Electronics Recycling Exports: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

1. Electronics Recycling Exports: The good, the bad, and the ugly Robin Ingenthron President, American Retroworks Inc. VP, ElectroniCycle Inc. NAHMMA 2002 – Dallas, Texas

2. Introduction: the CRT Monitor • US DEMAND – 50 million monitors per year • Highest grades of copper • % Made in Asia rising every year • Prices fall every year, but monitors are more • steady than CPUs • Consumer preference, not obsolescence is driving the market

3. Fastest growing component of US Solid Waste stream since 1990: computer waste Number of TVs destined for obsolescence in 2007: 750,000,000 TV repair employment 1980: 100,000+ (NESDA members) TV repair employment 2000: 39,000 TV repair employment, projected for 2010: 19,000 Electronics is fastest growing % of MSW

4. Demanufacturing labor (75 monitors per FTE/day) Scrap value – copper, leaded prices in 1872 dollars have fallen 100 fold (steel, alumimum, plastic also down) Reuse/Repair rate 25% American consumer demand is fickle… 14” monitors might as well be B&W Why is domestic electronics recycling expensive?

5. Labor cost to product value

6. Why scrap value is low? Mining is cheap! • Percentage of gold, copper, silver, lead ores production from federal lands:95% • Estimated Cost of Superfund cleanups to US EPA - $10B • Number of 15 largest EPA Superfund Sites which are copper/lead/gold mines:14 • % of all toxic emissions from all US Industries attributed to hard- rock mining: 47% • Projected Bureau of Land Management revenues from mineral royalties and leases: $300,000 • Federal Employees managing mineral leases: 339

7. Expense buys a lot of Recycling Jobs

8. THAT’s the USA? What about Asia Copper as a percentage of mined Material, after cyanide leaching: <2% Of that copper, % “electronics grade” <10% • NO Superfund • Philippines, Indonesia, PNG passed legislation modeled on USA 1872 General Mining Act ($5/acre) • Number chinese mining deaths 2001: 5,000-6,000

9. Secondary Nonferrous Metals Smelters BAODING ALUMINUM WORKS BAOTOU ALUMINIUM SMELTER, INNER MONGOLIA BEIJING METALS & MINERALS IMPORT & EXPORT CORPORATION BEIJING NONFERROUS METALS INDUSTRY CORPORATION BENXI ALLOY PLANT CHANGSHA ALUMINIUM MATERIAL FACTORY CHANGZHOU HUAYI ALUMINIUM PROFILES CO., LTD CHANGZHOU SMELTERY CHINA NATIONAL METALS & MINERALS IMP. & EXP. CORP. TIANJIN BRANCH CHINA NATIONAL NON-FERROUS METALS IMPORT AND EXPORT CORPORATION, BEIJING BRANC CHINA NATIONAL NON-FERROUS METALS INDUSTRY CORPORATION ZHUZHOU SMELT CHINA NATIONAL NONFERROUS METALS IMP. & EXP. CORP. GUANGXI CO. CHINA NONFERROUS METAL INDUSTRY CO. SHANGHAI UNITED CENTER CHINA NONFERROUS METAL INDUSTRY CORP. XIANGHUALING STANNARY NORTH-WEST ALUMINIUM WORKING MILL DESHENG ALUMINIUM PLANT FUJIAN CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL SUPPLY CORPORATION FUSHUN ALUMINIUM PLANT GANSU ALUMINIUM INDUSTRY COMPANY GANZHOU ALUMINIUM PLANT GEJIU GENERAL FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS & TRADE CORPORATION GUANGDONG NANHAI COUNTY XINGFA ALUMINIUM SECTION PLANT. GUANGXI HARDWARE MINERALS IMP. & EXP. BEIHAI CORP. GUANGZHOU ALUMINIUM MATERIAL PLANT GUANGZHOU ALUMINIUM PROCESSING FACTORY GUANGZHOU COPPER AND ALUMINIUM MATERIAL FACTORY GUIZHOU ALUMINIUM PLANT HAINAN NATIONAL FOREIGN TRADE CORPORATION HANGZHOU YATONG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD HANSEN SPECIAL ELECTRIC WIRE CO. LTD. HENGDIAN GROUP CO. HENGDIAN GROUP CORP. IMPORT & EXPORT COMPANY HENGYANG TIANYUAN NONFERROUS METAL CO.,LTD. JIANGSU ALUMINIUM PLANT JIANGXI NON-FERROUS METALS SMELTING AND PROCESSING PLANT JILIN NICKEL INDUSTRY CORPORATION KAI PINT ALUMINIUM SECTIONS MATERIAL MANUFACTORY LANZHOU LIANCHENG ALUMINIUM SMELTER LUOYANG PETROLEUM CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SUPPLY AND MARKET COMPANY MATOU ALUMINIUM PLANT MEIZHOU CIGARTTE FACTORY METALLURGCAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, GUANGHUA CHEMICAL INDUSTRY COMPANY NANHAI OIL ZHUHAI BASE CO. NANJING DOLOMITE MINE NANJING HUAHONG MAGNESIUM COMPANY NINGBO THREE A INDUSTRIAL GENERAL CORPORATION NORTHEAST LIGHT ALLOY FABRICATION PLANT PANSHI ALUMINIUM WORKS, JILIN PINGXIANG ALUMINIUM FACTORY, JIANGXI QINGTONGXIA ALUMINIUM PLANT SHANDONG ALUMINIUM COMPANY SHANGHAI AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING FACTORY SHANGHAI NON-FERROUS METALS INDUSTRY CORP SHANGHAI SMELTER SHANGHAI VACUUM FLASK & VESSEL MANUFACTURING CORP. SHANTOU SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE, ZHUCHI REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT CORP. SHAOGUAN SMELTERY SHENYANG LIMING FORGING AND CASTING INDUSTRIAL COMPANY SHENYANG NONFERROUS METALS WORKS SHENZHEN JINYUE ALUMINIUM PRODUCT CO. LTD. THE BEIJING ZHONG KE NEW TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF CHEMICAL METALLURGY COMPANG TIANJIN METAL MATERIALS WEST STATION STORE COMPANY URUMCHI ALUMINIUM PLANT WAFANGDIAN MATERIAL REGENERATING, UTILIZING CO. WUXI COUNTY WELDING MATERIAL MANUFACTORY WUXI SMELTERY YANTAI INSTITUTE OF MECHANICAL TECHNOLOGY YELLOW RIVER ALUMINIUM INDUSTRY COMPANY LIMITED YUNNAN ALUMINIUM PLANT ZHEJIANG HENGSHAN FERROALLY FACTORY List of Chinese non-ferrous smelters

