[NPMUG] Our recycling efforts here in Pittsburgh ... and the reality of what can go wrong ... as seen on CBS 60 Minutes

[Dave Sevick]

Folks,

I am posting this to everyone and feel this is a MUST WATCH expose of  
what can happen.

We are in good hands here in Pittsburgh.

We are very particular about all of our down streaming of Macs.

I can tell you that the facility at Goodwill handles  cathode ray  
tubes professionally and ships them to a facility that handles CRTs in  
the USA .... and we are fully aware of the standards set forth by the  
Basel Convention:     http://www.basel.int/index.html

So please watch this frightening and very well done report.   I  
welcome your feedback.

Bob Donaldson and I go to great lengths to make sure this story is not  
our story like the Denver, CO recyclers exposed in this report.

This hits way too close to home and is a wake up call.

Dave




http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4586903n&tag=mncol;txt

The Electronic Wasteland
Where do the millions of computer monitors, cell phones and other  
electronic refuse our society generates end up?

Scott Pelley reports.

November 10, 2008

================

(CBS) 60 Minutes is going to take you to one of the most toxic places  
on Earth - a place government officials and gangsters don't want you  
to see. It's a town in China where you can't breathe the air or drink  
the water, a town where the blood of the children is laced with lead.

It's worth risking a visit because much of the poison is coming out of  
the homes, schools and offices of America. This is a story about  
recycling - about how your best intentions to be green can be  
channeled into an underground sewer that flows from the United States  
and into the wasteland.


That wasteland is piled with the burning remains of some of the most  
expensive, sophisticated stuff that consumers crave. And 60 Minutes  
andcorrespondent Scott Pelley discovered that the gangs who run this  
place wanted to keep it a secret.

What are they hiding? The answer lies in the first law of the digital  
age: newer is better. In with the next thing, and out with the old TV,  
phone or computer. All of this becomes obsolete, electronic garbage  
called "e-waste."

Computers may seem like sleek, high-tech marvels. But what’s inside  
them?

"Lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, polyvinyl chlorides. All of these  
materials have known toxicological effects that range from brain  
damage to kidney disease to mutations, cancers," Allen Hershkowitz, a  
senior scientist and authority on waste management at the Natural  
Resources Defense Council, explained.

"The problem with e-waste is that it is the fastest-growing component  
of the municipal waste stream worldwide," he said.

----- end clip -------

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4586903n&tag=mncol;txt




===============================================
Apple Recycling at Goodwill of Southwestern PA
Apple Outreach with Hosanna Industries
Apple User Groups from the Pittsburgh area
PGHMAC.COM website by Nathan Brentzel

Dave Sevick and Bob Donaldson
dave at davesevick.com - 724-779-0099
radonaldson at mac.com - 412-477-9188
-----
Peter Carras and Marty Swartz
pcarras+PAUGC1 at pitt.edu - 724-327-5870
marty.swartz at gmail.com - 412-818-8096

As  Apple users in Pittsburgh, we are taking local action
to keep the environment free from e-waste .....
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