A YEAR-LONG UN-funded study by Basel Action Network (BAN) that used GPS trackers hidden inside of 35 old computers,
printers and monitors has revealed that two of the devices left at the
consumer take-back desk at Officeworks were exported to Asia in likely
contravention of international law.
The BAN study entitled "Illegal Export
of e-Waste from Australia: a story as told by GPS trackers" described
how BAN, mimicking the actions of Australian consumers, delivered the
used computing equipment to official government-sanctioned consumer
drop-off locations in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Sydney and then
monitored the signals sent by the devices over the course of a year.
Most of the equipment ended up in the hands of recyclers or was dumped
into landfills and stopped signaling. But two LCD monitors containing
toxic mercury back-lights that were handed over to a pair of Officeworks
stores in Brisbane presumably for domestic recycling were exported
first to Hong Kong with one moving onward to Thailand.
According to BAN, the export of toxic waste of any kind should be
strictly controlled under the terms of the Basel Convention to which
Australia is a party. China, including Hong Kong, is also a Basel Party
and has strictly forbidden the import of any waste device containing
mercury.
"These exports should never have happened," said BAN director Jim
Puckett. "It stands to reason that this discovery represents far more
volume than simply two devices.."
BAN followed the GPS signals to Hong Kong and on to Thailand. The site
in Hong Kong had been cleaned out and was likely just a temporary
staging area. But in Thailand they found a large "dioxin factory" where
e-waste was first broken apart and then the removed circuit boards were
processed en masse with crude chemical and smelting techniques in an
effort to extract the gold and copper.
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