World Reuse, Repair and Recycling Association

The World Reuse, Repair and Recycling Association (WR3A) is a business consortium dedicated to the reform of the trade of e-waste. The WR3A is inspired by fair trade organizations.

History

WR3A is a Fair Trade association (tradename Fair Trade Recycling reserved in 2013) established both to improve the export markets for surplus electronics and e-waste, and to defend them from biased reporting and racial profiling. WR3A was conceived in 2006 following a visit to China by a group including a USA electronics recycler (American Retroworks Inc.), a University of California Davis recycling program director, and a Seattle recycler with a zero-export policy. The small non-profit organization is considered an early leader in the #ownvoices movement, going to great lengths to make sure that importers of used goods in emerging markets are allowed to describe and defend their used goods trade.

The group was inspired by a visit to three of China's semi knock down factories. Those factories purchased USA computer monitors which still have functional CRTs. The CRTs are knocked down to the bare tube, which is inserted into a new TV or monitor case, complete with new tuner board, etc. WR3A founders observed that Western journalists reporting on the purchase and import of the used CRTs invariably described them as "primitive" wire burning operations, rather than re-manufacturers. These were often the same contract manufacturers who originally assembled brand new CRT monitors, and now rebuilt second-hand CRTs. The USA has its own CRT refurbishing factory, Video Display Corp of Tucker, Georgia.[1]

WR3A proposed to form a coalition of USA companies to export only functional CRT monitors directly to the reuse factories, removing imploded, damaged, screen-burned, older, or non-compliant raster (e.g. Trinitron) CRTs from loads destined for CRT factories.[2] The USA companies which remove and recycle the bad 1/3 of CRTs would benefit from higher prices, and the Chinese factories would bypass the sorting villages such as Guiyu. The WR3A was swamped by orders from Asian factories that year.[3]

The Chinese government, which took over most of the new CRT manufacturing capacity worldwide in the 1990s,[4] eventually opposed the import of used CRTs. Many of the SKD factory owners relocated their businesses to countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Others relocated their used monitor sourcing operations only to Hong Kong and Vietnam, trucking the CRTs overland to Chinese factories.

During this period, several anti-globalist NGOs began a campaign to end trade in used electronics, especially CRTs. CBS 60 Minutes, The Economist, BusinessWeek and others ran reports claiming that 80% of the displays exported were not reused but burned for copper in primitive scrapyards. The source of the 80% dumping claim later retracted it[5].[6]

Eventually, reuse operations in Asia turned to re-export to Africa, and used local sources (urban Asian cities) for used CRTs used in remanufacturing new TV and monitor displays. With the decline of purchases of used displays from the USA in 2011, WR3A recognized organizational conflicts between cooperative suppliers competing for a declining market. The organization refined its mission in 2013 emphasize "anti-defamation" of overseas refurbishing companies, and promoted used electronics exports through peer-reviewed fair trade agreements. Importers of used equipment in Africa, Asia and Latin America consider the organization a defender of Tech Sector refurbishers. WR3A remains dedicated to the principle that if used computer exports are outlawed, only outlaws will export used computers. [7] The organization strongly refutes what it considers racial profiling of tech sector in emerging markets.

The organization has members in South America, Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe, dedicated to defending legitimate used electronics exporters from what the organization considers false and defamatory declarations as "e-waste" and "toxics externalization".

Recent activities

In 2019 and 2020, WR3A members in Africa and Asia were some of the subjects covered by two authors. Dr. Josh Lepawsky book "Reassembling Rubbish: Worlding Electronic Waste" was published by MIT Press (2018). A significant third chapter of the book focuses on the accusations against a Nigerian-born UK businessman and master TV repair technician, Joseph Benson, owner of BJ Electronics. Benson was accused by Greenpeace and Basel Action Network of purchasing used televisions (largely from hotel upgrades) in order to dump them in Ghana and Nigeria. Dr. Lepawsky robustly examines the evidence vs. the accusations levelled against Benson, and painstakingly documents "common knowledge" asserted by NGOs is disproved by fact based records. A second best-selling author, Bloomsburg columnist Adam Minter, wrote two books with sections describing WR3A member activity. The first, "Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion Dollar Trash Trade" (Bloomsbury Press, 2015) describes some of the refurbishers in Penang Malaysia defended by WR3A and examines claims made by NGOs about CPU chip recovery and repurposing operations in Guiyu, China which were defended by WR3A in 2003. The second book, "Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale" (Bloomsbury Press, 2019) concludes with two chapters focusing on WR3A members in Ghana falsely accused of dumping waste. Minter also obtained interviews with Joseph Benson's prosecutor, and concludes that "waste colonialism" has largely allowed rich white countries to dictate what Africans are allowed to buy. Both authors cite WR3A's coverage of Joseph "Hurricane" Benson in social media.

