Recycling and the environment
If you have your old computers picked up for recycling then you are totally doing good for the environment, aren’t you? In this blog, I will explain that not everything is automatically what it seems. Many business owners, like IT Recycling, think it is incredibly important that we all do everything we can to achieve a cleaner and better environment. Unfortunately, there are also many companies that take advantage of this and exploit these good intentions for their own gain where the environment (and often African children) pay the price for the good intentions.
The problem
Anyone who has a computer picked up for recycling has a number of legal obligations:
- The recycling company collecting the old computers must have a VIHB permit.
- With every load, you have to get a disposal document, the“accompanying letter of waste.”
If you pay attention to this, you are complying with the law. If you do not comply with this and get an environmental inspection, you will receive a very large fine. Although the VIHB registration required for collectors provides some guidance for those seeking to dispose of the waste, that VIHB alone seems to be a wash in many cases and does not provide sufficient clarity on how the waste is recycled. In fact, since 2012, the requirements for applying for a VIHB listing have been relaxed, allowing almost anyone to collect waste. We at IT Recycling find this very worrisome and see how the environment suffers as a result. However, many companies are unaware of the existence of the VIHB list and use unregistered collectors, which can result in a hefty fine! Therefore, always use a company listed on the VIHB list!
Environmental and social impacts
My opinion: Well a VIHB says absolutely nothing about the quality of a recycling company and no VIHB, they work clandestinely. Unfortunately, I have found that there are still a lot of companies doing business with shadowy types who do not have VIHB but collect old computers. VIHB says nothing at all about the quality – environmental friendliness of a recycling company. We know that huge amounts of computer waste are shipped to Third World countries for irresponsible recycling. Recycling in third world countries is more profitable than in our clean Europe. The labor is mostly done by children and is severely underpaid. The working conditions are terrible. And anything they cannot use is disgracefully dumped. About 90% of the computer waste that ends up in West Africa comes from Europe. And this is quite extraordinary, since export of waste is prohibited in all EU countries. But from Rotterdam, containers of discarded computers leave every day for landfills in Third World countries where small children use gas torches to fire parts from circuit boards. And all that crap was collected from companies in the West.
The solution for IT recycling
Companies have discarded computers collected, assuming it will be reprocessed neatly and environmentally friendly but in fact those old computers are causing an environmental disaster in Africa and China. For the companies, of course, it is completely unclear whether their recycler is engaged in exporting waste materials. We at IT recycling have an active policy to prevent computer waste we have owned from entering the third world. We do business directly with the parties that reprocess materials within the Netherlands. And it is not always the cheapest, but it is done in a decent way both for the environment and for the people working there.