It’s amazing how quickly we upgrade our gadgets these days. It wasn’t so long ago that no one had even heard of an iPhone – now every man and his dog seems to have one in his back pocket.

So what’s happening to everyone’s old phones? And where do our microwaves and other electronic appliances go when we’ve decided they’ve done their dash?

Chances are you threw the old phone, electronic toothbrush, curling wand and countless other electronic goods in the bin. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released last week suggest that nearly a quarter of electronic equipment and more than half of household appliances thrown out in the 12 months prior to March ended up in our general rubbish bins.

The problem is, while we are fascinated by the latest model of everything, our landfills are clogging up with electronic waste and even worse, much of it also gets illegally dumped in our environment.

On average, we upgrade our computer every 2-5 years, our microwave every 5-8 years, our mobile phone as soon as our plan runs out. We go through countless batteries to keep all our household appliances running – an estimated 8,000 tonnes of alkaline batteries go to the tip every year.

It’s no wonder then that electronic waste, or e-waste, is our fastest growing rubbish type. In fact, it’s being sent to the tip at three times the rate of general waste.

The environmental effects of e-waste are also potentially much more frightening than those of general waste because of what it contains – toxins. Lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, cobalt – your innocent looking household appliances are full of these toxins, and when they’re dumped in landfill or in the environment, those toxins can seep into our groundwater, contaminate the soil and potentially even enter the food chain.

We recently had a breakthrough on e-waste in Australia, with the Federal Government announcing a new recycling scheme for TVs and computers as part of a National Waste Policy. See the details here.

This scheme was developed at the urging of manufacturers – so it’s great to finally see industry and our political leaders working together to come up with a solution for e-waste. But that’s by no means the end of the problem – we all still need to take action at work and at home to help curb our growing e-waste.

What you can do:

AVOID: Buy products that will last and are repairable. You might even consider leasing?

REDUCE: Repair your old appliances and gadgets wherever possible instead of buying new ones.

REUSE: Check if local schools or charities can use your old appliances, and always buy rechargeable batteries and refillable ink cartridges.

RECYCLE: Take your old appliances to be recycled – most councils provide e-waste recycling services.  You can even donate your old mobile phone. Clean Up offers a free service – simply go to our website www.cleanup.org.au for a satchel.

We can’t help the fact that electronic items will go out of date and we’ll need to replace them, but we can try to minimise the impact our e-waste has on the environment.

Does anyone have any e-waste tips?

Ian Kiernan AO

Clean Up Australia Chairman

Tüketici olmanın ne kadar ağır bir sorumluluk olduğunu yeniden anladım. Bir arkadaşım “biten yazıcı kartuşu nereye atılır?” diye sordu. Ben de bilmiyordum. Kendime ait bir yazıcım yok. Çok gerekirse, bir fotokopiciye gidip “çıkış” alıyorum. Dolayısıyla, kartuş gibi bir atık hakkında hiç düşünmem gerekmedi.

Sorunun yanıtını merak ettiğim için küçük bir araştırma yaptım. Dünyamızın giderek büyüyen bir e-atık (WEEE) sorunu olduğunu ne zamandır biliyorum. Fakat konunun gerçek çapı hakkında hiçbir fikrim yokmuş.

Yazıcı kartuşu gibi e-atıklar “evsel TEHLİKELİ atıklar” sınıfına giriyor. Tehlikeli atıkların, evsel atıklarla karıştırılmaması, bunların çöpe atılmaması, özel olarak toplanması, özel olarak ayrıştırılması gerekiyor. Ne yazık ki, Türkiye bu konuda gelişmemiş bir ülke. Yine de, e-atıkların büyük bir ekonomik değer oluşturması girişimcilerin dikkatini çekmiş. E-atık toplayan özel şirketler ve belediye birimleri var. Mediamarkt, mağazalarına e-atık kutuları koydu. TURÇEK, İstanbul Kadıköy’de e-atıklar için bir toplama noktası oluşturdu.

E-atık konusunun ciddiyetini kavramak için Mak. Yük. Müh. Erkan Sevinç’in sunumundaki bilgilere bakalım: GreenInnovation şirketi, 22 milyon nüfuslu Avustralya’da yazıcı kartuşu tüketimini incelemiş.

• Kartuşlar plastik, metal, toner tozu, mürekkep, köpük gibi doğa/çevre/insan sağlığına potansiyel zararlı malzemelerden üretiliyor.
• Her bir kartuşun üretilmesi için 3,4 litre yağ (petrol) harcanıyor.
• Doğaya bırakılan bir kartuşun yok olması için 450 yıl gerekiyor.
• Avustralya’da her bir dakikada 34 kartuş çöpe atılıyor; yıllık çöp miktarı 5000 ton.
• Bu kartuşların geri dönüşümü sağlanabilse, sadece petrol tüketiminden yıllık 4,3 milyon litre tasarruf sağlanabilir.

Rakamlar korkunç, değil mi? Üstelik bunlar sadece Avustralya’yla ve yazıcı kartuşlarıyla sınırlı bir araştırmanın sonuçları. Diğer e-atıkların yarattığı yıkımı düşünmek dehşet veriyor.

İnsanın yarattığı bu yıkımla mücadele etmede her bireye büyük iş düşüyor. Her birimiz tüketici olmanın sorumluluğunu üstlenmeliyiz. Kullandığımız elektronik nesnelere bakış açımızı gözden geçirmeliyiz.

Hamiş 1: Çevresel Yıkım başlıklı bir yazı. Okumak için tıklayınız.

Hamiş 2: Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı’nın “Mesleki Eğitim ve Öğretimin Güçlendirilmesi Projesi” kapsamında hazırladığı e-kitapta konuyla ilgili ilginç bilgiler var.

Hamiş 3: Daha geniş bilgi için yazı önerileri: Sanal Dünyanın Gerçek Çöpü E-atıklar, Elektronik Atıklar Tehlikeli ve Değerlidir, Teknolojik Atık, Elektronik Atık Yönetimi, E-atık Nedir?, Take Personal Action Recycle your E-Waste, The WEEE man and a global campaign

- Yıldıray

BULUŞMA NOKTASI

Cellphones have quickly become a bane to society in many ways. Though useful, and to many people a device they cannot live without, they cause constant interruptions and promote poor social manners. New laws enacted against driving while talking on a cellphone point to their role in traffic accidents. Perhaps one of our biggest dilemmas, though, is: e-waste!

A report in the Washington Post states that “there is now one cellphone for every two humans on Earth”, and 30 different nations have more cellphones than people. The problem is, cellphone users want the latest, newest, most advanced device. And the industry is happy to respond to those cravings. After all, that’s what makes it profitable. In fact, many phones are replaced by new models before being used for even two years.