10. Extraction is Getting Worse • Percent of Congo's lowland gorilla population since mining of Coltan for cell phones began 10 years ago: -50% • Number of years of known world copper reserves (1970 rate of consumption): less than 100 • Change in World Rate of consumption between 1990 and 1970: +50% • USGS plan for meeting copper demand in 100 years: ocean bed mining

11. China imports copper to make monitors: 30% is recycled scrap. China imports residue: only 12% of a monitor is copper bearing. USA companies shipping all monitors “as is” are creating piles of toxic waste What about Recycling?

12. 25 USA employees: 25% monitors sold for reuse/repair, positive revenue. 75% scrapped in USA at a loss. 6 USA employees: 75% monitors shipped for scrap and repair at $0. 25% sent to company A above. 1 USA employee: 100% export. Generator is sent shipping container and packing list. Where are the toxics along for the ride? 3 USA electronics scrap practices

13. A real bad sign

14. Does the company have the capacity to demanufacture 7 out of 10 of the leaded CRT monitors it receives? If not, is it paying for specific, tested materials and rejecting those that aren’t reusable? What do they do with monitors that can’t be repaired? What technical staff examine whether monitors are repairable? What are the chemical weights (gram per Kg) of the copper, gold, or other metals the export scrap contains? Who pays for transportation? Is the material worth the transport, or is the transport cost an alternative to dumping? Questions to ask your recycler

15. All material must be individually listed on bill of lading. No “package deals”. Each listed item must be for positive revenue. Company must have employee and plant capacity to demanufacture non-exportables. Keep a list of items (e.g. CRT glass) never to be exported. Demand to see export bill of lading or shipping manifests (with name removed to protect proprietary market relationships). The cigarettes may not be listed, but the rest of the document tells a story. 4 Simple Rules for Exports

16. Longer Term Solutions to E-Waste Recycling • CERCLA (Superfund) Reauthorization - Funded by taxpayers since industry funding expired in 1995. • US Telecommunications Act - Provides billions in free airwaves for transition to Digital TV, which will "obsolete" the majority of TVs now in service; no responsibility for recycling • General Mining Act of 1872 - Most terms have not been amended for 130 years.