The School District of Philadephia to investigate its computer recycling program
The school district of Philadelphia is launching a probe into how one of their monitors was found in a landfile in Ghana. After the monitor was spotted in a PBS Frontline documentary and repeated inquiries were made by Technically Philly, the school district announced it would launch an investigation.
“The School District of Philadelphia does not encourage or condone the illegal dumping of any school district property anywhere in the world,” read the statement issued by the district. “As a result… [we are] currently investigating the source and disposal record of the equipment found in Ghana.”
The computer was one of many visible in the Frontline report and illustrates the ongoing problem of e-waste dumping into developing countries. Millions of tons of e-waste are dumped into the West African country, China, and others.
The school district has maintained a “green” policy regarding the disposal of electronic equipment since 2006, and is unsure if this is an isolated incident or just one example from the hundreds of pounds disposed by the district each year. The district had partnered with a recycling company that provided pickup and recycling services at no charge to the district.
This report illustrates the trouble many companies have in identifying responsible computer recyclers for their end-of-life hardware. You owe it to yourself to personally view a companies recycling processes, and ask about their export policies. While your at it, ask if they are a Basel Action Network e-steward. The BAN e-steward pledge is for a zero-landfill, zero-export approach to recycling.
Related posts:
- The Downside of Upgrading – Or why should I pay for computer recycling? "Why should I pay for computer recycling?" our clients frequently...
- Computer Recycling Put Inmates, Staff at Risk Federal prisoners and prison staff members were exposed to toxic...
- Computer Recycling: Old Notebook Gets New Life as Digital Frame Why settle for a digital photo frame that only shows...
August 4th, 2009 at 10:10 am
I think there is an important point here: if you institute a green policy research who you hire to support that policy! I wonder if you thought about sending this to other school districts?
Ann Evanston
The Warrior is Within You
August 4th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Thanks for the comment Ann – we definitely use this story when talking to schools and not-for-profits. Many of them use “free” recycling services that end up shipping the equipment overseas. They don’t understand why they should pay for recycling.
According to studies done by the Basel Action Network only 20% of equipment destined for recycling actually gets recycled.
Definitely watch that PBS Frontline special, its scary.