Videos
According to the U.N., about 50 million tons of electronic waste (or e-waste) are produced every year, the vast majority of which winds up strewn in landfills in the global South, where people sift through the electronic debris in search of valuable metals. Correspondent Seth Doane looks at the tragic costs that occur when consumer products reach their end-of-life, and examines efforts to ramp up formal recycling and extending the life of products like smartphones. For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com
Electronic waste is a hazardous and difficult form of garbage to manage. Though a lot of e-waste can be recycled responsibly, many e-waste processors choose instead to ship it overseas for junkyards in poorer nations to deal with. Remarkably, exporting e-waste is perfectly legal in the US...but thanks to a scrappy nonprofit watchdog, some unscrupulous exporters are still going to jail.
Read more: http://bit.ly/34RcrEx
An investigation tracks e-waste from the United States — and from the Pacific Northwest — to unregulated scrapyards in Hong Kong.
Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/america-e-waste-gps-tracker-tells-all-earthfix.
For more information, please consult our website: http://www.e-stewards.org. To find your nearest e-Stewards recycler visit: http://e-stewards.org/find-a-recycler/.
Basel Action Network (BAN) today released the findings of a two-year study in 10 EU countries that followed 314 old computers, printers, and monitors in which GPS Trackers had been secretly installed. They found that 19 (6%) of the tracked scrap equipment was exported, including 11 very likely illegal shipments to the countries of Ghana, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania, Thailand, and Ukraine, outside of the EU.
Only On The Web: Jim Puckett and Scott Pelley walk through Guiyu, China. The town has developed into a dumping ground for toxic e-waste.
Basel Action Network’s documentary that exposes the ugly underbelly of an escalating trade in toxic, discarded electronics. Join BAN’s investigative team as they tour the second-hand electronics market and dumps in Lagos, Nigeria. Watch as we unveil environmental and data security threats that leave us all vulnerable.
Basel Action Network’s powerful documentary about dumping electronics overseas. See firsthand what a flood of e-waste has done to Guiyu, a small village in China. This documentary continues to open people’s eyes to the horror of the high-tech revolution.
Related Videos
As new iterations of technology rapidly replace their predecessors, electronic waste (or, e-waste) is beginning to pile up around the world at never-before-seen rates, and it’s creating an environmental nightmare.
It’s estimated that by the year 2030, the amount of e-waste discarded globally will escalate to 74.7 million tons. But an increased emphasis on recycling electronics alone isn’t going to solve the problem.
Webinars
Are you prepared to stay ahead of the curve in the evolving world of electronic processing? Join us for an engaging and informative webinar, hosted by The Basel Action Network (BAN) and Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI), where we will dive into the latest amendments to the Basel Convention, their implications for e-Stewards & R2 Certified processors and their impact on the electronic processing industry as a whole.
More than three years have passed since the Plastic Waste Amendments to the Basel Convention entered into force on 1 January 2021. After China banned the import of several types of wastes in 2018, developing countries became overwhelmed with plastic wastes from high-income countries, diverted from their usual route to China.
End-of-life vessels are hazardous waste, yet the vast majority of large ocean going ships containing residue oils, toxic laden paints, asbestos and many more harmful substances, are still being scrapped under dangerous conditions on three tidal mudflats in South Asia, without capacity to manage the many waste streams in a safe and environmentally sound manner.
Plastic Waste Trade: A New Colonialist Means of Pollution Transfer is a newly released seminal work that takes a holistic view of the international trade of plastic waste. The authors, from both academia and civil society, argue that the transfer of plastic waste from mainly Global North to primarily Global South countries constitutes a form of 21st Century colonialism.
Fresh from the Basel COP15 meeting in Geneva, Jim Puckett, Executive Director of Basel Action Network, will explain the implications of the recently adopted Swiss-Ghana Decision and other developments impacting the trade in electronic waste in an informational webinar. All recyclers, media, and stakeholders are welcome to attend.
"The Plastics Paradox: Societal Boon or Environmental Bane?" Presentation for Panel on Plastics and the Law, Wallace Stegner Symposium, University of Utah. Wallace Stagner Center's 26th Annual Symposium March 23 - 26, 2021
This webinar is the first in a series that in total will provide an introduction to the Waste Trade, why it takes place, its role in harming the circular economy, and the global legal architecture we can harness to stop it. Finally, it will introduce techniques to tracking waste trade.
As you know, the new Basel requirements on plastics, which also apply to e-Stewards, are coming into force on January 1, 2021. This webinar will give you useful information on how these requirements will have to be implemented by you. We will be joined by experts in plastics sorting and recycling to give you the latest information on plastics.
Fifty million metric tonnes of e-waste is generated every year, equalling the weight of nearly 4,500 Eiffel towers. Much of it is incinerated or placed in landfill, causing pollution, human health hazards and the loss of valuable finite resources.
This slide-free webinar does a deep-dive into the problems associated with e-waste and discuss how they can be tackled. Listen to experts in the field and ask questions through the live chat function.
BAN's Jim Puckett describes the New Basel Plastics Amendments Due to Enter into Force January 1, 2021.
Webinar before the e-Waste World Confernence, November 18th, 2020. "The Circular Economy: If we really mean it"
The Entry into Force of the Basel Ban Amendment: History and Implications by Jim Puckett, Founder / Director Basel Action Network.
Podcasts
Recycling: Turning Trash into Treasure
Recycling used to just be called "scrap metal salvage" and it was thought of as an unsavory practice. That all changed as recently as the 1970s, when it became the curb side amenity it is today and part of a multi-billion-dollar industry. Now, the question isn't can we recycle, but can we recycle everything? Innovators in the field are trying to find out.
Safeguarding the Planet and People from Toxic Waste with Jim Puckett
Jim is the Founder and Executive Director of Basel Action Network, where he provides strategic oversight, implements and expands programs supporting global environmental justice.
See full transcript here.
In the very first episode of the Tech Bench Podcast we interview the Founder and Executive Director of the Basel Action Network, Jim Puckett. Jim Puckett is also helped establish the electronics waste recycling standard, e-Stewards.
Many people will receive a new computer or cell phone this holiday season -- and throw out their old equipment. And when old TVs and computers end up in landfills, the toxic metals and flame retardants they contain can cause environmental problems.
Yet even recycling your e-waste, as it's called, does not always mean you're doing the right thing.