Potential Occupational Overexposure to Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Mercury
and Noise at Electronic Scrap Recycling Facilities – EMERGING GLOBAL THREATS
FROM E-WASTE
Background
E-waste
(electronic waste) is the fastest growing waste stream in many countries. The
U.S remains the world’s largest e-waste polluter closely followed by China,
according to a U.N think tank study.
E-Waste-
which includes phones, televisions, laptops and computers, poses danger to
humans and the environment alike due to lead, mercury and other poisonous
toxins present in batteries.
The StEP initiative reports the U.S dumped more
than 9.4 million metric tons of e-waste in 2012, more than 2 million metric
tons more than its economic rival. Per Capita, each person in the U.S is
responsible for 30 kilograms (66 pounds) compared to the global average of 7
kilograms (15 pounds) per person.
Recycling of the E-Waste
Go
Green! Recycle! We have all heard the call to be more environmentally conscious.
However, not everyone is aware of the many health and safety hazards facing
employees who handle the recycling of electronics. Many recycled electronics
can contain hazardous materials such as lead, cadmium and other toxic metals.
In 2011, the U.S. e-scrap recycling industry contributed approximately $90
billion to the U.S. economy, compared with less than $1 billion in 2002 [ISRI
2014]. The ‘e-scrap’ recycling industry is also called ‘e-waste’ or ‘e-cycle.’
This industry sector generated about 138,000 direct jobs in 2011, up from 6,000
employees in 2002, and recycled more than 130 million metric tons of materials
in 2010 [ISRI 2014]. To better document the hazards, the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has completed exposure evaluations at
several electronics recycling facilities and conducted a survey of electronics
recycling facilities across the United States.
Recent NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluations
Through
the NIOSH Health
Hazard Evaluation (HHE) Program we have measured employee exposures
to lead,
cadmium,
chromium,
and noisein
e-scrap recycling facilities. We found that employees in facilities that
process cathode ray tube (CRT) glass, including employees in areas away from
where the CRT glass is processed, can be overexposed to lead and cadmium. At
some facilities, we have found lead, cadmium, and other toxic metals on
surfaces outside of production areas, ineffective engineering controls, and
poor employee work practices such as dry sweeping (causes dust laden with toxic
metals to be swept back into the air). NIOSH has also found conditions that can
lead to “take-home” exposures; for example, in some e-scrap recycling
facilities the employees did not have access to showers or work uniforms. As a
result, employees tracked contamination through the facility and to their
personal vehicles, and potentially to their homes. More information and
prevention recommendations can be found in the HHE reports listed below.
- Evaluation of Occupational Exposures at an Electronic Scrap Recycling Facility
- Exposure to Hazardous Metals During Electronics Recycling at Four UNICOR Facilities
Given
that results from hazard evaluations at individual sites might not be
representative of an industry as a whole, we conducted a telephone survey of 47
facilities in the United States to provide a broader picture. Through the
survey, we identified several types of occupational health hazards in the
e-scrap recycling industry. We learned that responding facilities 1) had
between 10 and 80 employees, 2) recycled a wide array of electronics, and 3)
performed manual recycling processes. Some facilities had practices indicative
of poor control of dust generated during recycling. The survey showed that e-scrap
recycling has the potential for a wide variety of occupational exposures and
that educating the industry about health and safety practices was needed to
help protect employee health. More information can be found in the survey report .
Recycled
phones before being shredded.
NIOSH
shared information from the HHEs and survey with the Institute for Scrap
Recycling Industries, Incorporated (ISRI), R2 Solutions (now called Sustainable
Electronics Recycling International [SERI]), and the Basel Action Network
(BAN). These organizations administer the Recycling Industry Operating
Standard™ (RIOS™), the Responsible Recycling Standard for Electronics Recyclers
(R2,) and the e-Stewards® Standard for Responsible Recycling and Reuse of
Electronic Equipment (e-Stewards®). These are voluntary certification standards
for electronic recyclers. Continued efforts are needed to ensure that
occupational health and safety considerations are an important component of
voluntary certification programs.
Participate in a New NIOSH Study
Starting
Fall 2014, NIOSH will begin a study to evaluate occupational exposures to
metals and flame retardants in e-scrap recycling facilities and to recommend
controls to reduce employee exposures. The HHE Program is looking for five
facilities that would like to participate. We plan to observe work processes
and practices, and evaluate exposure controls and employee health. During the
visits, a team of industrial hygienists and medical officers will assess
occupational exposures to workers at each facility, including metals (such as
lead, cadmium, and indium) and flame retardants (such as polybrominated
diphenyl ethers and newer alternatives). We will also evaluate engineering
controls such as local exhaust ventilation, and the use of work practices and
personal protective equipment at these workplaces. There is no cost to the
facility to participate. The findings and recommendations from these
evaluations will be shared with employer and employee representatives at each
facility and will be posted on the NIOSH HHE Program website.
