After all, "e-waste recycling" in Texas might very well mean giant shredders and Department of Defense-standard triple-overwrite data security. It might also mean kids hired after school to break apart old hard drives with hammers. It might mean separating the aluminum, copper and iron from the computer's insides, shipping each off to dedicated smelting facilities for reuse, and auditing those companies for environmental safety standards. Or it might mean selling old computers on Internet auctions and never hearing of them again - until an environmental watchdog group finds a computer marked with your jurisdiction's name in a Nigerian landfill.
You will likely have forgotten your old computer long before it's actually gone. A government computer's typical life cycle includes four or five years of everyday use on someone's desk, months sitting in storage before being auctioned off, and a second-hand life somewhere else before heading to a recycler - or a landfill.
Electronics are the fastest growing waste in garbage dumps worldwide, according to the Basel Action Network (BAN), an environmental watchdog group. With pounds of lead in computer monitors and TVs - and mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals decomposing into the soil and water - e-waste is a toxic problem with long-term implications.
No federal laws control the disposal of e-waste, and Texas is one of a few states without a streamlined program in the works for public agencies and departments to recycle old electronics. That is likely to change during the current legislative session, but until it does, local government offices are on their own, and environmental experts say current e-cycling programs don't take enough precautions.
With manufacturers' programs too costly for cash-strapped public agencies, and the services of domestic recycling companies even further out of reach, the reality for most state and local offices involves auctions, prison labor and shipping to overseas recyclers - far from ideal, according to Robin Schneider, executive director of Texas Campaign for the Environment.
When a city computer is found in a dump, in Texas or halfway across the world, Schneider said, it's usually because an unscrupulous recycler took shortcuts once the goods were out of sight. The dangers in the e-cycling process come from not knowing what happens to the old computer or parts you pass along down the line.
"You really need to check your downstream and expect the worst," she said. "It's not an easy thing to do." Schneider's organization regularly audits a few e-cycling companies that have pledged to abide by strict environmental and security standards.
Responsible e-cycling practices include shredding and sorting old parts into their basic elements on-site - copper wiring in one pile, aluminum in another - before passing each of the metals and plastics on to dedicated recyclers who can melt the metals down for use in new products. These responsible e-cyclers go to great lengths to ensure no part of the computer ends up in landfills - in the United States or overseas - and abide by similarly tough standards of wiping data from hard drives and maintaining a safe work environment at their facilities.
Auctioning computers is a quick way to unload old equipment, and any chance to make money on the machines beats paying someone else to recycle them. Only a fraction of the machines will sell at auction, however, and whether or not an old computer finds a new home, there are no guarantees it will be disposed of responsibly. If it is found in a landfill years later with marks identifying where it came from, it's the agency - not the most recent owner - that gets blamed.
Competitive Pressures
Several issues make it difficult for legitimate recyclers to compete in the e-cycling market.
Recyclers that ship old electronics to facilities in Nigeria, China, Pakistan or other nations where labor is cheap and environmental accountability is minimal - whether or not they advertise the fact - make it difficult for recyclers that take the proper environmental precautions to compete.
Apart from the dangers of handling cathode-ray tubes and other dangerous electronics elements, these facilities represent the worst of the e-waste problem because so much is simply discarded. A computer that can't be auctioned or salvaged in an international e-cycling facility, will likely end up in a landfill, piled high with other old computers, printers and TVs, its chemicals seeping into the local soil and water.
In 2005, one such computer was found by BAN investigators in Lagos, Nigeria, with a tag reading, "Property of City of San Antonio." A computer from Houston was found there as well. In 2003, equipment from Texas environmental agencies and the Del Valle Independent School District was found in a rural Missouri dump, according to the Texas Campaign for the Environment - all likely sold at a public auction.
Prison labor is another method used to handle e-waste cheaply. A 1999 state law required computers from state agencies and universities that have reached the end of their useful lives to be turned over for state refurbishing programs built on prison labor. The Computer Recovery program estimates it returned 14,000 refurbished computers to Texas classrooms from 1998 to 2005, but what of the majority of the equipment that's too old or beyond repair? A program brochure says it's all recycled.
The use of prison labor to break down e-waste made headlines in October 2006, with the release of a report by the Silicon Valley-based Computer TakeBack Campaign and other groups, claiming that a federally owned recycling program using prison labor exposes inmates to a toxic workplace. A Texarkana recycling facility operated by Federal Prison Industries Inc. - known as UNICOR - was one of three the report cited for hazardous work conditions and for being a polluting presence in the community.
While no such claims have been made against recycling programs overseen by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, watchdog groups are concerned by the use of prison labor at all because that work force is paid well below minimum wage and operates without unions, behind closed doors.
Ken Taggart, vice president of ECS Refining, which operates an e-waste recycling facility in Terrell, Texas, said it's important to handle the e-cycling process within the United States, but private companies' labor costs can make it hard to compete with prison labor companies.
"There's a lot of people in our industry that are very upset about competing with UNICOR," he said. "I don't think it's right, but I hand it to them because they're thinking outside the box about how to do this domestically."
Responsible Policies
To guarantee their customers complete e-waste recycling, three Texas-based companies have signed a pledge with the Computer TakeBack Campaign to handle e-waste in an environmentally responsible way; to protect a client's data from being passed along; and to return a portion of any profits made from selling the material to their clients.
