The EPA and Illegal E-waste Export Enforcement

The pleasant news came as a mild surprise: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had decided to levy a maximum fine of $32,500 on a California company, Jet Ocean Technologies, for improperly exporting a shipment of discarded CRT displays to Hong Kong.

In a scenario that, sadly, is repeated hundreds of times every day, a company (or perhaps multiple e-waste consolidators) provided an American-based exporter with e-waste. The exporter then shipped monitors in a container labeled “scrap metal.” This deception underlies the darker side of e-waste processing and the total lack or regard for the environment by some of these unscrupulous companies.

It costs little to do so, since these containers are otherwise deadheading empty back to the Far East to pick up more imported items for the U.S. In this case, however, the authorities in Hong Kong discovered the wrongdoing, and sent the material back to the Port of Long Beach, where U.S. Customs alerted the EPA to the situation.

Many factors bent EPA’s arm to act. It seemed the agency was at first dragging its feet on these kinds of routine investigations, but that a soon-to-be unveiled investigation by the federal government’s watchdog, the General Accounting Office, finally got them moving a little. I suppose that’s good and bad news also. On the one hand, it’s good that the EPA is doing its job. On the other, it’s a little depressing to learn that it needs the threat of bad publicity from a sister agency to do so.

Consequently, with generally lax enforcement, thousands of these illegal containers continue to find their way unimpeded to underdeveloped countries, where much of their valueless contents are crudely dumped. Furthermore, these relatively paltry fines certainly won’t stop anyone from taking that chance. After all, the percentages remain in their favor. Most companies wouldn’t even bother to contest such a fine. They’d simply pay it and consider it a cost of doing business.

The upshot of all these developments, I think, is that we can expect a new round of attention to exporting U.S. e-waste and toxins. About a dozen states now regulate this material, and there are increasing calls for a federal law as well. Retailers are already slapping surcharges on electronics to take care of the disposal. But we have to get serious about going after the real culprits in this shell game. We have to begin following this illegal material back to the source, and begin pointing the finger of blame not just at the exporting companies that move this material, but at their customers, the people or companies who essentially contract Jet Ocean to break the law.

Stay tuned for updates as they occur.