Seeking Feedback
NIOSH
is interested in learning more about employee exposures to other harmful materials,
physical hazards, or other stressors at e-scrap recycling facilities. Let us
know what e-scrap health and safety hazards you think have not been well
studied. We also want to learn about measures that have been effective in
preventing or minimizing these workplace hazards.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration Consumer Electronics
- Environmental Protection Agency. eCycling
- Health and Safety Executive. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling (WEEE)
- The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc.
- e-Stewards. The globally responsible way to recycling your electronics
- Responsible recycling© (R2) Certification
Regulations/Standards
Legislative Recycling Mandates
Federal
Legislative Mandates for Electronics Recovery: At present, there is
no Federal mandate to recycle e-waste. There have been numerous attempts to develop
a Federal law. However, to date, there is no consensus on a Federal approach.
State
Mandatory Electronics Recovery Programs: Many states have instituted mandatory
electronics recovery programs. The following website provides regularly updated
information on state e-waste legislation:
Regulations Governing Management of
Used Electronics
Some
electronics (such as color CRT computer monitors, color CRT TV tubes, and
smaller items such as cell phones and other hand-helds) test hazardous
under Federal law. If so, they are subject to special handling requirements
under Federal law, subject to certain exemptions. It is the generators' responsibility
to determine if their materials are hazardous waste. For more information on
hazardous waste identification, see the Waste Determination webpage.
EPA
encourages reuse and recycling of used electronics, including those that test
hazardous. To facilitate more reuse and recycling of these products, EPA has
less stringent management requirements for products bound for reuse and
recycling. Specifics follow:
Resale
or Donation:
Computer monitors and televisions sent for continued use (ie. resale or
donation) are not considered hazardous wastes.
Federal
Regulatory Requirements for Recycling of CRTs: EPA encourages recycling of CRTs.
Thus, CRTs sent for recycling are subject to streamlined handling requirements.
For more information on the CRT Rule, including export requirements and frequent questions please see Cathode Ray Tubes Final Rule.
Federal
Regulatory Requirements for Circuit Boards within the United States: Circuit Boards are
subject to a special exemption from Federal hazardous waste rules.
- Whole unused circuit boards are considered unused commercial chemical products, which are unregulated.
- Whole used circuit boards meet the definition of spent materials but also meet the definition of scrap metal. Therefore, whole used circuit boards that are recycled are exempt from the hazardous waste regulations.
- Shredded circuit boards are excluded from the definition of solid waste if they are containerized (ie., fiberpaks) prior to recovery. These shredded circuit boards cannot contain mercury switches, mercury relays, nickel-cadmium batteries, or lithium batteries. If these materials are not treated this way, then they are considered hazardous waste and must be treated as such.
Note: This discussion
summarizes relevant federal regulatory requirements. For the complete federal
hazardous waste requirements for generators, consult 40 CFR Parts 260-262.
Federal
Regulatory Requirements for Disposal CRTs and Other Electronics that Test
Hazardous
- Large Quantities Sent for Disposal: Wastes from facilities that generate over 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds) per month of hazardous waste are regulated under Federal law when disposed. CRTs from such facilities sent for disposal (as opposed to reuse, refurbishment or recycling) must be manifested and sent as hazardous waste to a permitted hazardous waste landfill.
- Small Quantities Exempt: Businesses and other organizations that send for disposal (as opposed to reuse, refurbishment or recycling) less than 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds) per month of hazardous waste are not required to handle this material as hazardous waste. If a small-quantity generator wishes to dispose of a small quantity of CRTs or other used electronics that test hazardous under Federal law, these materials can go to any disposal facility authorized to receive solid waste (eg. a municipal landfill), unless state law requires more stringent management (eg. CA).
- Household Exemption for Electronics Sent to Disposal: Used computer monitors or televisions generated by households are not considered hazardous waste and are not regulated under Federal regulations. State laws may be more stringent as reqards electronics from households (eg. CA).
State
Regulatory Requirements for Disposal of Electronics that Test Hazardous
State
regulatory requirements for e-waste can be more stringent than the Federal
requirements, and vary from state to state. California considers CRTs to be
spent materials and regulates all CRT as hazardous waste, ie. they are banned
from landfills. Other states, such as Massachusetts and Florida, have taken
steps to streamline hazardous waste regulations for CRTs, reducing special
handling requirements if these products are directed to recycling. Many states
are developing Universal Waste exemptions for CRT which also streamline
management of CRTs bound for recycling. If you are planning on disposing used
CRTs (or other electronics that test hazardous under state or Federal law),
check relevant state requirements, which might be different from federal regulatory requirements.
Presentation
- EPA's Regulatory Program for E-Waste (PDF) (19 pp, 126K, about PDF)
E-WASTE
RECYCLING IN CANADA
Servers
were the size of refrigerators and a single CPU chip had about $300
of gold when Montreal-based electronics recycling company FCM Recycling
started harvesting precious metals from computers’ circuit boards and
memory. Last week, I chatted with FCM representatives Chris and Andrew
about the the work they’re doing and the e-waste climate in Canada.
FCM
was founded as a small metals recycling facility in 1991, when electronic waste
was a new enough problem that it hadn’t been legislated or regulated. They
would dissolve circuit board fiberglass in big vats of caustic acid, to collect
the gold, silver, and palladium left behind. Any materials they couldn’t use
were discarded.
