Comments on: America’s Electronic Waste Is Polluting the Globe http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/10/30/americas-electronic-waste-is-polluting-the-globe/ 80beats is DISCOVER\'s news aggregator, weaving together the choicest tidbits from the best articles covering the day\'s most compelling topics. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:20:15 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Robin@fairtraderecycling.org http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/10/30/americas-electronic-waste-is-polluting-the-globe/comment-page-1/#comment-63833 Robin@fairtraderecycling.org Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:11:53 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=5044#comment-63833 This brief post tells one half of the story well. It neglects to acknowledge more scholarly and nuanced research, such as the NIH "Unfair Trade e-Waste in Africa". The exports of "toxics along for the ride" are by definition financed by valuable repair and refurbishing (the monitors shown in Hong Kong segment of CBS 60 Minutes are nowhere to be seen in the footage taken in Guiyu, they go to rather sophisticated refurbishing factories in Guangdong). The solution to toxics residue, like the solution to inequities in payscale for coffee farmers, is more and better trade, not a boycott. For film and slides of "reformed e-waste exports", visit WR3A.org or fairtraderecycling.org. More scholarly work on the subject is cited below. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1440802/ http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/ISEE.2008.4562927 http://retroworks.blogspot.com/2009/10/fair-trade-e-waste-recycling-usa-jobs.html This brief post tells one half of the story well. It neglects to acknowledge more scholarly and nuanced research, such as the NIH “Unfair Trade e-Waste in Africa”. The exports of “toxics along for the ride” are by definition financed by valuable repair and refurbishing (the monitors shown in Hong Kong segment of CBS 60 Minutes are nowhere to be seen in the footage taken in Guiyu, they go to rather sophisticated refurbishing factories in Guangdong). The solution to toxics residue, like the solution to inequities in payscale for coffee farmers, is more and better trade, not a boycott. For film and slides of “reformed e-waste exports”, visit WR3A.org or fairtraderecycling.org. More scholarly work on the subject is cited below.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1440802/
http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/ISEE.2008.4562927
http://retroworks.blogspot.com/2009/10/fair-trade-e-waste-recycling-usa-jobs.html

]]> By: Kirsten@Nexyoo http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/10/30/americas-electronic-waste-is-polluting-the-globe/comment-page-1/#comment-63533 Kirsten@Nexyoo Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:18:46 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=5044#comment-63533 60 minutes did a story on e-waste: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4586903n. We really need to take responsibility for this problem. 60 minutes did a story on e-waste: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4586903n. We really need to take responsibility for this problem.

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