The waste, which came in 10 large containers, was declared as mixed metal scrap but turned out to be circuit boards mixed in a huge pile of metal scrap, said Theeraj Athanavanich, director-general of the Customs Department.
The waste was found on Tuesday after the containers became the subject of a routine random inspection, officials said.
A U.N. report last year said electronic waste is piling up worldwide. Some 62 million tons of electronic waste was generated in 2022 and that figure is on track to reach 82 million tons by 2030, the report said. It said only 22% of the waste was properly collected and recycled in 2022 and that quantity is expected to fall to 20% by the end of the decade due to higher consumption, limited repair options, shorter product life cycles, and inadequate management infrastructure.
Yikes, proper waste handling could use more attention in the news, despite the seemingly endless flow of other problems. (Lots of good news too, but that gets even less attention.)
Here’s hoping that the American business who sold the waste will also be prosecuted.
Thanks, it’s always nice to start the day off with a good laugh.
Ik it’s unlikely, but I like hoping anyway.
<3 hope + will are the agents of change.
Hope in one hand and shit in the other, then see which one gets filled up first.
Logistic liability is determined in most purchasing agreements. Liability of the seller for international shipments usually ends at pickup. The buyer is usually liable for arranging how its picked up and how it is shipped. This is anecdotal to my experiences in the manufacturing industry but I’ve never seen at any company I was with a scenario where the company who picked up our scrap would have an arrangement where we (the manufacturing company) would be liable for what happens to out scrap after it was picked up.
Selling to an overseas operator whose country’s laws forbide importing certain items - using a forged/illegal bill of lading - would be a good place to start.
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Lots of good news? Lots?? If I see one good thing amidst the endless torrent of horrifying horseshit in a day I feel like that’s an outlier, where are you coming up with lots?
I had to actively seek sources out for my own sanity. The people compiling it don’t cover every area I’d like, but there’s good news happening too. Two sources I know of are Sam Bentley and Good News.
Also moving all our e-waste from US shores to elsewhere doesn’t make it go away, we are just “hiding” the issue so as not to affect capitalism. In the end when we have no clean water to drink it’ll be too late to “start doing something”.
Always have been. I remember a couple of decades ago seeing photos of children in countries more ravished by poverty, digging through open mountains of waste to glean bits of gold from computer waste, lead and CRT based products.
Especially when mining of rare earth metals is starting to play a big role in geopolitics.
We are #1! We are #1 in polluting developing countries. USA! USA!
They should shame the companies who make those things.
Shame? They should be fined and charged the entirety of the mitigation costs.
Sounds pretty shameful to me. My company has controllers in the machines we make. But we recycle everything. We don’t sell to individuals so our numbers are not significant. Anyway, the point being that we factor in the cost of recycling everything on the machine. We also comply with rohs 3 and reduce unnecessary stupid materials. But again we are a small place and don’t sell direct. I think that for consumers there should be some sort of regulatory body of the government that limits the use of materials to only those that can be easily recyclable and or disposed of without environmental impact.