Eventually,
as computers got smaller (and used less precious metal), FCM became a more
traditional scrapyard. Then, in 2005, they were approached by Recyc-Québec, a government body that takes care
of recycling mandates, about starting provincial electronics recycling
programs. They installed their first shredder in 2007 and started processing
e-waste in Québec.
Growing from Coast to Coast
Since
then, they have expanded across the country: two facilities in Ontario
(Cornwall and Toronto), two in Québec (and will be opening up a third in Québec
City), one in the Maritimes (Halifax), and one in British Columbia. Their main
shredder is in Montreal—other locations collect, sort, and dismantle
electronics, and then send the materials to Montreal.
Today,
thanks to regulation, urban mining, corporate participation, and better
recycling practices, far less material ends up in landfills than 20 years ago.
FCM now treats about 30 millions pounds of electronic goods per year,
everything from cell phones and laptops to medical equipment. They trash less
than 1% of all the material that goes through their facility, including all
packaging material (shrink-wrap, gaylords,
bags, skids—everything). The rest is recycled into various products: wire,
ferrous and non-ferrous scrap, and a clean plastic shred. They have special
processing lines for getting indium from flat screens and mercury from mercury
switches.
How is E-Waste Different in Canada?
So
what’s different about e-waste recycling in Canada? Not much, at one level. The
tools and the process are pretty much identical to those used by US recyclers.
Shredders like the one in the picture above can be found at almost any large
e-waste recycling facility around the globe.
National
regulations are fairly similar, too. Just like the US R2 and e-Stewards certifications, Canadian
recyclers are certified by Electronics Product Stewardship Canada (EPSC),
which lays out health and safety workplace guidelines, requirements for
environmentally friendly e-waste processing, and regulations about what can be
exported to other countries. EPSC, Chris and Andrew say, is maybe slightly more
rigid about downstream accountability—they have to do a little bit more
tracking of raw materials that leave their facility. Unlike the US, Canada has
ratified the Basel Convention and prohibits export of
unfinished goods to non-OECD countries (any country not on this list, that is).
E-waste
management is funded somewhat differently in Canada. In the US, e-scrap is what
Andrew calls “a commodity market”—in many states, people are
paid for the materials they bring in. In Canada, he says, although individual
recyclers are for-profit businesses, e-waste as a whole is “more of a social
program supported by eco-fees.”
But
the biggest difference between the US and Canada is in the way EPSC works to
harmonize standards across provinces. Because the EPA encourages states to
develop their own hazardous waste regulations, the requirements for US
recyclers vary drastically from state to state. So far, 25 states have e-waste
legislation, but the laws are conflicting and confusing. Sometimes
recyclers pay, sometimes manufacturers pay, sometimes consumers
pay. Because of the varying demands of different state laws, R2/RIOS, and
e-Stewards, it’s difficult for a US recycler to expand into other states the
way FCM has expanded into other provinces. Only a few US recyclers, such as Electronics
Recyclers International, have locations in multiple states. Some
attempts to harmonize US laws have been made—there’s an organization dedicated
to harmonizing US e-waste laws called the Electronics
Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse. No efforts, however, have been
as effective as EPSC.
Harmonization
does slow down the process of starting a new program a bit—Chris says that the
biggest hurdle is that the entire collection, payment, and auditing system has
to be set up before a program can launch. But it also enables companies like
FCM to expand across the country, without having to meet vastly different
standards from province to province.
Cell Phone Refurbishment
And
the vast network of connections they’ve made by expanding—they are involved
with national organizations like Big
Brothers Big Sisters and the Scouts—helps them get the volume they need for
new projects, such as the cell phone reuse and refurbishment program they are
starting this year. Andrew says they receive more than 8,000 cell phones each
month. Not all of those are reusable, of course. He points out that often it
may not be worth the time, effort, and transportation costs involved in
refurbishing a device, if it will end up in a landfill in six months anyway.
But
many of the phones they receive could easily have a couple more years of useful
life. Smartphone sales just overtook desktop sales for the first time last
year, Andrew tells me, quoting a recent E-Scrap
News article. Many of those sales are people upgrading from one
smartphone to another. Our friends at Recellular, for example, say they always receive a big influx of phones on the day a new
smartphone is announced. So FCM is taking steps to begin selling refurbished
phones.
SUMMARY
The
Internet and our current technology have changed how we live and communicate,
but it also has a negative impact on our environment.
From
computers, cell phones and tablets, to iPods and television sets – electronics
are a part of our everyday, modern life. With our consumer culture and
companies relying on “planned obsolescence” to ensure that we continually
purchase more of these items, it equates to more e-waste piling up at
landfills. And the cost is higher than the impact on your bank account.
Electronic
waste isn’t just waste. It contains some very toxic substances, such as
mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, beryllium and brominated flame-retardants. The
toxic materials in electronics can cause cancer, reproductive disorders,
endocrine disruption, and many other health problems if not properly managed.
Scientists also say they also present risks to communities and the global
ecosystem.
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