In 2018, Spanish Documentary filmmakers Juan Solera and Albert Julia released a 52 minute documentary on the sensationalist press surrounding Agbogbloshie, the city scrapyard for Ghana's capital Accra. The documentary features numerous "own voice" discussion by African tech sector repair and reuse importers, and several interviews with WR3A founder, Robin Ingenthron. The film won a Green "Trophie D'Or" (gold trophie) at the 2018 Deauville Film Festival. The Executive Director of the Basel Action Network was interviewed but refused to allow his interview be used. A short 3 minute "teaser" for Blame Game (working title, "Clean Hands") included the very first effort by a journalist to actually interview Joseph Benson of BJ Electronics, who defends his business practices.

In 2015, 2017, and 2018 WR3A led visits to the Agbogbloshie District in central Accra, bringing journalists from Al Jazeera, The Independent, Smithsonian, and others to meet with Dagbani speaking translators. The visit led the journalists to discredit[8] allegations that Agbogbloshie was "the largest e-waste dump in the world", a "former wetland on the outskirts of the city", and that it received hundreds of sea containers full of junk electronics. WR3A found credible evidence that dumping at the site was being exaggerated by Accra Metropolitan Association representatives interested in relocating economic refugees to develop the property, three months before forced evictions. Used electronics processed at the site were shown to be delivered by carters with wheelbarrows, and to consist of devices, such as VCRs, which had been imported decades previously. WR3A provided reporters with World Bank statistics showing domestic Ghana generation more than accounted for the e-waste observed in Ghana, and recorded the organization's own interviews of Ghana Tech Sector representatives (uploaded to Youtube / WR3A). Largely as a result of WR3A's research and interviews with importers, WR3A was invited back to Interpol's offices in Lyon, France in 2015, to be assured "Project Eden" was discontinued.

Fair Trade Recycling registered trademark licensed to WR3A

In September 2013, the WR3A adapted the tradename "Fair Trade Recycling". The trademark was registered with the USPTO and registered as a supplemental certification on May 26, 2015. The organization does not claim to be recognized by "fairtrade" (one word).

In April 2013, WR3A held a "Fair Trade Recycling Summit"[9] at Middlebury College in Vermont.[10] The Summit brought together researchers from Memorial University (Canada), Pontificia Universidad Catholica de Peru, University of Southern California (USA), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), representatives of the USA International Trade Office, Basel Convention Secretariat, Interpol, and several used electronics importers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The group deliberated on beneficial development in emerging markets through electronics reuse and repair (labelled "Tinkerer's Blessing" after Yuzo Takahashi's 2000 technology history, A Network of Tinkerers.[11]). The role of electronics repair and reverse engineering in development was contrasted with the so-called "Resource Curse" of economic development through natural resource exploitation. Middlebury students and presenters discussed whether a more balanced approach to recycling secondary materials may be warranted. A follow up meeting between WR3A and Interpol was held in July 2013.[12] In November, 2013, Interpol announced a new research program to study the used electronics trade before continuing arrests of African importers (Project Eden).[13] WR3A members met with INTERPOL's environmental

The debate between Fair Trade Recycling advocates and the anti-export organization Basel Action Network was profiled in USA Today (September 26, 2013),[14] in Discovery Magazine, and in NIH in 2006[15]

In July 2012, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, announced a 5-year research project to study and map the routes of used electronics, WEEE, and "e-waste" exports.[16] WR3A is a partner in the research grant, along with researchers from universities in Peru and California. The first year, the group will document efforts to develop a "Fair Trade Recycling" model in Mexico (see NPR, PBS, AP, coverage[17]), and then research the possible application of the model to Peru, Bangladesh, and China.

WR3A formerly adapted and registered the tradename "Fair Trade Recycling" in 2012.

