As a manager at a large enterprise that has offices in non-OECD countries, what should I know about what’s going on there?
Many non-OECD countries are changing their attitude towards the “informal” electronics recycling sectors they have. Certification organizations like SERI (formerly R2 Solutions) are promoting recycling infrastructure in countries such as India and China. The governments of these countries are beginning to crack down and enforce regulations on the processing of toxic e-waste, much of which occurs in the informal sector where the workers are underpaid and exposed to chronic health hazards. The governments are also funneling more money towards the development and expansion of high-tech, safe, and clean recycling facilities.
Do I have legal risks? Or are the risks now more PR or internal company policy related?
If anything, there is an even larger legal risk. China and Hong Kong are now more stringent with the cargo containers they receive and are more willing to enforce international trade regulations and crack down on the criminal organizations that have allowed so many extra-legal imports to be received successfully. They are also seeing a vast growth in domestically produced e-waste which competes alongside rising imports from the EU and North America. However, the expansion of their formal recycling sectors, particularly for e-waste, make it easier to gain accountability if electronics are legally sent to such businesses for processing, as opposed to covertly making their way to illegal informal processing operations.
How can I make good decisions about the vendors I use in those countries to minimize my own risks and also make a more positive contribution to the economy and communities there?
Increasing numbers of e-waste recycling firms in non-OECD countries are earning electronics recycling certifications such as e-Stewards or R2, which creates requirements for how they operate business and the impacts they make on the environment and health and safety of their communities. In China, the government has recently funded a number of industrial parks dedicated to recycling – in contrast to its “wild west” illegal e-waste processing towns which have no regulations for their workers and who already receive very little income. These towns are often run completely by organized criminal groups. The new e-waste processing facilities are destined to employ hundreds or thousands of employees with a reasonable income and significant controls on environmental, health, and safety impacts.
Supporting these facilities legitimizes healthy operations and provides more resources for the businesses to expand and the governments to further control the illegal informal recycling operations. However, the volatile and loosely-regulated environment for material transfer and processing requires a huge burden of tracking and documentation. A company should be extremely wary about sending any material to any country that has an informal recycling sector, even if there are legitimate business operations that can handle the material – unless it is known down to the pound that all the material is going through the proper recycling channels. Even then, the operation and all intermediaries and material handlers should be audited intensively to ensure all work is done to a standard that promotes healthy communities and environments.
If you are concerned about the environmental and social impact of your company’s old electronics, check out this free whitepaper on environmental compliance and asset disposition – it covers some of the top industry certifications and tips on how to select an IT Asset Disposition partner (either internationally or locally) that you can be confident will treat your data security as seriously as if it were their own, while minimizing the environmental and human impact involved in the recycling process.
