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Latest News
Report from Imaging Spectrum's August 2002 issue blows lid off OEM's recycling programs' cauldron of disceptive practices.
The Chinese city of Guiyu has become one of the world's dumping grounds for OEM cartridges intended for "recycling". Heaps of empty cartridges line the streets and riversides after being scavenged for their toner. Here, drinking water must be brought in by truck or bicycle because the burning of styrene - and other cartridge and computer components - has raised the river's toxin levels to 200 times acceptable drinking levels. School children display overwhelming propensities to asthma and other conditions related to the town's industry of choice: electronic waste stripping.
Toner cartridge scavenging amounts to a large percentage of Guiyu's e-waste economy... and devastation. As reported in the International Imaging Technology Council's Imaging Spectrum magazine, Guiyu is a living testament to the real motivation behind the OEM's recycling and return programs, which is to keep the empties out of the hands of toner manufacturers, like Arista, that reuse these empties in their manufacturing process of compatible toner cartridges.
"When we released the report we could not find one recycler who did not export all or part of the e-waste collected to Asia," said Jim Puckett, coordinator of BAN (Basil Action Network). "And what we found in Asia was a cyberage nightmare."
For a reprint of this report, please call 800-888-1718.
BAN is working to get the United States to ratify the Basel Convention and its amendments, which will make the exporting of toxic e-waste illegal. The organization's videotape on Guiyu is quite moving and is available for a small donation at www.ban.org, as is a free copy of Exporting Harm.
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