Press Room :: Indigenous Peoples Demand a Role in Global Waste Management. Posted on: Thursday, May 6, 2010 Keywords: Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Economic Justice, UN, CSD, Indigenous Rights MADRE partner Lucy Mulenkei, Executive Director of the Indigenous Information Network (IIN), is participating at the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) meeting this week and next at the UN. This letter is a response to the Thematic Cluster on Waste Management by Indigenous Peoples.
United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development18th sessionMay 3rd - 14th, 2010United Nations Headquarters, New YorkThematic Cluster on Waste Management Mr. Waste management is one of the key concerns for Indigenous Peoples and their local communities. The liquid, solid and hazard waste and substances dumped into the waters and onto the lands enters the lifecycle of the different communities unnoticed, and it slowly causes short and long term health impacts, like cancer and waterborne diseases, that affect women, children, youths and all members of the communities.
Mr. Used electronics: opportunity or toxic waste? Robin Ingenthron has built an e-waste empire in Middlebury, processing about 13 million pounds yearly of discarded computers, televisions, stereos and miscellaneous electronic equipment in one of the largest operations in New England. Revenues for Ingenthron's company, Good Point Recycling, have grown to about $3 million annually. But now, Ingenthron says the company's competitiveness is threatened by a proposed ban on exporting hazardous waste, which would include non-working electronics, to Third World countries.
The ban has been ratified by 75 countries, including the European Union and excluding the United States. Jim Puckett, executive director of Basel Action Network, a Seattle-based nonprofit, says the ban will go into effect when ratified by 15 more countries. Puckett, who supports the ban, expects that to happen in the next two to three years.
"A handful of countries in the developed world don't like the ban," Puckett said. No exemptions Fair trade for electronics. Press Room :: Indigenous Peoples Demand a Role in Global Waste Management. A call to protect indigenous communities from waste producing industries. For several decades after the Second World War, the Marshall Islands, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, were administered by the United States under trusteeship arrangements with the United Nations until 1986, when it became a sovereign nation. For more than a decade from the mid 1940’s, the US conducted extensive nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands, including the detonation of largest bomb in Marshallese and American history, 1,000 times stronger than at Hiroshima.
Calin Georgescu, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights obligations related to environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and waste, recently visited the Islands and in a statement noted that the people there remain dislocated from their indigenous ways of life because of lingering effects from the 67 nuclear weapons tests carried out by the United States. Buddhist Economics: A Middle Way for the Market Place: Phra Thepwethi, P. A. Payutto, Jourdan Arenson, Bruce Evans, Dhammavijaya: 9789748907031: Amazon.com. The Wisdom of Sustainability: Buddhist Economics for the 21st Century: Sulak Sivaraksa: 9780982165614: Amazon.com.
Download. Waste Management - Small is beautiful | GRID-Arendal - Publications. The priority now is to decrease the amount of waste we generate. That means changing our consumption patterns, for example by choosing products that use recyclable material, market fresh produce instead of canned food, less packaging and easily recyclable containers (for example glass instead of plastic). It also means recycling – sorting, collecting, processing and reusing materials that would otherwise be handled as wastes.
Many organizations are now engaged in education campaigns, and they seem to be working – in the last two decades, the amount of material being recycled in rich countries has grown dramatically. Most of it is paper, followed by glass, metals, aluminium, plastic, and organic waste. The economy of recycling Recycling activities are economically important. Recycling questioned Many recycling paths go from rich to poor countries. Informal waste management In developing countries, waste management is reduced to what the community can afford (usually not very much).
Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia. The quest for zero e-waste. Where does e-waste end up? According to the US EPA, more than 4.6 million tonnes of e-waste ended up in US landfills in 2000. Toxic chemicals in electronics products can leach into the land over time or are released into the atmosphere, impacting nearby communities and the environment.