WR3A collaborated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology for publication of MIT's January 2012 study on E-waste generation and exports. WR3A provided researchers with detailed reconciliations of 3 years of exports from WR3A members. MIT compared WR3A data to corroborating data from ISRI, USEPA, Basel Secretariat (Ghana, Nigeria) studies.[18]

In May 2011, WR3A was interviewed as part of an "e-waste" by German news magazine ZDF.Kultur, which investigated the assumptions that African imports were "primitive" and linked exports to Egypt's Green Revolution.[19]

In March, 2011. WR3A was profiled in Motherboard.tv, for the organization's case that reduced exports of used electronics by "stewards" was having unintended consequences.[20]

In October, 2010, WR3A announced a partnership with Basel Action Network to reduce unnecessary breakage and destruction of working computer monitors in California, under California SB20 laws. This followed a report critical of California "cancellation" policies published in the Sacramento Bee on July 19, 2010.[21]

On July 30, 2010, Discovery News presented an analysis contrasting WR3A's "fair trade" engagement approach with the Basel Action Network's (BAN) "trade restriction" approach, and abstained from choosing sides.,[22][23]

In March, 2010, WR3A was invited to attend a conference at EPA Headquarters in Arlington, VA, for the launch of INTERPOL's "Project Eden". The speakers (Lord Chris Smith of the UK Environmental Agency, Jim Puckett of Basel Action Network, and Michael Anane of Ghana) presented statistics claiming that 80% of used electronics were never repaired or reused, but simply dumped in foreign landfills. WR3A protested the claims and went on to meet 4 more times with Interpol. Project Eden would continue until 2015.

On May 15, 2009, National Public Radio's (NPR) program Living On Earth profiled one of WR3A's members - a women's cooperative doing TV repair and recycling in Mexico.[24]

In January 2009, the organization presented statistics and a film at the Keynote Address of the CES 2009 in Las Vegas.[25] The statistics demonstrated that the rate of growth of internet access is much higher in countries with very low incomes. It is logically unlikely that this growth can be achieved with new computers. The WR3A also presented film of the reuse and refurbishing operations which demonstrate proper recycling practices and best available practices in these ten countries.[26]

The WR3A was contracted as a consultant to the US Environmental Protection Agency for its July 2008 publication Electronic Waste Management in the United States.[27]

References
  1. http://www.videodisplay.com
  2. Recycling Today, February 2005
  3. http://recyclingtoday.texterity.com/recyclingtoday/200504/?pg=44
  4. The Economist, February 25, 1989
  5. Ingenthron, Robin. "Good Point: Ethical Electronics, Recycling "e-Waste" Blog: Basel Action Network Explains the 80%, or 90%, 75% or 50% "DATA"". Good Point. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  6. "Terms of Service Violation". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  7. http://chicagoheights.patch.com/groups/business-news/p/the-laws-stigmas-and-truths-about-exporting-electronic-waste
  8. Ingenthron, Robin. "Reuse Advocate calls Agbogbloshie 'a hoax'". E-Scrap News. Resource Recycling. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  9. http://www.free-press-release.com/news-fair-trade-recycling-summit-tackles-international-e-waste-1362666552.html
  10. http://fairtraderecycling.org/
  11. Yuzo Takahashi's 2000 technology history, A Network of Tinkerers: The Advent of the Radio and Television Receiver Industry in Japan
  12. http://retroworks.blogspot.com/2013/07/bullyboy-iii-meet-real-environmental.html
  13. http://www.edenproject.com/sites/default/files/waste-neutral-framework-project-report.pdf
  14. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/26/e-waste-empire-middlebury-vermont-discarded-electronics/2880359/
  15. https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.n.ethz.ch%2F~schmia%2Fdownload%2Fcited_papers%2FUnfair%2520Trade%2520e-Waste%2520in%2520Africa.pdf
  16. https://www.mun.ca/geog/research/digital_develop.php
  17. Links to stories by PRI, NPR, PBS, AP at http://retroworks.net/retroworksofmexico.html
  18. T. Reed Miller; Jeremy Gregory; Huabo Duan; Randolph Kirchain (January 2012). "Characterizing Transboundary Flows of Used Electronics: Summary Report" (pdf). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  19. http://vimeo.com/53719841
  20. http://www.motherboard.tv/2011/3/26/e-waste-recycling-exports-are-good
  21. "Mexican Town Turns U.S. E-Waste into Treasure". sacbee.com. 2010-07-18.
  22. "Revenge of the TV Monitor Zombies". Discovery Communications. 30 July 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  23. "(Discovery Blog record)". Discovery Communications. 30 July 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  24. "On Their Own Terms" (NPR Transcript). 2009-05-15. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
  25. Video of CES 2009 Keynote Address broken link?
  26. WR3A film
  27. "Waste Management in the United States" (pdf). Office of Solid Waste, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. July 2008. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.