In Canada alone, it’s estimated that an astonishing 40,000 cellphones are discarded daily, according to the Recycling Council of B.C. That’s why that province has joined an online, national recycling program, RecycleMyCell.ca, which makes it quick and easy for people to find local drop-off locations where they can take their unwanted phones, including headsets, batteries, chargers and other accessories. Even if no locations exist within your vicinity, you can mail your used phone free of charge. The phones are then sent to a recycler to be dismantled with the goal of reusing as many parts as possible. B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner says that more than 95 percent of the materials in an average mobile device are recyclable. Since the recycling program is paid for by cellphone providers like Telus and Bell, it puts the onus where it belongs and fosters accountability. The Recycle My Cell program was created and is maintained by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.

“This program diverts e-waste from our landfills… and makes producers responsible for the life-cycle management of products they sell in B.C.” – Barry Penner

Because cellphones have crossed the divide between rich and poor, as well as all national and ethnic barriers, their impact on the environment is global. In Albania, for instance, it is commonplace to see an older person talking on a cellphone, while riding a donkey! In India you can witness a beggar taking a break from his ‘work’ to talk on his cellphone. In fact, almost 60 percent of cellphone users are in developing lands. Perhaps if developed countries take the lead in recycling and diverting e-waste from landfills, programs in other parts of the world will take root and help to minimize the ecological impact of the communications revolution.

Slashdot It!

Everyone’s heard of the three R’s, right?  Reduce, reuse, recycle.  When most people think of recycling, they think of only one step in this three-arrowed process, which is where the familiar logo comes from.  Though it’s great to recycle, it will all be for nothing if people do not buy materials made from recycled products or try to reduce the amount they buy in the first place.  Once a recycling company collects materials to recycle, they have to find vendors who will buy those individual materials to process them and create new products.  If there is no consumer demand for recycled products, then the manufacturing companies will not buy from the recycling company, which will stop the loop of the recycling process.

Did you know you can buy carpets and t-shirts made of recycled plastic?  Or notebooks made of recycled paper?  Just check the label of something you’re buying and see what it’s made of.

This Sunday, November 15, was America Recycles Day across the nation.  Continue the loop by not only recycling, but by buying recycled products too. You can check out the ARD website for the positive impacts or your recycling from their “Conversionator”, and take their pledge to recycle.  While you are thinking of pledges, make sure your pledge for the Minnesota Energy Challenge includes everything you do to recycle – just the basics, buying materials made from recycled products, and more.

To learn about where to recycle almost anything, go to the Earth911website and simply enter your product and location – they’ll figure out where you should take it.  If you have some e-waste to recycle responsibly, read this former blog post.  Happy reducing, reusing, and recycling!

::ARD

Last week, I was looking at some photos my mother-in-law took when she was in Australia several months ago. One of the things she really wanted to do was hold a koala, so we went to Lone Pine Sanctuary (it’s local!) and she and Mr Teeny-bop held koalas and had their photos taken. Lots of other photos were also taken, such as the following one.

Mr Teeny-bop feeding a kangaroo at Lone Pine Sanctuary

There were heaps of other animals there too – birds of prey, kangaroos, wombats, cassowaries, dingoes, tasmanian devils, parrots, cockatoos, galahs, lorikeets, bats, wallabies and farm animals (not sure what the farm animals were about, but anyway…), and Yankee Elv’s mom even took photos of the ugly wild scrub turkeys scratching around outside.

Yankee Elv feeding a kangaroo at Lone Pine Sanctuary

It was nice to go to a place where it’s not overly tourist-y (like Australia Zoo is these days), but still get to interact with all the animals. It did get me wondering though – are zoos, sanctuaries and other places like that good for the environment? I’m not going to argue about whether or not they’re good for the animals – some will say keeping animals in captivity are never good, others will say places like this provide a service to all the animals hurt on roads or displaced by deforestation. Regardless, I’m not going to debate that. What I’m interested in today is: are these places good for the environment?

With a motto like, ‘The Earth is not only for humans’, you’d think Lone Pine would be into all that eco-stuff.  The Lone Pine Sanctuary website does encourage people to do environmentally friendly things like drive safely and be aware of wildlife crossing the roads, plant eucalypts as food trees for koalas and avoiding disturbing vegetation generally (but especially in National Parks). Although all of these are aimed at wildlife conservation, they are also good for the environment generally. There is no statement on the Lone Pine Sanctuary website, however, that indicates they are working towards reducing their environmental impact.

People and animals can live together!

Ultimately, it seems like zoos are under the same environmental pressures as any other big business, such as:

• Water use
• Energy consumption
• Waste disposal and recycling.

Taronga Zoo has a comprehensive page on their site that explains it all quite clearly.

As well as Taronga Zoo, some other places, like Australia Zoo and the Philadelphia Zoo, are making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint and potentially become carbon neutral. Chester Zoo was the first UK zoo to be awarded ISO14001s status. Other zoos are following in their footsteps. Some new campaigns that service both the environment and animals are cropping up too. Answer the Call, for example, is a mobile phone recycling program that helps save gorilla habitat.

Granted, my research has been pretty minimal, but what I’ve read seems to indicate that zoos are no worse than many big businesses, and the larger zoos are taking measures to counteract their environmental impact. Considering most zoos get visitors thinking about conservation, I think the good these zoos do likely outweighs any negative impact.

Your thoughts?

I saw a great news article on KXAN recently.  Kate Weidaw of early morning fame did a story on my new favorite company, Image Microsystems.  She reported a story titled Turning Computer Waste into Profit. 

Kate Weidaw of KXAN

It’s really quite wonderful to have this much video out there about the company.  I’m just wondering why I don’t see more media coverage about these two issues.  (This story seemed to resonate, though–it’s been picked up in over 25 additional media markets so far).  I’m curious as to why more markets haven’t written about this or picked it up.  I guess that’s because the world just doesn’t think writing about reducing e-waste, or helping and employing people with disabilities is all that sexy.  That’s why I’m doing everything I can to get the word out about these two very important topics. 

We’ve all bought a printer, cell phone, laptop, or any of a myriad of consumer electronics devices that just didn’t work.  Or maybe it didn’t work like we thought it should.  Or maybe it was simply a problem of not understanding the directions.  Well for whatever reason, we’ve had to return it to the store where we bought it.  I’m sure you’ve never given it a thought–once  you’ve gotten  your money back.  But, what happens to that returned product?  Where does it end up?  Many of those products end up on the secondary market.  That’s great–you know the mantra “repair, reuse, recycle”.  And, if it’s really broken and there is no hope of refubishment–it might just end up in the trash–and ultimately a landfill. 