In many European countries, regulations have been introduced to prevent electronic waste being dumped in landfills due to its hazardous content. However, the practice still continues in many countries. In Hong Kong for example, it is estimated that 10-20 percent of discarded computers go to landfill. This releases heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury into the air and ashes. Mercury released into the atmosphere can bio accumulate in the foodchain, particularly in fish - the major route of exposure for the general public. If the products contain PVC plastic, highly toxic dioxins and furans are also released. Reuse A good way to increase a product's lifespan. Recycle Export How did the trade evolve? E-waste_publication_screen_finalversion-sml. Urban Development - What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management. As the world hurtles toward its urban future, the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW), one of the most important by-products of an urban lifestyle, is growing even faster than the rate of urbanization.
Ten years ago there were 2.9 billion urban residents who generated about 0.64 kg of MSW per person per day (0.68 billion tonnes per year). This report estimates that today these amounts have increased to about 3 billion residents generating 1.2 kg per person per day (1.3 billion tonnes per year). By 2025 this will likely increase to 4.3 billion urban residents generating about 1.42 kg/capita/day of municipal solid waste (2.2 billion tonnes per year). This report provides consolidated data on MSW generation, collection, composition, and disposal by country and by region.
Despite its importance, reliable global MSW information is not typically available. Sustainable e-waste management, key for future protection of Brazil’s environment. Brazilians became the 10th biggest tablet buyers in the world in 2012. In the third quarter alone, sales topped almost 770,000, a 127% increase compared with the same period in 2011. Demand for smartphones is on the rise too: 4.2 million were sold in the country over these three months according to IDC, a global technology consultancy.
But, as consumption booms – especially among Brazil’s emerging middle class –, so does the risk that these gadgets are inappropriately disposed when they become worn out or obsolete. “The appliances release toxic chemicals in the environment, and contaminate the air, water and land,” explains Vanda Scartezini, one of the authors of a World Bank report on Brazil’s electronic waste. “These substances, such as mercury and lead, may as well cause health problems among waste pickers and other people.” Collection and processing In addition, e-waste management could create a significant number of high-quality jobs in Brazil, according to the study.
PACE. The Working Group on the Partnership (see Term of References), established by the Conference of the Parties in its decision IX/9, is the operating mechanism for the Partnership and organizational matters, and serves as a forum for information sharing. Membership of the working group is open to Parties or signatories to the Basel Convention, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, all stakeholders, including manufacturers, recyclers, refurbishers and academia, and, Basel Convention Regional and Coordinating Centres for Capacity Building and Technology Transfer (BCRCs) which have specific expertise and experience required for the activities of this group. The Working Group elaborated its work plan, terms of reference, financial arrangements and established four project groups to launch projects to implement four agreed activities. The "Relevant Documents" page contains the report of the meetings as well as other documents on PACE.
New Agenda seeks to transform e-waste into opportunity. Geneva, 3 April 2013 – Representatives of Central American governments, private companies, universities and non-governmental organizations have agreed on a 20-point Agenda aiming to promote advances in the handling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or ”e-waste”) in the region. Key will be the application and identification of business models that leverage recycling opportunities and create new employment. The new Agenda was agreed by the 86 participants in the ITU/UNEP Workshop for Capacity Building on Environmentally Responsible Management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), organized in San Salvador, March 19-21 with the support of ITU Sector Member Telefónica. The Agenda emphasizes increased collaboration between all parties, as well as the development of online learning programmes and workshops aimed at policy-makers.
Electronic devices can contain up to 60 different chemical elements. Dr Hamadoun I. Note to media About ITU... Electronic waste. The Seattle Times: Nation & World: E-waste dump of the world. GUIYU, China — When discarded computers vanish from desktops around the world, they often end up in Guiyu, which may be the electronic-waste capital of the globe.
The city is a sprawling computer slaughterhouse. Some 60,000 laborers toil here at primitive e-waste recycling — if it can be called that — even as the work imperils their health amid a runoff of toxic metals and acids. Computer carcasses line the streets, awaiting dismemberment. Circuit boards and hard drives lie in huge mounds. At thousands of workshops, laborers shred and grind plastic casings into particles, snip cables and pry chips from circuit boards. Scavenging, not recycling "I don't think this is recycling," said Wu Song, an environmental activist from nearby Shantou University. What occurs is more akin to e-waste scavenging. In the United States, consumers, manufacturers and retailers are only beginning to heed the cost of safely ending the lives of electronics. Few restrictions Exporters blamed The lowest bid.