Exporting hazardous waste

Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008 | 2:09 a.m.

Plenty of well-made American products are exported overseas, but not everything that leaves our shores results in a pleasant outcome for our trading partners. That is the case with used electronic components that contain copper and gold but whose by-products also include toxic metals.

The problem, as disclosed Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is that China, India and African countries that receive these items do not employ proper disposal practices, placing their workers at risk and posing a danger to their environments. To extract the precious metals they often rely on unsafe, antiquated open-air incineration methods or acid baths.

The GAO chastised the Environmental Protection Agency for allowing this to happen through lax enforcement. The agency, in defending its oversight of the exports, responded that the vast majority of used computers, printers, cell phones and other electronic equipment winds up in U.S. landfills. Even so, the GAO, using the agency’s statistics for 2006, estimated that up to 66 million used electronic components that year were collected for reuse or recycling, most of which were exported.

Although many of the used components are shipped to countries that employ proper disposal methods, the agency has shown a lack of judgment in allowing these items to also be exported to countries that obviously are ill-equipped to handle them.

What is particularly alarming is the possibility that exports of used electronic products will increase. As the GAO noted, a growing number of states are banning the dumping of those items in their landfills.

That should prompt the agency to adopt even stricter regulations to ensure that used computers and other hazardous goods do not wind up in countries where they can make people sick or contribute to environmental damage.

The irony in this is that there was plenty of justifiable blame on China for exporting dangerous lead-based toys to this country. The fact that we are guilty of shipping hazardous waste to foreign nations is a major embarrassment for us.