse, resale, salvage recycling through material recovery, or disposal are also considered e-waste. Informal processing of e-waste in developing countries can lead to adverse human health effects and environmental pollution.
  Electronic scrap components, such as CPUs, contain potentially harmful materials such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, or brominated flame retardants. Recycling and disposal of e-waste may involve significant risk to health of workers and their communities.
context_section_description: One theory is that increased regulation of electronic wastes and concern over the environmental harm in nature economies creates an economic disincentive to remove residues prior to export.  Critics of trade in used electronics maintain that it is still too easy for brokers calling themselves recyclers to export unscreened electronic waste to developing countries, such as China, India and parts of Africa, thus avoiding the expense of removing items like bad cathode ray tubes (the processing of which is expensive and difficult). The developing countries have become toxic dump yards of e-waste. Developing countries receiving foreign e-waste often go further to repair and recycle forsaken equipment. Yet still 90% of e-waste ended up in landfills in developing countries in 2003.  Proponents of international trade point to the success of fair trade programs in other industries, where cooperation has led to creation of sustainable jobs and can bring affordable technology in countries where repair and reuse rates are higher.
  Defenders of the trade in used electronics say that extraction of metals from virgin mining has been shifted to developing countries.  Recycling of copper, silver, gold, and other materials from discarded electronic devices is considered better for the environment than mining. They also state that repair and reuse of computers and televisions has become a "lost art" in wealthier nations and that refurbishing has traditionally been a path to development.
  South Korea, Taiwan, and southern China all excelled in finding "retained value" in used goods, and in some cases have set up billion-dollar industries in refurbishing used ink cartridges, single-use cameras, and working CRTs. Refurbishing has traditionally been a threat to established manufacturing, and simple protectionism explains some criticism of the trade. Works like "The Waste Makers" by Vance Packard explain some of the criticism of exports of working product, for example, the ban on import of tested working Pentium 4 laptops to China, or the bans on export of used surplus working electronics by Japan.
  Opponents of surplus electronics exports argue that lower environmental and labour standards, cheap labour, and the relatively high value of recovered raw materials lead to a transfer of pollution-generating activities, such as smelting of copper wire. Electronic waste is often sent to various African and Asian countries such as China, Malaysia, India, and Kenya for processing, sometimes illegally. Many surplus laptops are routed to developing nations as "dumping grounds for e-waste".
  Because the United States has not ratified the Basel Convention or its Ban Amendment, and has few domestic federal laws forbidding the export of toxic waste, the Basel Action Network estimates that about 80% of the electronic waste directed to recycling in the U.S. does not get recycled there at all, but is put on container ships and sent to countries such as China. This figure is disputed as an exaggeration by the EPA, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, and the World Reuse, Repair and Recycling Association.
  Independent research by Arizona State University showed that 87–88% of imported used computers did not have a higher value than the best value of the constituent materials they contained, and that "the official trade in end-of-life computers is thus driven by reuse as opposed to recycling".
caption: 4.5-volt, D, C, AA, AAA, AAAA, A23, 9-volt, CR2032, and LR44 cells are all recyclable in most countries.
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