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Seattle nonprofit that placed hundreds of GPS trackers on dummy devices and sent them through U.S. recycling networks, 40% of 152 deliveries were exported offshore. The majority wound up in junkyards in Hong Kong’s New Territories.“In the U.S. it’s completely legal to load up containers full of electronic waste and ship them to Asia or Africa,” says Jim Puckett, director of the watchdog group. But this freighting violates the Basel Convention, an international agreement designed to prohibit developed nations from dumping hazardous waste overseas.Illustration by Nicholas Little Some businesses aim to counter this kind of cross-border trashing. Fresno, Calif.–based ERI, one of the world’s biggest e-waste recyclers, gathers and digests tens of thousands of pounds of refuse daily in three gargantuan shredders at its plants in California, Massachusetts, and Indiana. The company crunches, crushes, and crumbles what CEO John Shegerian calls “electronic carcasses.” ERI’s machinery converts that debris into “liberated commodities,” raw materials such as steel, plastic, aluminum, lead, and copper. The company then sells its output to smelters to be melted down and reused.Unfortunately for e-recyclers like ERI, the global market for commodities has taken a steep downturn in recent years. That part of ERI’s business has halved as a share of the firm’s gross income since 2012, Shegerian says. (The company will generate more than $100 million in revenue this year.)To maintain profitability, ERI has repositioned itself as a secure method of electronic disposal, capitalizing on growing concern over security. Customers are ready to pay up, Shegerian says, to properly dispose of devices that might contain traces of either customer or employee data or trade secrets.Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology n... (Fortune)
New York City, which produces roughly 24,000 tons of garbage daily, spends more on collecting and exporting a ton of recycling than it does for the same amount of regular trash, according to a new report released Thursday.The findings from the New York City Independent Budget Office, a fiscal watchdog organization funded by the city, come as the city hits the halfway point in a two-decade strategy for how the Department of...
California and other states. California accounts for more than 90 percent of illegal U.S. marijuana farming, with much of it exported to other states from thousands of sites hidden deep inside forested federal land, and more on private property, law enforcement officials said. The state is still developing a licensing system for growers even though legal retail sales of the drug will begin next year, and medical use has been allowed for decades. Ecologist Mourad Gabriel, who documents the issue for the Forest Service as well as other state, local and federal law enforcement agencies, estimates California's forests hold 41 times more solid fertilizers and 80 times more liquid pesticides than Forest Service investigators found in 2013. Growers use fertilizers and pesticides long restricted or banned in the United States, including carbofuran and zinc phosphide. In previous years, it was commonly sold fertilizers and pesticides that were used illegally, law enforcement officials said.Thousands of used butane cans used to process concentrated marijuana dumped in the forest in Humboldt County, California . California Department of Fish and Wildlife/Handout via REUTERS Exposure to the pesticides has sent at least five law enforcement officials and two suspects to hospitals with skin rashes, respiratory problems and other symptoms, court documents and state data show. Use of any chemicals in national forests is against federal law, as pesticides have killed sensitive species and fertilizers can cause algae blooms and bacteria problems in rivers and streams. According to unpublished data seen by Re...
Georgia's exports of waste and scrap have already been steadily declining but could be further reduced.China may not have the greenest of environmental records, but it has kept millions of tons of waste out of landfills by importing the world’s trash and putting it to good use.But starting next year, nations will have to find a new place to send their scrap paper, plastic, steel slag and other solid waste, according to a Reuters report.In a World Trade Organization filing, China said the costs of being the world’s scrapyard were starting to outweigh the benefits, as useful raw materials coming into the country were sullied by pollutants, Reuters reported.The ban, set to go into effect by the of the year, might be a good thing for Chinese ecology, but the decision could hit Georgia’s overall exports to China.“Waste and scrap,” a category that mainly consists of waste paper products sent to China for reuse, was Georgia’s No. 5 export to China in 2016 at $145 million, just behind agricultural produ... (GlobalAtlanta)
Kensington and Fairhill (“At last, a deal,” Friday). There was no mention of the Air Bridge, the Puerto Rican network that has exported thousands of drug addicts to Philadelphia (and other cities), which fueled this massive humanitarian tragedy.What is being done to stop this assault on our city that exacerbated the problem that we have to pay to clean up? I am not optimistic.— Ken Richman, PhiladelphiaMillions misuse opioidsThe details in in the story, “A denial of misuse” (June 12) were mind-boggling. I was reminded of a famous quote by Albert Einstein: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it yourself.”As an engineer, I cherish details, but we really need to boil down the opioid crisis:U.S. population: 325 millionAmericans (age 12 and older) misusing opioid pain relievers: 12.5 millionOne in 26 Americans are misusing opioid pain drugs.That is easy to understand.— Dan Feeney, West ChesterPainkillers have a purposeOur news is filled with discussions of the serious opioid problem that has expanded in Philadelphia and the suburbs.While the newspapers create headlines and the politicians create votes, we must be cautious that an unintended consequence does not result.Throughout my medical career, one of my importan... (what about Air Bridge? - Philly.com)
