[완료] Computer TakeBack Campaign

[조양호]

The Computer TakeBack Campaign is protecting America's public health by promoting corporate accountability for electronic waste.

Tens of million of computers become obsolete every year and less than 10% are collected for recycling, with the rest of them stored in homes and offices, disposed in landfills and burned in incinerators, and shipped to poor countries for dismantling under horrific conditions. Newer, faster, smaller, and cheaper products hit the market every day - all of them toxic, most of them designed for disposal rather than reuse and recycling, and, once obsolete, are ignored by the very companies that profit from short life-spans and cheap design.

Currently, the expense of collecting and managing discarded electronics is borne by taxpayer-funded government programs. Public policy and corporate practice have failed to promote producer take back and clean design. The principle of producer take-back shifts the burden for collection and recycling costs off of taxpayers and government to the producers, providing an incentive for companies to market products that are durable, less-toxic, and recyclable. Companies in Europe and Asia are already implementing take-back programs, including companies that operate in the U.S. but offer no similar programs here. Why are we getting second class treatment from global corporations?

The Computer TakeBack Campaign was formed to promote clean design and brand owner responsibility for discarded computers and electronics. Find out more. Join us.

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Open Letter to Michael Dell

July 14, 2003

Michael Dell, President
Dell Computers
One Dell Way
Round Rock, TX  78682

Dear Mr. Dell:

Dell Computers has been much criticized lately for the company’s shallow efforts to manage electronics sold by Dell after these systems become obsolete.  This criticism comes at a time when the United States is facing an electronics waste (e-waste) crisis. E-waste is the fastest growing and the most toxic component of municipal garbage.  Local governments don’t have the money or the expertise to handle recycling this kind of waste, and not many users want to buy outdated systems, even if they still work or can be refurbished.  Nor are Dell (or other) computers manufactured so they can be easily upgraded to current standards. 

Thus, many of those old computers get thrown away, end up in local dumps and pose a future threat from lead, mercury, toxic flame retardants in plastic components and a host of other toxic ingredients.  Much of the slim percentage of computers sent off for recycling end up in developing countries.  A study last year by environmental groups found that Chinese villagers were breaking up US computers with hammers and burning wires in open fires to strip off insulation, creating extensive environmental pollution and health hazards.

We believe that companies and their leaders have a responsibility to take human health and the environment into account.  You seek to be judged by the success of your company and your many good works in the community; we must also take into account your company’s commitment to comprehensive stewardship of its products.

While a few manufacturers have begun working with environmental and recycling groups on solutions, Dell has mostly put emphasis on public relations efforts.    The company announced earlier this year a series of one-day only collection events in several cities, and shipped ewaste brought forward by community residents (responding themselves in good conscience to a call to protect the Earth and its residents) to a federal prison labor program called UNICOR.   A recent case study, which compared Dell’s recycling to rival computer manufacturer HP, found that Dell’s program was a “high tech chain gang,” not much better run than efforts studied in Chinese villages.  Inmates were engaging in dangerous and rudimentary labor-intensive practices, including breaking apart computers with hammers.  (The other facility reviewed in the case study used a high tech crusher that captured dust and toxic fragments, has an extensive worker safety program and significant employee and public oversight). 

To its credit, Dell Computers responded appropriately to the prison labor issue, and this month cancelled its contract with UNICOR, signing new contracts with two private recyclers (one of whom has pledged not to dispose unwanted residues in municipal landfills or to ship overseas).   But while Dell Computers has removed one stain on the company’s reputation, that is simply not enough.

Programs that require consumers to pay more to ship back their computers after they become obsolete have not worked, according to Dell company spokespeople, who have said response is “lukewarm.”  Dell Computers has issued glowing press releases about the volume of waste the company collected during its one-day pickups. However, it has recycled less than 1/10th of 1 percent of the millions of tons of computers it has produced.  Last year, Dell sold 13 million computers.  According to a report on Dell’s website the company recycled less than 200,000 computers last year (or roughly 7 million pounds; compared to rival HP’s total of almost 50 million pounds during the same period.)  

Dell can do better – as they are required to do in Europe and Japan.  Why is there a double standard?  Shouldn’t a market leader like Dell offer the same levels of care for the public’s health and the environment here as in Japan and Europe?

And, until very recently, Dell has not joined with the many others – including environmental, industry and government officials -- working hard to develop national or local policy solutions.  Because Dell doesn’t have local stores or outlets for sales of their electronics, but comprises the largest percentage of computer sales, they have been a serious impediment to solutions.  (Dell has only recently shown up at an EPA funded national dialog on ewaste issues, called NEPSI.)

We call on you, Michael Dell, to step forward as a leader on this subject.  Dell Computers has said it offers consumers the chance to help protect the environment, but in reality, the company’s efforts so far show a bigger concern with looking good, rather than doing good.  We should expect more from the industry leader.  You put yourself forward as the leader of your company, taking pride in your namesake’s reputation, and you should personally take responsibility to oversee the stewardship of your company’s products, from cradle to grave.  It’s time to make recycling a computer as easy as buying one.

Sincerely,

*Texas Campaign for Environment sincerely apologizes for previously identifying Rev. Childress-Usher with Hospice Austin without approval from the signee or the agency itself.

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