According to an EPA study completed in 2007, of the 2.25 million tons of televisions, cell phones and computer products ready for end-of-life (EOL) management in the US, 18% (414,000 tons) were collected for recycling and 82% (1.84 million tons) were disposed of, primarily in landfills. Further, EPA estimated that approximately 235 million units sold between 1980 and 2007 were obsolete and in storage, awaiting some method of EOL management.

e-Waste shows a higher growth rate than any other category of municipal waste in the EPA’s more current report.  Overall, between 2005 and 2006, total volumes of municipal waste increased by only 1.2%, compared to 8.6% for e-waste.

Can you belive that?  Obviously we need to think very carefully about what happens to the e-waste here.  We definitely don’t want it to end up overseas in some horrific e-waste dump in a developing country.

Then there’s the problem of incorporating deaf and special needs workers into our mainstream workforce.  Not that many people are doing it obviously–just take a look at these statistics: 

According to the Texas Department of Health and Human services, in the state of Texas alone there are over 3.8 million people who are deaf or substantially hearing impaired.  In just Travis County, 8.8% of the population is deaf or hearing impaired. 

According to the CDC, 37 million people in the US have trouble hearing.  The CDC also estimates that roughly 8.6% of the adult population is deaf or hard of hearing. Extrapolating that to the state of New York for example—based on 2008 numbers—there would be 1,676,166 deaf or hard of hearing people in the state.  If you look at just a few states such as California (3,161,073), Florida (1,612,894), Illinois (1,135,377), Pennsylvania (1,070,552), Ohio (1,010,760), Michigan (880,301), Georgia (852,345), New Jersey (746,709), and Connecticut (301,108), there a lot of people affected. 

The US Department of Education reports that the unemployment rate for working-age adults with disabilities has hovered at 70 percent for over a decade. 

We’re sitting around crying about a 10.2% unemployment rate.  Disabled workers are a lot worse off than that.  Just think about it!  Let’s spread the word and get more people writing about the subject for a change.

I have been withholding a post about my work because I was waiting for a few developments to gel into something worth writing about. Whatever miraculous event I was waiting for has not occurred, however; in fact, the new discovery I was so excited about a few weeks ago has stagnated somewhat, and I have not made much progress on it. I suppose I should explain it from the beginning.

After the surprising success of our conflict resolution workshop, another intern and I decided we would like to organize some similar kind of advocacy program on the topic of sanitation in Agbogbloshie. During the course of our research, we came across some information regarding e-waste in the slum. What we learned is that Agbogbloshie is one of the largest e-waste dump sites in the world–so large, in fact, that ABC news wrote a lengthy article featuring the area and its sanitation woes. The problem, in a nutshell, is that developed countries like the U.S. and those in the European Union have loads and loads of old electronics that they need to dispose of. The easiest way to do this is to ship it off to another country under the guise of “second hand goods.” The reality is that most of these items, which consist largely of old computers and televisions, cannot easily be re-used. Their ultimate fate rests in the hands of scrap dealers, who chip away at the hard drives and melt down the wires for the scrap metal within, processes which releases highly toxic pollutants into the environment. This activity is the livelihood of many residents of Agbogbloshie, who either do not realize how harmful it is to health or just have no other option.

After reading about the scale of this problem, we decided to make the e-waste issue a focus of a major advocacy program. We wrote a bunch of letters, drafted a budget and a proposal, and came up with various ideas for it–and yet we haven’t acted on it. There were a few reasons for this; first, my partner had to travel for a couple of weeks at the height of our zeal and interest in the project. With her gone, I put the project on hiatus as I worked on some other things. When she got back, we had a few other projects to work on–a newsletter for SISS, an advocacy handbook, and a fundraising strategy to name most of them–and so we didn’t talk much about our program. Moreover, we were, and still are, at somewhat of a loss at how to proceed. I have solicited lots of ideas from friends, coworkers, family members, etc., but I am still very unsure what the best avenues are to take. There are many confounding factors that complicated the issue tremendously–political, economic, and otherwise–and the problem seems to have such a global scale that the thought of tackling it is daunting. Despite this, now that these other projects are coming to a close, we have decided to push forward with the program. I have nearly two more months which I can devote solely to this if I so need or chose to; I am interested to see how far we can go with it.

I will provide here a brief overview of what we have tentatively planned for this program. I entreat you all to provide suggestions and feedback; all the idea and help I can get are valuable, and I would really appreciate hearing about what you think. We believe a multi-pronged approach is best. Part of our program will therefore be educational–we hope to get speakers and health experts to give talks on the health problems associated with scrapping e-waste in some of the local churches and mosques, as well as any other venues we can get in the area. Additionally, we have been working on designing some posters to put around the slum depicting an e-waste scrapper suffering from the smoke of a burning computer. Another part of this program will be political advocacy. That is, we will write to members of parliament, ministers, etc. within Ghana as well as those politicians in the countries who are exporting the e-waste. We also feel that public awareness is important in this issue, so we hope to get some airtime on the radio and on TV as well as space in newspapers to run some ads explaining the problems and how to properly dispose of electronics (if that’s really even an option). Finally, we will network with other organizations that have been working with this issue–some international and some Ghanaian–to see what they have been doing and if they have any resources to provide or suggestions to make. This is all a learning process, really; I have little to no experience in any of these areas, so I have no idea how effective these things will be. Again, I would appreciate your feedback, and I will, of course, update everyone when big developments occur.

Thanks kindly,

Cole

E-waste in Guiyu

Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) describes loosely discarded, surplus, obsolete, broken, electrical or electronic devices. The processing of electronic waste in developing countries causes serious health and pollution problems because electronic equipment contains some very serious contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium and brominated flame retardants. Even in developed countries recycling and disposal of e-waste involves significant risk for examples to workers and communities and great care must be taken to avoid unsafe exposure in recycling operations and leaching of materials such as heavy metals from landfills and incinerator ashes.

Rapid technology change, low initial cost, and with planned obsolescence have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of electronic waste around the globe. Dave Kruch, CEO of Cash For Laptops, regards electronic waste as a “rapidly expanding” issue. Technical solutions are available, but in most cases a legal framework, a collection system, logistics, and other services need to be implemented before a technical solution can be applied.

In the United States, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfills comes from discarded electronics, while electronic waste represents only 2% of America’s trash in landfills. The EPA states that unwanted electronics totaled 2 million tons in 2005. Discarded electronics represented 5 to 6 times as much weight as recycled electronics. The Consumer Electronics Association says that U.S. households spend an average of $1,400 annually on an average of 24 electronic items, leading to speculations of millions of tons of valuable metals sitting in desk drawers. The U.S. National Safety Council estimates that 75% of all personal computers ever sold are now gathering dust as surplus electronics. While some recycle, 7% of cellphone owners still throw away their old cellphones.

