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  3. E-waste In Australia we’ve seen rapid uptake of new technology, from VCRs to personal organizers to DVD players. Culturally,

E-waste In Australia we’ve seen rapid uptake of new technology, from VCRs to personal organizers to DVD players. Culturally,

admin2010-05-09  14
问题                                            E-waste
    In Australia we’ve seen rapid uptake of new technology, from VCRs to personal organizers to DVD players. Culturally, we’re somewhat proud of our techno-savvy attitudes. We feel that it reflects our willingness to accept, rather than resist, change. Australia is currently one of the top ten countries using information and communication technology, ranking tenth in the world for spending per capita and fifth in the world for spending as a percentage of gross domestic product. In short, we love spending money on gadgets.
    However, with the constant drive to have the newest and latest products comes the inevitable wastage of the "old" products they replace. Obsolete electronic goods, or "e-waste" is one of the fastest growing waste types and the problem of e-waste is global. New electronic equipment technology is constantly being developed, there is rapid adoption of this technology and there is an increasing speed with which this technology reaches obsolescence (作废；过时).
    Andy, a 30-year old PR officer, bought her first computer in 1994. ＄2200 got her a 486 PC package with a color ink jet printer. The last 9 years and various employers have seen Andy’s main computer change 5 times. Each computer has sat on her desk for an average of only eighteen months.
    There are an estimated 9.2 million computers in use around Australia. It is expected that over this year a further 2.1 million computers will enter the market, while 3 million will reach the end of their life. This amounts to thousands of tons of "e-waste" made up of obsolete computers along with broken monitors, used toner, modems, printers and a range of other peripherals (外围产品) and consumables. The question is "Where have Andy’s and the rest of Australia’s unwanted computers and IT waste gone?"
Garage days
    So just what do you do with a computer that you no longer need? Give it away? Trash it? Recycle it?
    "I paid a few hundred to get a Pentium processor and modem for my old 486 so that I could use the Internet at home," says Andy. "Eventually, I no longer needed it. Even with the upgrades I couldn’t give it away. No one wanted it."
    Andy’s 486 sat in her garage for four years before she gave it to Computer bank, a Melbourne-based not-for-profit organization that recycles computers and donates them to disadvantaged and community groups. Andy is not alone. It is estimated that in 2006 there will be around 1.6 million computers disposed of in landfill, 1.8 million put in storage (in addition to the 5.3 million already gathering dust in garages and other storage areas) and 0.5 million recycled in Australia alone.
Why is e-waste a problem?
    In Australia we’re reasonably good at recycling through council collections. The materials collected through curbside collections are largely simple materials—such as glass, aluminum and mixed paper— that can be sorted and resold on the commodity market. The difficulty with electronic waste and many other products is that they are made from a huge range of component materials that are useless for further manufacture until the product is dismantled and the component materials are separated—often a very difficult and expensive process.
    Computers and other electronic equipment are made from hundreds of different materials. Many of these materials are inherently valuable, such as gold and platinum, and many are non-renewable. If they can be extracted they can be reused in manufacture again as a "secondary" raw material.
    There are also some nastiness in e-waste. Heavy metals including lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic are used in electronic equipment. When disposed of they can leach from landfill tips into the water table. Printer inks and toners often contain toxic materials such as carbon black and cadmium. It is these environmental health implications that have put e-waste under the spotlight of international governments and environmentalists alike.
"Not in my backyard"
    Realizing the risks of heavy metals and other toxins, many developed nations were quick to place restrictions on the disposal of certain types of e-waste. Unfortunately, the concern for the problem of e-waste in some countries only stretched as far as the local environment. In the USA, consumers take a certain comfort in programs that offer to recycle their obsolete computers. However, few of these programs recycle locally. Some begin as well-intentioned programs that meet difficulties. Some are as downright attempt at "green-washing".
    Last year, the Basel Action Network and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition released the alarming report Exporting Harm: The Techno-Trashing of Asia. The report found that 50 to 80% of e-waste collected for recycling in the United States is exported to developing nations where the environment is being polluted and local men, women and children are being exposed to toxins.
    In the USA local recycling facilities operate under strict occupational health and safety standards. Many people have no idea of what "recycling" really looks like in developing nations.
    "Recycling centres" have sprung up in developing nations to cater for the exported waste. Electronic goods are reused or recycled in unregulated and unsafe conditions. In some areas it is not uncommon to see open burning of plastics and wires and smelting of circuit boards to reclaim metals. Riverbank acid baths are used to extract gold. Lead-containing cathode ray tubes from monitors and television sets don’t render much of marketable value and so are dumped. Toner cartridges (色带盒) are pulled apart manually, sending clouds of toner dust into the air. The workers generally work without facemasks or protective clothing.
The Basel Convention
    International outrage at the trafficking of hazardous waste led to the drafting and adoption of the Basel Convention under the United Nations Environment Programmer. The Basel Convention, a legally binding international agreement, was developed to address the problem of the uncontrolled movement and dumping of hazardous wastes across international boundaries, particularly to developing nations.
    Australia ratified the Basel Convention in 1992 and now hazardous wastes can only be exported from Australia with a permit, granted only where it can be shown that the wastes will be managed in an environmentally sound manner in the country of import. Under Hazardous Waste Act, exporting hazardous waste without a permit is an offence, punishable with a fine of up to ＄1 million or imprisonment for up to five years.
    156 countries have now ratified the Basel agreement, ensuring a level of international cooperation that may limit the growth of poorly equipped "recycling centers". The Bush Administration has already received widespread criticism for placing commercial interests over environmental through opposition to the Kyoto agreement. The Basel agreement brings a sense of deja vu—of the original Basel Convention signatory nations only Haiti, Afghanistan and the United States of America have not ratified the Convention.
Global solutions
    Perhaps our society’s biggest problem with e-waste (and other waste types) is our backward approach—we wait until we have a waste problem before we think about solving it. According to Helen Lewis, Director of the Centre for Design at RMIT University, tackling the problem at the source is often cheaper and more effective than trying to solve the problem at the end of the line. "A lot of the attention has focused on waste legislators, when our answers could be coming from product designers," says Lewis. And she would know, having spent a number of years as Manager of Industry Programs at the state government waste authority Eco-Recycle Victoria.
    "If we’re serious about addressing our waste problems, we need to start work at the design stage of a product’s life cycle. Products can be better designed so that they last longer, are more environmentally responsible and so that they can be more easily dismantled and recycled at the end of their life."
    The Centre for Design at RMIT University is a leader in the growing field of Design for the Environment. This approach to design ensures that environmental impacts, including pollution and waste, are considered and minimized at all stages of a product’s life, not just at the disposal stage. Design for the Environment fits in with a broader theme—the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR involves producers and original equipment manufacturers taking more responsibility for managing the environmental impacts of their products throughout their life. In other words, it’s about making the producer pay.
"Not in my backyard" implies that many countries’ concern for the problem of e-waste is only limited to the protection of ______ instead of the global one.
选项
答案the local environment
解析 参看Not in my backyard部分，特别是第一段第二句话“Unfortunately，the concern for the problem of e-waste in some countries only stretched as far as the local environment．”，可知在一些国家人们对电子废物问题的关注只停留在保护当地环境，而非全球环境。
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