Representatives from Intechra, ECS Refining and Temple-based Scientific Recycling Inc., each say their company is audited regularly by clients to ensure they're getting the complete recycling service they're paying for.
Chip Slack, CEO of Intechra, said his clients are typically major companies, with deeper pockets and quicker turnover of computers than local government agencies. He said he notices that smaller companies are now using Intechra or other high-accountability e-cyclers more than ever before.
In October 2006, the city of Plano announced it was making e-waste management a major priority, teaming
up with Intechra to monitor its e-waste stream. Plano holds regular electronics collection days to keep citizens from dumping old equipment and collects a small fee to cover recycling costs.
City councils in Georgetown, Plano and Kyle have passed nonbinding resolutions favoring programs that hold manufacturers responsible for recycling costs and limit the toxic elements contained in new electronics.
Plano also adopted the management recommendations of the Electronic Resource Recovery Council of the Recycling Alliance of Texas, a collection of manufacturers, recyclers, local governments and nonprofit organizations. This set of guidelines is designed to limit e-waste even before the computer comes up for replacement. Responsible purchasing, extending the life of the equipment, and monitoring recycling companies all factor into the city's technology plans.
Andy Niles, vice president of operations development at Scientific Recycling, said he can usually tailor an e-cycling contract to fit a department's needs, and that his company works with local government agencies in 30 states.
"You give me one government office anywhere," Niles said, "and I could show you how to make it affordable."
More e-waste would be handled responsibly if there were greater cooperation between manufacturers, consumers, government and recyclers, Niles said, adding that stakeholders in the e-cycling process all want to find a cleaner way to handle the process but disagree about how to get there.
"It would be nice if everyone could share in this, seeing as we're all part of the problem," he said. "I don't think any one person should be responsible."
Producer Takeback
Dell is willing to disagree for the most part, and offers consumers free recycling of any of its computers, and of any brand of computer if the consumer buys a new Dell. While most manufacturers have balked at supporting the producer takeback model, which puts the pressure squarely on manufacturers to recycle their old goods, Dell has embraced the model in its own programs, and by supporting state producer takeback legislation in the United States.
In Texas, Dell has partnered with the Austin Independent School District to handle the district's computer recycling.
While recycling of Dell products isn't free for companies and state agencies, Dell spokesman Bryant Hilton said the manufacturer has a flexible pricing system for its recycling services, with costs typically running about $25 per electronics piece (a laptop being one piece, while a monitor and tower are two pieces). Dell also offers data overwrites and reporting services for agencies needing proof of their recycling program. If Dell refurbishes and resells the used equipment, Hilton said, 90 percent of the recovered cost goes back to the original owner.
Hewlett-Packard has also taken an ambitious stand on e-cycling, supporting producer takeback legislation in Minnesota and Maine, and using more recycled materials in its own manufacturing processes.
In fact, the industry as a whole has been progressing toward environmental goals, even without federal legislation or other guidelines, according to Peter Muscanelli, president and founder of the International Association of Electronics Recyclers, a consortium of e-cycling companies.
"It's subtle, but it's there," he said. Manufacturers are replacing toxic elements in their computer designs and working to streamline the design of printer cords and other accessories, increasing those items' chances of staying out of the landfill.
Muscanelli said it's important to create a streamlined system for recycling old equipment, but that a shared responsibility model for e-cycling is the most viable solution.
Simply saddling producers with the entire recycling cost doesn't save customers any money, he added, because manufacturers pass that cost on to them.
With the current session of the Texas Legislature expected to address the e-waste problem, responsible e-cycling practices seem bound for more extended scrutiny. Schneider said that with Dell's backing, her organization expects
to present the Legislature with an e-waste bill that would put an end to electronics auctions and make e-cycling affordable for every Texas agency and department.
Her advice to agencies sitting on a stockpile of old computers, waiting to scrape up the money to dispose of them responsibly: "Hold on to them - at least until the end of the legislative session."
Muscanelli is less hopeful that such a quick fix is in store in Texas, and said e-cycling policy must evolve as manufacturers' technology improves and consumers buy into a more expensive recycling program.
"You can legislate anything," he said, "but all you're doing is driving up the cost."
SIDEBAR
Going Once, Going Twice, Gone?Keeping a five-year life cycle for computers means 20 percent of the Ector County Independent School District's are brand-new each year. It also puts 20 percent of its computers in line for recycling, so every summer, Linroy Kilgore, the district's director of instructional technology, and his staff round up the machines due for replacement and bring them back to the district office in Odessa.
Before putting the computers up for public auction, Kilgore hires students or pays staff overtime to remove the hard drive from each computer and destroy it with a hammer - literally - to ensure data security.
"They're beating the hard drives open, breaking them open with hammers and destroying the disk," Kilgore said. Destroyed hard drives are then turned over to the city for recycling.
There are more humane ways of dispatching old office hard drives, but Kilgore's concern is well founded, according to Chip Slack, CEO of Intechra, an e-cycling firm based in Carrollton.
"Technology contains data that people, frankly, forget about," he said. "Companies have traditionally spent significant budget developing firewalls, but then they'll give away a PC."