Increased regulation of electronic waste and concern over the environmental harm which can result from toxic electronic waste has raised disposal costs. The regulation creates an economic disincentive to remove residues prior to export. In extreme cases, brokers and others calling themselves recyclers export unscreened electronic waste to developing countries, avoiding the expense of removing items like bad cathode ray tubes (the processing of which is expensive and difficult).

Guiyu is the largest E-waste site on earth, and was first documented fully in December 2001 by the Basel Action Network in their report and documentary film entitled Exporting Harm. The health and environmental issues exposed by this report and subsequent scientific studies have greatly concerned international organizations such as the Basel Action Network and later Greenpeace and the United Nations Environment Programme and the Basel Convention.

(…)

El programa Americano “60 minutes” nos lleva a uno de los lugares más tóxicos en la tierra – un lugar que los funcionarios del gobierno y los bandidos no quieren que veas. Es una ciudad en China, donde no se puede respirar el aire o beber el agua, una ciudad donde la sangre de los niños es mezclada con plomo.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5274959n

Everything manmade, has a beginning (when its made) a middle (when its used) and an end (where it ends up). Many of put little thought into the aftermath of our disregarded items, simply because we have lost interest. However, I feel it important to inform others about the end life of our technologies. First let us discuss what electronic waste  (e-waste) is. It is loosely discarded, surplus, obsolete, broken electrical or electronic devices. This material is dumped, disposed of or disregarded by the buyer rather than recycled. So the question is why is there a huge influx of e-waste?  Its simple, people are constantly replacing their computers, TVs and cellphones, e-waste, has quickly become the fastest growing component of solid waste. Why are we replacing out technologies? It is often easier and cheaper to replace than to repair. Furthermore, or technology is constantly changing and as we try to keep up by buying new devices, we are disregarding our old ones.

We are dumping these electronics in our local landfills, but we are also shipping this waste to countries like Kenya, India and Chin a, creating an international problem.  The reason is strictly financial. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates it’s up to 10 times cheaper to export e-waste than to dispose of it domestically.

Most computers, cellphones, mp3 players have valuable metals inside of them. Per device, there isn’t a substantial  amount of metal. But in landfills of there are so many devices, in total there is a lot of valuable metals. These metals can be extracted and can be sold back to companies to make new devices. However, these metals are extracted by those living in poverty for about $2-$4 a day, in unsafe conditions

Extracting metals is not as simple as taking it off the device, Rather, there are highly toxic metal removal processes that these workers use, and perform unprotected.  Acid baths and open fires are typical of these unsafe working environment. The hazardous elements accumulate in landfills and can leech into the groundwater, leaving it undrinkable. Two common processes to remove metals are cyanide leaching and acid leaching.

In 1992 a Basel Convention was implemented that regulates trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes, which includes e-wastes.  This convention obligates member countries to dispose of hazardous wastes in environmentally sounds manner. However, there are problems with this. The individual parties of the convention are left to police themselves. So while China, for example, has signed and ratified the convention, there is no international enforcement and so the practice of importing e-waste continues.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/envirozine/english/issues/33/feature1_e.cfm

Debra Haym (right) and the WBR Team

Last week I attended a conference in Atlanta, GA.  Consumer Returns 2009 was presented by Worldwide Business Research.  They did a great job of organizing a conference on a topic that I didn’t think could possibly be all that interesting, but actually turned out to be quite the opposite.  The event was designed for retailers and manufacturers to discuss ways to manage the issue of consumer returns.  Although there was a strong focus on consumer electronics product returns, there was also information applicable to mass merchants and specialty retailers in home improvement, telecom, and appliances. 

I never realized that there was such a thing as a “serial returner” or that “organized retail crime” actually existed.  But, I learned otherwise last week.  In fact, the National Retail Federation says organized retail crime is a $40 billion problem, and their most recent Return Fraud Survey says that fraudulent returns are a $9.6 billion annual business[i].  What’s up with that?  Did you know that people steal items and then return the stolen goods for refunds?  And it’s not due to just the down economy.  According to Joe LaRocca, Senior Asset Protection Advisor for NRF, “Criminals have been fond of using a ‘woe is me’ mantra because of the economy, but the truth remains that most return fraud is more “greed” than “need.  In many cases, return fraud is committed by people who use technology to produce counterfeit receipts or take advantage of lenient return policies by stealing large quantities of merchandise and returning it to dozens of stores without a receipt.”  Wow, who knew?  I guess all that fraud causes trouble for people like you and me with legitimate returns.

Craig Sultan of Home Depot Presents His Customer Returns Success Stories

The good news is that although the problems caused by “serial returners“ or  “organized retail crime” operations do exist, I learned that many consumer returns are caused by a basic lack of communication between a very well-meaning consumer and the retailer.  During a presentation at the conference by Craig Sultan, Home Depot’s Sr. Manager of Reverse Logistics, he espoused that there are four basic things to remember to mitigate unnecessary consumer returns:

1.  Know your customer

2.  Provide a standard, consistent communications format

3.  Be very accurate in descriptions and images of products

4.  Provide a communication vehicle for the consumer, and act upon it 

Craig also noted that for him, products reviewed by customers had a 20% lower return rate than those products without reviews.  If there are 50 or more reviews, returns are lowered by 75%. You take the good with the bad on reviews—but it’s very necessary to learn from and respond to negative reviews.  In fact, a helpful response to a person posting a negative review often reaps improved customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth positive retailer impressions.

While at the conference I met Keith Oldridge, CEO of Swann Communications.  

Steven Currens of Swann, Peggy Wolfe of Micro Electronics and Keith Oldridge of Swann

He said that in electronics returns, “no trouble found” is the diagnosis 70% of the time.  That can only be solved by more communication up-front with the prospective customer.  He added that some retailers though, such as Micro Center, have the right idea.  They focus on educating the consumer and assign customer satisfaction as the number one priority.  Peggy Wolfe, Micro Electronics, Inc.  COO said that their Knowledge Bar in every Micro Center store helps ensure good customer communication and therefore fewer returns. 

Tony Sciarrotta of Philips Consumer Lifestyle

Tony Sciarrotta, Director, Asset Recovery from Philips Consumer Lifestyle led a conference session on “Improving Asset Recovery”.  He said all reverse logistics programs are doomed to failure unless they are customer centric.  I have to agree with him on that one.  The customer experience starts with researching products online, then through an online or in the store purchase, and finally–the return or exchange.  He finds that he can reduce “no trouble found” returns by simply improving the customer experience.

