There was a program on NPR (National Public Radio) this morning (Friday
7/19/02) on keeping electronics out of landfills.
It presented two view points; One, a University of Florida study that points
to lead leaching into the soil and groundwater. Second A landfill supervisor
from Palo Alto California that monitors wells surrounding a landfill with
tons of discarded electronics in it. 80% of the wells show no contamination
from lead and the rest show only trace amounts.
You can read the complete article on the web at;
www.npr.org/programs/morning/
It is titled "Electronics Final Cost".
Steve Conley
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Heinz Zuber" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2002 10:43 AM
Subject: [LF] Compulsory Electronics Recycling In The US
> Dear Davy,
> some ideas regarding your list:
>
>
> "The claim that is made is that lead in electronic products in landfills
> leaches into the ground water and pollutes it, making it likely that
people
> will increase their exposure to lead in their drinking water. If this were
> true, then the proposed fix, reducing the lead going into land fills would
> be totally inadequate, because people have been disposing of lead-bearing
> waste in landfills for over a century..."
> - As you know, the transport of pollutants to and by ground water can be a
> question of very (VERY) long times. There is evidence that even after many
> hundreds of years lead sources, like from old church roofs, are virtually
> immobile. But there is no experience and no studies/models (as far as i
> know) about the long time behaviour of landfills. It would be worth giving
> at least coarse estimations on this (even if there were problems like
> transport of metals bound to humus colloids). And if (only IF)we knew we
had
> to clean up our landfills (and all the soil between landfills and
wells...)
> one day, should we then really carry on building up the pollution sources?
> I have to (grudgingly...) admit, that lead leaching from landfills seems
not
> to be an urging problem - but this fact should be described a bit better
and
> more scientific.
>
> And about scuba diving in a lead mine... There are also people scuba
diving
> in wastewater treatment plants, sewer systems or in the Mediterranean sea.
I
> would not stop them, but i would not like to be forced to drink this water
> afterwards.
>
>
> "The reason why there are no significant differences in the lead in ground
> water anywhere is simple - the laws of chemistry are the same everywhere."
> - The laws of chemistry are the same, but the environment isnt, thats why
> the ancient romans could use lead water pipes in italy ("hard" water), but
> poisoned themselves in areas of the empire, were there was "better" water
> (at least i have been told so).
>
>
> "You can check with the people responsible for running landfills to see
> whether this is an issue..."
> - Landfill effluents in germany are monitored regarding lead content, and
> (of course) there are (very low) lead contents regularly. So, this is an
> issue, i think.
>
>
> "You can also determine the incidence of lead poisoning in this country
(but
> don't expect the proponents to have this info for you). It has been
dropping
> ever since lead was removed from gasoline a quarter century ago. The cases
> remaining are not due to lead in drinking water - or lead in electronic
> products."
> - There were cases of lead poisoning of children in Germany due to
drinking
> water - Lead pipes in the houses! Why wait for the next cases from other
> sources? OK, I admit, this is not very likely...
>
>
> "Proponents for recycling of electronic products often present figures of
> how many thousands of tons of these items go into landfills each year.
Have
> you ever heard what the percent of municipal solid waste this represents?
> The answer is about one percent,..."
> - The amount of electronic scrap growths 3x faster (in europe) than the
> total household waste. So why not keep an eye on it early?
>
>
> "The push for recycling of electronic products is not due to pure concern
> for the environment."
> - Economy does not allways stimulate ecologically sound action and vice
> versa (external effects). But making money from environmentally sound
> technology is no bad thing in principle, i think.
>
>
> "...I hate to see money wasted..."
> - Maybe some of it should have been spent for environmental research some
> time ago.
>
>
> "...If electronics recycling didn't need to be subsidized - if it were
> self-supporting - it wouldn't need to be legislated,..."
> - As said above, environmentally sound behaviour does not allways pay,
> because of external effects. And what pays is not necessarily
> environmentally sound.
>
> Best regards,
> Karl Heinz Zuber
>
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