E-Waste: Regulating the Dark Side of the Digital Age
- by: Concerned Canadian University Students
- recipient: Waste Reduction & Management Division Environment Canada
They say a Democracy like Canada is for the people, by the people and there to serve its people. Hence, we have an integral part to play in our government's decisions. Most Canadians believe that when they take their old computer to a computer recycling facility that they are helping the environment.
In reality many Canadians are putting their privacy and the health of others and the environment at risk. There are now companies through the E-Stewardship program that have promised to properly recycle computers in Canada. However, the number of recycling companies that still collect these computers and ship them to Asia or Africa far out numbers them.
Companies do this because a computer only costs $2 to recycle in India while it would only cost $20 to recycle that same computer in a proper recycling facility within North America. Furthermore, it is very cheap to ship products to China because they are a large shipping partner of North America. However, due to this mindset, we have degraded communities like Guiyu, China into toxic dumps. As Canadians, we should take responsibility for our own trash.
As such, we are urging the government to crack down on companies that still ship E-Waste to other countries. Canada is bound to conform to the terms of the agreement because it signed the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal agreement.
This way all Canadians can be proud of a government that keeps its word when it makes a commitment to the whole world, on behalf of its people.
We the undersigned are greatly concerned about the apparent indifference that exists in the current laws when it comes to regulating the exporting of electronic waste from Canada.
While we commend the Canadian government on its efforts to ban the export of its e-waste by signing the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal agreement, it is has been lacking in its enforcement of this agreement.
As such, we are calling upon the government agency responsible for overseeing the export of waste to create stricter measures when it comes to enforcing the law. The reason for this is that according to a CBC news report entitled %u201CE-waste Dumping Ground%u201D, although the laws do exist, many containers containing E-Waste headed for Asia, depart from the ports of British Columbia every day.
While Canada might get rid of its waste at minimal cost, it fails to recognize the potential and eventual health costs that improper recycling can have not only upon the people who are recycling the computers, but also on the whole world. For example, people in Guiyu, China have to live where water is contaminated with lead that is over 190 times the amount that has been declared safe by the UN. Although Canada is not the only country that is guilty, it is one of the biggest violators of the agreement. That is why we are urging and encouraging you in trying to stop the export of E-Waste by perhaps creating higher fines. This is because, as it says in the news, if the illegal export E-Waste was a sport, we would get silver. We are sure, that like all Canadians, it is one medal that you would not look forward to receiving.
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