Jeff Stratman of Best Buy Presents the Keynote Address

Tony also brought up a great topic that I didn’t hear that much about at the conference—the issue of sustainability.  When a consumer electronics product comes back to the retailer, it’s generally triaged to determine if it’s worth repairing or should be scrapped.  Many retailers are working with their OEMs to establish credit programs so that un-repairable products can be scrapped in the field.  That may work well for the retailer and manufacturer, but, where does that e-scrap go?  Does it go to a landfill; is it sent to an e-scrap recycler?  And when it goes to an e-scrap recycler, then what happens to it?

According to a recent report from the Congressional Research Service, electronic waste ends up being exported overseas because of high domestic processing costs, even though the impacts of overseas processing can be worse than domestic landfilling. The report, Managing Electronic Waste: Issues with Exporting e-Waste, finds that, due to “limited domestic infrastructure and high demand abroad,” as well as the complicated nature of processing e-scrap, “a recycler may find it more profitable simply to send all of the e-waste it collects abroad.”   The problem of e-waste is large and growing.  The report further quoted findings from the EPA on the subject.  In 2008, EPA completed a study that attempted to gather current data[ii].  According to that study, in 2007, of the 2.25 million tons of televisions, cell phones and computer products ready for end-of-life (EOL) management, 18% (414,000 tons) were collected for recycling and 82% (1.84 million tons) were disposed of, primarily in landfills. Further, EPA estimated that approximately 235 million units sold between 1980 and 2007 were obsolete and in storage, awaiting some method of EOL management.

James Vick of Acer Poses a Question to the Panel

You can almost guarantee that the US will have more stringent e-waste recycling regulations in the not too distant future.   We are already behind Europe.  Several people I spoke to at the Consumer Returns conference were from Canada—where e-waste recycling laws are more similar to the European standard.  Those Canadian retailers are already struggling to manage the e-waste issue. 

More US companies need to develop domestic programs and find US partners to process e-waste.

It’s as easy as that: simply slowing down the rate of new product releases would lower the mountains of e-waste accumulating around the planet.

That is the result of a research carried out by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The study shows Americans buy new cell phones every 18 months, Europeans every 15 months, and the Japanese 9. Global replacement rates for digital cameras range between two and three years. And U.S. businesses replace their PCs every four years.

Such rates of replacement do boost industrial production, but they also push the quantity of e-waste In the United States alone, consumers throw away 400 million electronic products each year.

What happens to the discarded electronics, which represent one million tons of electronic waste (e-waste) annually? Many are shipped to developing countries and illegally processed to recover precious metals, using processes that dangerously pollute the air and water with lead, dioxins, and other toxins.

Recent work by Erica Plambeck, Professor of Operations, Information, and Technology at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Qiong Wang of Alcatel-Lucent Bell Laboratories, points to a solution – one that slows down the rate of new product introductions. This, in turn, reduces the speed with which consumers replace the electronics they’ve purchased, and decreases the mountains of e-waste accumulating around the planet.

Numerous governments already regulate e-waste disposal. California, for example, charges consumers recycling fees when they purchase new electronic products. Certain members of the European Union put responsibility for e-waste squarely in manufacturers’ hands by requiring them to collect and dispose of their products at the end of the product life cycle. Plambeck and Wang show that, when properly implemented, such regulations can significantly reduce the amount of e-waste produced each year.

Today’s extremely short electronics product life cycles put many manufacturers in the same position Osborne was in nearly two decades ago. Anticipating that a new product with higher performance and lower price will be released in weeks or months, consumers will pay far less for products currently on the shelf.

Fortunately for manufacturers, when consumers are required to pay a disposal/recycling fee for an electronic product at the point of sale, the new product introductions slow down.

‘When this additional cost to consumers is added at the beginning of the product life cycle, a’ new equilibrium’ is established,’ Plambeck said. ‘Manufacturers are in less of a rush to introduce new products. Consumers anticipate using a product for longer, and so are willing to pay more for it.’

This turns out to be a good thing all around. ‘Because manufacturers have additional development time, they can make larger leaps in both product capabilities and quality, so the new products coming out are substantially better than the previous generation,’ said Plambeck.

In many cases, the regulation also increases manufacturers’ profits. Consumers benefit, because they get more durable products. Then there’s the fact that there’s a significant reduction in the amount of e-waste generated, because consumers dispose of the electronics less frequently.

Sometime jurisdictions – notably the European Union – require manufacturers to collect and dispose of e-waste at the end of the product life cycle. This can take two forms: either manufacturers are required to take individual responsibility, with each company disposing of its own discarded products, or manufacturers are allowed to band together and form ‘cooperatives’ to collectively gather and dispose of e-waste and share the costs of doing so.

Plambeck and Wang were able to draw some interesting conclusions from their research. First, manufacturers benefit by joining together and disposing of e-waste collectively rather than taking individual responsibility. ‘This eliminates the cost of separating and sorting the waste by manufacturer, and minimizes government involvement, which generally tends to improve efficiency,’ said Plambeck.

But there is a caveat: This communal scenario works well at reducing e-waste only if costs are allocated to each manufacturer based upon current sales. In other words, the number of, say, new cell phones that a particular manufacturer sells today would determine how much of the e-waste disposal costs it paid for disposing of yesterday’s used products. In effect, this becomes a variation of the fee-upon-sale system – and is as successful as California’s regulation at slowing down new product introductions.

As industry resistance has been a primary barrier to U.S. federal regulation of e-waste, an important contribution of the research is to demonstrate that certain, effective forms of e-waste regulation provide benefits to manufacturers.

Although the numbers generated aren’t exact, ‘they should be enough to convince people that the effects we’re talking about are substantial,’ said Plambeck.

As a part of CauseBecause’s (CB) monthly exercise of reviewing the corporate social responsibility space around the Indian subcontinent, we are producing an excerpt of the major happenings that made news in October 2009.

As an encouraging sign for India’s CSR structure, an annual survey conducted by CSR Asia has ranked India fourth in the social corporate responsibility space in Asia. The top 10 Asian countries that were increasingly giving heed to corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure includes Australia, followed by China (second), Hong Kong (third), Japan (fifth), Malaysia (sixth), Pakistan (seventh), Philippines (eight), Singapore (ninth) and Thailand (tenth). The top ten companies in India’s CSR rankings include Tata Consultancy Services, ITC Ltd, Infosys Technologies, Larsen and Toubro, Reliance Industries, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharti Airtel, Steel Authority of India Ltd and NMDC Ltd.

Meanwhile, diversified US conglomerate General Electric (GE), as part of their CSR activity, has found use for tech firms’ junked computer. The company is working on a plan to collect these computers, treated as e-waste by many firms, and use them to take IT education to thousands of schools in the country. GE, through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm, GE Volunteers, has already piloted the project and is confident about rolling it to others parts of the country shortly. GE Volunteers is targeting the IT companies that plan to dispose of computers either due to the depreciation of the asset or due to upgradation.

