For over two decades, many developed countries have sent massive amounts of plastic wastes to China for recycling.
But that option is drying up following a Chinese ban on rubbish imports this year, forcing countries, particularly developed nations, to seriously rethink how to process their unwanted materials – a question that have been dodged for many years.
Federal regulators are considering a proposal to ban exports of unprocessed e-scrap and require stringent tracking procedures for exports that are still allowed.
As Robert Reed examines a mountain of trash piled three storeys high, a thin white plastic bag catches his eye. He fishes it out and holds it up. “That is a problem plastic,” he says gravely. “These get stuck in the machines, and there is no market for them.” He gives it a little wave and lets it float back down on to the heap.
BY CHRIS GILLIS |TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018. Photo:Africa Studio / Shutterstock.com.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has proposed regulations that would strengthen U.S. government oversight of discarded electronic waste exports due to national security concerns.
Since 2008, Samsung has been a strong supporter of recycling by providing convenient and responsible takeback options for consumer electronics globally. In a new initiative with our partner – Basel Action Network (BAN), we are adopting BAN’s EarthEye™ service – a global GPS based tracking system for electronic waste.
The Basel Action Network (BAN) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Association for Information Destruction® (NAID®) to require all current and future e-Stewards® Certified Recyclers in all of their facilities to also become NAID AAA Certified for Electronic Media. For their part, NAID will grant e-Stewards “Network Participant” status, which includes discounts on consultation, training, marketing, and initiation fees.
In the wake of multiple scandalous discoveries of piles of used Ofo and Lime rideshare bikes in the US and China, the Basel Action Network (BAN) and its e-waste recycling program, e-Stewards®, is calling on all bicycle and scooter rideshare companies, and the city governments that license them, to establish responsible end-of-life policies to ensure maximal reuse and safe and responsible recycling for those bikes and scooters that cannot be reused.
June 21, 2018. Seattle, WA. Basel Action Network (BAN), which has become internationally known for placing GPS units inside discarded electronics and tracking them to horrific recycling operations in Asia and Africa, is now offering an enterprise-scale version of their technology to corporations and governments of all kinds.
The e-Stewards team is delighted to congratulate e-Stewards certified company Blue Star Recyclers for being selected as this year’s Social Venture of the Year. Blue Star was selected from among 60 social ventures by an expert panel of impact investors at the Colorado Impact Initiative Days in Denver that took place on March 3rd and 4th, 2016. Read more…