The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is coming under fire for having done little to slow or stop the export of discarded electronic products to poorly regulated countries, where the unwanted appliances and gadgets harm the environment and public health. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a scathing critique of the EPA’s failures in a report commissioned by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard L. Berman (D-CA). 

The GAO report noted that U.S. authorities have yet to develop a national approach for handling the unwanted electronic products, which often contain toxic metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. Instead, the items are often shipped off to China, India, and other countries to be dismantled under unsafe conditions. 

Consumer behavior in the U.S. only compounds the problem, as laptops, cellphones, and televisions are replaced with increasing frequency, leaving the older models to be trashed.

A January 2007 rule requires the EPA to oversee the export of cathode-ray tubes (CRT).  EPA spokesman Timothy Lyons claims that since this rule has gone into effect, EPA has initiated 20 investigations. But the report said that dozens of U.S. companies are circumventing the CRT rule and the EPA cannot identify where 80 percent of U.S. electronic waste is headed.

Furthermore, some U.S. recycling companies are lying about their environmental credentials, according to the GAO report. By setting up fictional brokers in Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Singapore, and Vietnam, GAO investigators found that 43 U.S. recyclers were violating the CRT regulations. Yet, many touted their environmental friendliness in marketing materials. One company that illegally shipped CRT monitors overseas boasts on its web site that “your e-waste is recycled properly, right here in the United States, not simply dumped on somebody else.”

 A toxic graveyard

Photo by Curtis Palmer