The company plans to collect these computers and refurbish them for extending their life. ‘We spend about Rs 1,000 per system for refurbishment. These computers will then be given to various schools that we are identifying using a group of NGOs. Volunteers from GE would also work with the teachers in these schools for imparting IT-based education to the students,’ Sanjeev Jain, India leader for GE Volunteers, said in a media statement.

The company has so far collected about 400 computers and distributed them to some schools on a pilot basis. ‘The results so far have been encouraging. We did this in Chennai and Hyderabad. The results from Andhra Pradesh are too good,’ Jain added.

Again, Bharti Wal-Mart, which opened its first Best Price Modern Wholesale store in Amritsar in May, distributed 10 of the carts to hawkers last month. ‘We often partner with companies on CSR initiatives, as we did with Coke (Coca-Cola India Pvt. Ltd) for plantations inside the premises of the Best Price store,’ a Bharti Wal-Mart spokesperson said. The carts were donated to their owners. Bharti Wal-Mart said it has received a positive response to its CSR venture and plans to scale it up, though it did not provide any details.

Moving on, many corporates have shifted their focus on to rural areas and villages for carrying out their CSR activities. In one such example, L&T Microfinance has implemented CSR projects in the villages in which it is operating by providing education and sanitation facilities to empower rural communities.

In a similar vein, Tata Power Company Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) to forge an alliance whereby the benefit of futures price information will be spread to more than 2,000 farmers across 25 villages of Maharashtra where Tata Power has its project and CSR activities. The joint CSR initiative is called Sahyog (‘partnership’).

Focusing on some e-initiatives of online companies, brand merchandising and corporate gifting solutions company eYantra has launched ecoRus.in, an eco-friendly corporate gifting site that claims to offer biodegradable, organic, energy-saving, recycled and handmade products that can be easily customized with the corporate logo.

According to eYantra, ecoRus.in gifts range from organic apparel and jute bags to vegetable-based desktop products and stationeries made from recycled paper, and from solar-powered gadgets to water-based clocks.

ecoRus.in has also partnered with World Clean Air Forest Initiative (WCAFI), endorsed by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), to bring in Clean Air Tree Kit in India. Under the WCAFI programme, for every Clean Air Tree Kit purchased from ecoRus.in, WCAFI will plant a tree in India.

On to some awards and recognitions: The Tamil Nadu government presented corporate social responsibility awards to corporate giants including ONGC, CPCL, SAIL, TVS Motors and Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals. Deputy chief minister MK Stalin gave away a cash incentive of five lakh rupees and certificates to each company, commending their CSR activities in different spheres, including agriculture, education, women’s empowerment, and new and renewable energy.

For the second consecutive year, Anheuser-Busch has been honoured for overall excellence in corporate social responsibility, leading all other beverage companies. Anheuser-Busch recovers and recycles in its own facilities five aluminium cans for every four packaged. The company operates the world’s largest bio-mass recovery system and is installing solar energy arrays at many of its breweries.

All alcohol beverage companies work hard to promote responsible alcohol consumption. Anheuser-Busch’s programmes range from ‘We I.D. a program that reminds retailers to check IDs to prevent sales of beer to underage people’, to working with law enforcement in Connecticut and Indiana to provide outdoor advertising reminding drivers to use seatbelts and designated drivers, to backing the Federal Trade Commission’s ‘We Don’t Serve Teens’ programme with advertising in national publications, or billboards and in stores.

Anheuser-Busch also provides philanthropic support to nonprofits that support its business objectives and which help to make the communities in which A-B operates better places in which to live, work and raise a family.

NMDC, a premier mining PSU with ‘Navratna’ status, said that it has been conferred with the India Pride Award for CSR excellence for the year. NMDC Chairman and Managing Director Rana Som received the award from Home Minister P Chidambaram at a function at New Delhi, the company said in a release.

The award has been given in recognition of NMDC’s sustained efforts for improvement of quality life for the underprivileged through various innovative corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, the company said.

GMR Varalakshmi Foundation (GMRVF), the CSR arm of the infrastructure major GMR Group, has been awarded the Help Age India Silver Plate Award for the CSR works with elderly. The award aims to recognize and applaud the highest contribution given to the cause of disadvantaged older persons.

Meena Raghunathan, director community services, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, received the silver plaque and citation from Mukul Wasnik, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.

Finally, on to some analysis: PC Magazine, in a feature Are We Green Yet?, written on energy costs and the threat of global warming, spoke to several corporate honchos, who, voicing similar concerns, spelt out their ways of solving the situation.

Continuing on to the social media field, the realm of CSR has also extended to the recent revolution in online media which is Twitter. Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows users to share their thoughts within 140 characters. Twitter is also used extensively by brands and corporates to market and promote their products and offerings. One of the best features on Twitter is the hashtag. It allows one to find interesting topics, intellectual tweeters and real-time information.

Following is a list of 20 Twitter hashtags for social entrepreneurs, nonprofits and activists:

#SocEnt: The ultimate tag for social entrepreneurship. Original founder unknown

#SocEntChat: A Twitter conversation presented by Tom Dawkins (@AshokaTweets) and Nathaniel Whittemore (@SocialEntrprnr) that takes place on the first Wednesday of each month (also supported by me, @writerpollock)

#Nonprofit: Can’t get any more self-explanatory than this! Use this tag to show those NGO good works

#4Change: A Twitter chat and hashtag, #4Change profiles online technology, like social media, used for good communication

#NPTech: Use this tag to promote and follow nonprofit technology

#CharityTuesday: Spread the good word every Tuesday with this Twitter tag

#MiFiMon: A Twitter chat that focuses on microfinance

#v4change: Video for Change: as simple as that

#m4change: Just as video can be an important part to spreading awareness of a cause, so can mobile technology. This tag stands for Mobile for Change and is complemented by social entrepreneurs like The Extraordinaries

#CSR: Use this tag for corporate social responsibility tweets

#Environment: Use this tag for eco-friendly tweets, along with #green and #sustainable

#Solar: Clean alternative energy! Also, use #wind, #EV (electric vehicle) and #energy, when applicable

#SocialGood: Created by Mashable and the Summer of Social Good, this tag works for any socially conscious tweets

#Microfinance: Like #MiFiMon, but this isn’t a chat, so use it on a daily basis

#Philanthropy: Want to find out, or spread awareness of, someone who’s doing good? #Philanthropy it is

#Charity: Similar to philanthropy, but charity focuses more on organizational work

#Fundraising: Need ideas and help growing donors and funding? Check out this hashtag (and this story on using Twitter to raise funds)

#Poverty: Use this tag to call awareness to, and monitor, stories of those in need

#ClimateChange: Concerned over the upcoming United Nations climate meeting in Copenhagen? Show your support for climate action by using and following this tag (#GlobalWarming works too)

#Health: Into helping medicinal causes? Make sure to put the #health tag on your list

Do you have a pile of old cellphones on your desk?  Or maybe an old laptop? Well, now is the time to recycle or donate them properly.  Engadget makes this easy by compiling a list of every large manufacturer and their recycling policies and donation programs.

