Some Negative Environmental Aspects of IT Waste: Trade in E-Waste

1. Some Negative Environmental Aspects of IT Waste: Trade in E-Waste by Thomas Ruddy EMPA Swiss Federal Labs for Materials Testing and Research, St.Gall, Sustainable Info. Tech. Unit http://www.empa.ch/sit Disclaimer: opinions are those of the author, not nesessarily those of his employer. thomas.ruddy@empa.ch

2. Overview • Benefits of trade in used IT equipment • Risks of trade in used IT equipment, 1 of 3 • America, the free rider • Attempts at regulatory control on different levels thomas.ruddy@empa.ch

3. Personal introduction • Organizer of a workshop at the International Symposium “Informatics for Environmental Protection“ IEP ‘01, Zurich, and chronologist of the global digital divide, contributor to the LSE Global Yearbook of Civil Society, http://www.hsw.fhso.ch/ruddy/Workshop_2.htm • IEP ‘04 will take place in Geneva. • Hence the claim as to whether there are potential benefits to help bridge the digital divide is undisputed. Let us now look at some of the risks… thomas.ruddy@empa.ch

4. Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) the “Basel Convention“ • Convenor and Webmaster of “The Environment and ICT“ Content Group at WSIS,http://www.wsis.ethz.ch • One of our tenets is derived from the United Nations‘ Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) the “Basel Convention“ on Toxic Waste • Recently attended its 6th Conference of the Parties (COP) • Let me share with you 2 experiences from that COP.... thomas.ruddy@empa.ch

5. Unwanted Gifts • Uganda minister complained about e-waste • A friend of mine had been distributing used computers through his NGO “Uganda Connect”. • I put them in touch with one another to sort out: • the useful gifts from • the computers soon to become end-of-useful-life scrap. • A general suggestion proposed there: need for a certification agency to distinguish 1. (above) from 2. thomas.ruddy@empa.ch

6. Who invites whom? • WTO invited us to its side-event. • It reported on inviting the MEA Basel Convention to discuss compatibility with trade regime. • Jim Puckett of http://www.ban.org asked why shouldn’t the invitation have been vice versa?Why shouldn’t it be the MEA that invites the WTO regime to discuss compatibility? • WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism is binding for 144 member countries. thomas.ruddy@empa.ch

7. Regime incompatibilities • Trade regime – based on principles of ‘nondiscrimination’ • MEA regime - based on rights to discriminate goods by: • the Production and Process Methods (PPM) used, e.g. tuna/dolphin case, and • ‘safeguards’, e.g. for health reasons • ‘Precautionary principle’ which party bears duty to proof? case of solder containing lead in motherboards thomas.ruddy@empa.ch

8. Compatibility due to improve • ‘At the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001, Ministers agreed to start negotiations on specific issues relating to the trade and environment linkage,’ http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/envir_e/envir_e.htm thomas.ruddy@empa.ch

9. America, the free rider • Noncompliance with the “Basel Convention“ by the free rider USA • 80% of US recycled computers land in Asia according to the NGO “Basel Action Network“ in San Francisco, http://www.ban.org • However the “recycling“ there is not environmentally friendly, but rather a source of pollution for the populace. thomas.ruddy@empa.ch

10. Levels of attempts to regulate exports • Just as the Basel Convention is a multilateral attempt regulating export from the OECD countries…. • …the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive of the European Union is a regional, or plurilateral attempt; • And Switzerland has an exemplary national attempt, SWICO. It levies a recycling fee at purchase. thomas.ruddy@empa.ch