|  | WEEE, charity and the digital dump
Are we really helping the less fortunate by donating our old technology rather than chucking it in the skip?
FACT: Environmental groups such as Basel Action Network (BAN) have recently exposed fraudulent charities that have been dumping toxic cyber waste in places such as China and Africa.
FACT: In Lagos, Nigeria the massive importation of used equipment has resulted in a serious environmental and health disaster by contaminating the land and water.
FACT: Our good intentions of trying to close the “digital divide” are actually creating a “digital dump.”
FACT: The sad reality is that our discarded computers are sailing around the world to become an environmental time bomb for impoverished nations.
Dataserv, the UK’s leader in asset retirement, provides its ethical ReUse and ReCycling services to 10% of the UK’s corporate business, category 3, *WEEE market. As one of the founding members of the United Nation’s StEP (Solving the E-waste Problem) Initiative, it is an authority on the ReUse & ReCycling of electronic waste.
How can people attempt to develop if the tools we provide them with are rubbish? Furthermore, when they receive this obsolete technology, disposing of it then becomes their problem, and naturally they don’t have the funds or the methods to do so ethically.
Dataserv’s, MD, Neal Saunders notes, “While the developed nations may have rigorous processes in place to deal with e-scrap, in many less developed countries that is certainly not the case; in fact, many unscrupulous recyclers often use the developing countries as dumping grounds for e-waste or as illegal recycling centres.”
Donors BEWARE! To avoid contributing to the degradation of the Third World you should take your e-waste to a WEEE compliant scheme such as Dataserv. By following the legal route, your generosity will actually count because WEEE compliant companies like Dataserv will sort out what can be reused or recycled and will cleanse and refurbish computers to prepare them for charitable donation.
Dataserv refuses to send second generation products to the developing world. Rather, they advocate that their clientele take the proceeds from the resale of electronic equipment and then directly donate the money to charity projects to help build relevant capacity in developing countries.
Put an end to the victimization!
*The WEEE Directive mandates that distributors must take back electrical equipment from consumers, and manufacturers must be responsible for its treatment for either recycling or re-use. |
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