It is extremely important to recycle old electronics properly because if they go into your trashcan, and subsequently to a landfill, we will not be able to reuse the precious metals, copper, and plastics that took so much energy to mine and manufacture in the first place.  Additionally, toxic chemicals like lead and mercury can leach out of landfills into our groundwater from old televisions and other electronics.  According to the EPA’s “Plug into e-cycling guide”,

Recycling one million cell phones saves enough energy to power more than 185 US households with electricity for a year!

Canon, Apple, Dell, Verizon, and Dyson, just to name a few, offer FREE recycling of cell phones, computers, iPods, cameras, and vacuums.  There are mail-in options (many companies will email you a shipping label to print out) or you can drop off your electronics at several stores!

:: Engadget, EPA

2 decades of news circulation

Most creative 350 photos

Shocking print circulation declines from E&P

Q&A: Mother Jones on crowdsourcing journalism

CIA may have misled Congress repeatedly

Beware virtual NY Times, Pentagon Afghan coup

Prosecutors attack Innocence Project students

8 reasons Fox is not a news organization

Season of false starts for news organizations

Clean energy is an easy choice from Grist

Obama promises $3B for ’smart grid’

USA Today: We’re still #1

What problems does Google Wave solve?

Nader deserves more respect than he gets

Bong water is an illegal drug in Minnesota

Wisconsin to enact new e-waste bill

EFF to Chamber of Commerce: get over Yes Men

Hyperlocal: Printcasting bridges digital divide

15 things you can do right now by Michael Moore

dotexe.wordpress.com – e-Waste, atau sampah elektronik tampaknya sudah menjadi momok tersendiri di US, sehingga parlemen federal di negara bagian Wisconsin memberanikan diri mengundangkan UU tentang Pengelolaan e-Waste ini. Kapankah parlemen Indonesia akan mulai membahasnya? apakah negeri ini akan selalu jadi TPA bagi sampah-sampah elektronik asal Singapura, Malaysia, China dan Jepang? hmm…

VIVAnews – Gubernur Wisconsin Amerika Serikat Jim Doyle menandatangani Undang-Undang untuk mengurangi jumlah unit sampah komputer dan perangkat elektronik lainnya yang dibuang di daratan.

Sekadar diketahui, Wisconsin merupakan salah dari 50 negara bagian di Amerika Serikat bagian utara, yang terletak persis di sebelah barat Danau Michigan. Negara bagian dengan ibukota Madison ini memiliki sekitar 5,6 juta penduduk.

Di dalam aturan yang telah ditandangani Doyle akhir pekan lalu dijelaskan bahwa Wisconsin membutuhkan sejumlah perusahaan manufaktur untuk mendaur ulang berbagai perangkat elektronik konsumer. Adapun limbah elektronik mencakup televisi, komputer, dan printer.

Inisiatif ini diajukan Doyle mengingat kandungan di dalam perangkat elektronik tersebut mengandung bahan material berbahaya dan sulit didaur ulang, seperti merkuri, PCB, dan timah.

Seperti VIVAnews kutip dari Cellular News, 26 Oktober 2009, Wisconsin memang bukan yang pertama. Sebelumnya, inisiatif serupa juga telah diajukan 18 negara bagian AS lainnya, termasuk Minnesota dan Illnois, dan terbukti berhasil.

Dengan ditandatanganinya aturan tersebut, pembuangan sampah elektronik di daratan akan dilarang keras untuk seterusnya. Undang-undang itu juga telah disetujui Senat dan Majelis. Sayangnya, tidak dijelaskan lebih lanjut apa sanksi yang akan diberikan jika pelaku melanggar peraturan dan tetap membuang komputer bekas sembarangan.

(Foto:Cnet)

VANCOUVER – Panitia olimpiade musim dingin 2010, akan menyediakan medali yang terbuat dari sampah-sampah elektronik. Logam-logam dari sampah Televisi, komputer, dan keyboard akan diolah untuk dijadikan medali emas, perak dan perunggu.

Perusahaan raksasa logam, Teck Resources ditunjuk untuk memproduksi dan menyuplai sekira 1000 medali untuk keperluan pesta olahraga yang berlangsung 12-28 Februari 2010 di Vancouver, British Columbia, Kanada tersebut. Demikian dilansir Cnet, Sabtu (17/10/2009).

Tak seperti biasanya, medali-medali yang akan diperebutkan di “2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games” itu akan didesain berbentuk bergelombang. Selama ini, medali yang diperebutkan berbentuk datar.

Bentuk bergelombang itu, diinspirasi dari gelombang laut, dan landskap pegunungan yang ada di Kanada.

Teck Resources akan mengolah, sejumlah e-waste yang akan dipisahkan, dan dilebur sebelum dikombinasikan dengan logam-logam dari sumber lain.

Olimpiade musim dingin 2010 ini, merupakan kali ke tiga bagi Kanada sebagai tuan rumah dan yang pertama bagi propinsi British Columbia. Ajang tersebut, diperkirakan akan diikuti oleh sekira 80 negara. (stf)

Sumber:
http://techno.okezone.com/read/2009/10/17/56/266548/56/medali-olimpiade-bakal-dibuat-dari-sampah-elektronik

I’d like to take a moment to introduce you once again to a fantastic technology company with facilities in Commerce, California and Austin, Texas that diverts over 6 million tons of e-waste from landfills every year and at the same time helps the disabled community by employing deaf and special needs workers.  In fact, as of today, more than 40% of Image Microsystems’ workforce comes from the deaf and special needs population. 

I believe this is a great story to talk about because it highlights two of today’s most important issues: 

1. The mounting volume of e-waste wreaking havoc with the environment
2. The beneficial contributions disabled workers can make to a company’s growth 

WHY NOW? 
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month and  Image Microsystems was recently presented the 2009 Employment Award from the Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities.  With the current national focus on “green” companies and technologies—this is a great time to talk about a US company that is doing more for both the community and the environment.

Toni and Alex Abadi Receive Texas Employment Award from Evelyn Lord and Joe Bontke

WHAT?
Image Microsystems’ CEO Alex Abadi, PhD was motivated by his wife (nationally recognized sign language translator Toni Abadi) to hire two deaf employees in 2004.  It worked out so well that now the deaf and special needs group is an ever-growing percentage of Image Microsystems’ workforce. The company also maintains a close partnership with the nationally respected Texas School for the Deaf—providing internships and full-time employment for students.  The company is now well known in the close-knit deaf community.  As a result of this network, deaf people from all over the US come to Image Microsystems, knowing they will be warmly welcomed.

Image Microsystems’ commitment to sustainability, zero landfill, and no overseas dumping polices were the catalyst for the development of a proprietary manufacturing process for recycled plastic products.  Landscape pavers and other products are made entirely from e-waste plastic harvested from old printer cartridges and consumer electronics.  The manufacturing equipment is operated almost entirely by the deaf and special needs employees.  Members of this group also contribute as technical leads on the computer and printer repair and remanufacturing lines, and in other functions such as in the accounting department. Even during the current economic downturn, business is growing and Image Microsystems continues to hire—including special needs employees. 

 RELEVANCE
According to the CDC, 37 million people in the US have trouble hearing¹.  The CDC also estimates that roughly 8.6% of the adult population is deaf or hard of hearing. Extrapolating that to the state of New York for example—based  on 2008 numbers there would be 1,676,166 deaf or hard of hearing people in the state.   If you look at states such as New Jersey (746,709), Connecticut (301,108), Pennsylvania (1,070,552), Texas (2,084,380), and California (3,161,073),  there a lot of people affected.  On top of that, The US Department of Education reports that the unemployment rate for working-age adults with disabilities has hovered at 70 percent for over a decade. 

e-Waste is becoming an ever-growing problem.  According to the EPA, of the 2.25 million tons of TVs, cell phones and computer products ready for end-of-life management, 18% (414,000 tons) was collected for recycling and 82% (1.84 million tons) was disposed of, primarily in landfills.³ e-Waste is still the fastest growing municipal waste stream in the US.  The category of “selected consumer electronic products” grew by almost 6% from 2006 to 2007, from 2.84 million tons to 3.01 million tons.  While it’s not a large part of the waste stream, e-waste shows a higher growth rate than any other category of municipal waste in the EPA’s more current report.  Overall, between 2005 and 2006, total volumes of municipal waste increased by only 1.2%, compared to 8.6% for e-waste.⁴

Here’s a link to a great video about Image Microsystems.  Here is a copy of the press release that describes the Texas Employment Award: 

Image Microsystems Wins 2009 Texas Employment Award

Workplace training and employment programs for deaf and special needs community garner top honors
 for US technology restoration and e-waste recycling leader

Commerce CA and Austin, TX—October 9, 2009—Image Microsystems—the leading provider of technology restoration, reverse logistics, e-waste recycling, and recycled plastic products manufacturing—today announced they will be presented the Employment Award from the Texas Governor’s Committee for People with Disabilities.

 “Image Microsystems has consistently demonstrated a valuable understanding of the benefit of tapping into the large pool of talented, qualified individuals with disabilities,” Governor Perry said. “This company stands as a vibrant example of the possibilities that can be achieved when forward thinking companies find and cultivate gifted employees.”

Nominations for the Award were submitted by individuals and organizations from communities throughout the state of Texas. Winners were selected by an esteemed panel of judges from the public and private sector all of whom are familiar with disability issues.

Deaf Workers Work on Printer Remanufacturing Line

 “We are truly honored to receive this award,” added Dr. Alex Abadi, CEO of Image Microsystems.  “Our company began this program with two deaf employees in 2004.  Now, over 25% of our workforce comes from this deserving group.  They inspire us daily.  We can’t imagine not having this special community in our workplace”, adds Abadi.

Image Microsystems sponsors Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) students through their Career Technology Education Program.  By employing both deaf and special needs students, the company provides paid internships—giving each student exposure to the world of technology and environmental responsibility.

 The students receive hands-on training and real-life experience in the workplace.  After graduation from TSD, these students are qualified and able to apply for full time employment.  Image Microsystems leverages an onsite American Sign Language translator to assist with employment transition, training, and ongoing support.  To further promote communication, the company purchased several phones capable of Video Relay Services. One Award judge commented that Image Microsystems “shows their understanding of the value that hiring individuals with disabilities can bring to your company.”

“Disabled workers are some of the best employees,” confirms Abadi.  “They have positive attitudes and are very committed.  Other employers just need to give them a chance.”

 About the Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities
The Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities is within the office of the Governor. The committee’s mission is to further opportunities for persons with disabilities to enjoy full and equal access to lives of independence, productivity, and self-determination. The committee is composed of 12 members appointed by the governor and of nonvoting ex officio members.  The Committee serves as a central source of information and education on the abilities, rights, problems, and needs of persons with disabilities.  More information can be found at http://governor.state.tx.us/disabilities/

About Image Microsystems Inc.
Founded in 1992, Image Microsystems Inc. is a world renowned reverse logistics and technology restoration leader dedicated to offering innovative solutions that eliminate the legal, financial, and environmental risk associated with information technology reclamation, recycling, and disposal. The company has over 200,000 square feet of facilities in Commerce, CA and Austin, TX.  For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.imagemicro.com/. 

¹Source:  CDC:  http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/EHDI/FAQ/questionsgeneralHL.htm
²Source:  CDC:  http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_243.pdf
³Source:  The EPA Fact Sheet on e-waste:  http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/manage.htm
⁴Source:  The EPA Report: http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw07‐rpt.pdf

Logo das Olimpíadas de Inverno 2010 em Vancouver

As Olimpíadas de Inverno de 2010, que ocorrerão em Vancouver, Canadá, trazem uma novidade altamente tecnológica e verde: as medalhas. Ao contrário das tradicionais de ouro, prata e bronze, as medalhas serão feitas a partir reciclagem de placas de computadores inutilizados.

Cada peça de um total de 615 será única, já que a fabricação não é em massa, e pesará entre 500 e 576 g, estando entre as mais pesadas da história por causa do material utilizado, uma mistura de metais nobres com esses metais de eletrônicos.

O desenho das medalhas é baseado nas ondas do mar, nas montanhas e nos povos indígenas, tão antigos e tão presentes no país.

Medalhas de reciclagem (Foto: Divulgação)

Essa inovação tecnológica só se tornou possível graças à empresa canadense Teck, possuidora de um sistema que consegue recuperar metais de aparelhos eletrônicos usados. Esses metais são conhecidos como e-waste (lixo eletrônico).

Apesar de ser apenas um pequeno passo na reutilização de materiais, o feito marca uma nova fase de preocupação ambiental até mesmo num dos maiores eventos esportivos do mundo. O Brasil também poderia pensar em alternativas ecológicas já que seremos sede da Copa e das Olimpíadas. As pequenas ações são o grande foco das lutas ambientalistas, cada passo é importante.