Ensuring Sustainability and Reducing E-Waste: Networked Solutions for the Electronics Industry
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EnsURING SUSTAINABILITY AND ReDUCING E-WASTE: Networked Solutions for the Electronics Industry Mary Milner Global Solution Networks Fellow The consumer electronics industry is faced with an unsustainable dependence on non-renewable resources; and an inability to manage and recycle increasing volumes of electronic waste. While policy makers, civil society, and industry work to address these problems they remain unsolved. Global Solution Networks offer the potential overcome the persistent obstacles that prevent further progress on these issues—by strengthening collaboration between and amongst organizations working on these issues and by establishing multi-stakeholder groups dedicated to producing sustainable knowledge, delivering alternative products, advocating to the consumer, providing coordination, facilitating policy discussions, establishing standards and identifying laggards. © Global Solution Networks 2015 Ensuring Sustainability and Reducing E-Waste Networked Solutions for the Electronics Industry i Table of Contents Idea in Brief 1 Defining the Problems: Unsustainable Production and E-Waste 2 A Life-Cycle Assessment of Electronics 5 Developing Solutions 13 Ensuring Sustainability: Collaborating to Produce Innovation 13 Knowledge Producers: Mobilizing Information for Sustainability 14 New Modes of Operation and Delivery: Realizing Innovation 16 Advocates: Voices that Influence Market Demands 19 Conclusions on Ensuring Sustainability 21 Reducing Waste: Collaborating Towards a Circular Industry 22 Innovative Institutions: Orchestrating Global Efforts on Electronic Waste 23 Policy Facilitators: Creating Consensus on Evolved Policy 24 Standards and Watchdogs: Ensuring Compliance 27 Conclusions on Reducing Impact 35 Implications for Network Leaders 36 1 Appendix I: Health and Environmental Effects of E-Waste Disassembly 40 Endnotes 42 About the Author 51 About Global Solution Networks 52 © Global Solution Networks 2015 Ensuring Sustainability and Reducing E-Waste Networked Solutions for the Electronics Industry 1 Sustainability is Idea in Brief “ defined as the ability to meet Electronic devices are central to the digital era. However, the increasing the needs of the production of new electronic devices, and eventually discarding of outmoded devices, has resulted in a number of very serious consequences for the present without environment, society, and human health. The dual challenges of a) ensuring compromising the that the production of electronic devices is sustainable and b) reducing the impact of discarded electronics (e-waste) have been on the agenda of ability of future policy makers and industry leaders for almost two decades. Yet, despite generations to significant effort, persistent problems remain including: the use of toxic materials in production; the prioritization of aesthetic design over reparability meet their own and recyclability; the voracious use of non-renewable and conflict fueling needs. resources; a dependence on inexpensive labor to keep costs low; a limited capacity to collect, repair, reuse, and recycle devices; the illegal flow of discarded devices from developed to developing countries; and the unsafe ” disassembly of discarded products. In light of these ongoing issues, the electronics industry is currently, but not irrevocably, unsustainable. “Sustainability” is defined as the ability to “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”1 A sustainable industry embeds respect for the labor force and environmental resources required for production, encourages improvements to the social and environmental contexts of production, has the least possible impact on human health and the environment, and is circular in its ability to recapture used resources for future production. While some leaders in the electronics industry are working toward this ideal, efforts are fragmented and there continue to be laggards. Carole Mars of The Sustainability Consortium explains: Each little area knows its business very well; it’s that these areas are not talking to each other. Recyclers are not necessarily talking to the refurbishers, who are not talking to the manufacturers, who are not talking to the state. Each node is fairly isolated right now. So it’s now a question of looking at how we start communicating across those nodes.2 A networked approach to solving this problem is required: one that utilizes a multi-stakeholder approach to create the norms, policies, innovation, and public awareness required to induce lasting change throughout the electronics industry. Effective examples of this type of approach to global problem solving have emerged in recent years, responding to major global problems from climate change to inequality, human rights to urbanization. Dynamic, self-organized, and collaborative problem solving groups—Global Solution Networks (GSNs)—represent a new paradigm in global affairs. GSNs are participatory arrangements that move beyond traditional state-based cooperation and offer significant promise for strengthening global governance and improving the human condition.3 In the context of ensuring sustainability for the electronics industry, there are a number of engaged groups—including civil © Global Solution Networks 2015 Ensuring Sustainability and Reducing E-Waste Networked Solutions for the Electronics Industry 2 society, private sector, and state-based initiatives—which have either already adopted a GSN-like approach or which show great potential for contributing to emerging GSNs in this space. On one hand, organizations such as The Sustainability Consortium, Fairphone, and the Enough Project are working to ensure sustainability by entrenching positive practices in electronics production and consumer behavior. On the other hand, groups such as Solving the e-Waste Problem (StEP), the e-Stewards certification body, and the Basel Action Network are championing new policy approaches and innovative systems that better manage electronic waste. These initiatives and organizations represent some of the most promising pursuits of sustainability and zero waste for the electronics industry. They demonstrate that although these issues are protracted, they are not irresolvable—especially if these groups were to become better integrated and collaborative in their approach. To move forward and have greater impact, establishing solution networks—Global Solution Networks—may allow these organizations to amplify their efforts and overcome the silos that continue to obstruct progress on these issues. Defining the Problems: Unsustainable Production and E-Waste In 2013, it was estimated that 1.8 billion mobile phones were sold worldwide.4 In that year, it was reported by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) that the personal electronics industry posted record sales—even amidst a struggling economy—with over 105 million tablets and 111 million smartphones sold in the United States. Growth has also been tremendous in developing countries and emerging markets. Gallup estimated in 2013 that 65% of households in 23 sub-Saharan African countries had at least one mobile phone with a median growth rate in phone ownership of 27% in five years since 2008.5 The Chinese are expected to have spent over $87 billion on mobile phones in 2014, a 15% increase over the previous year.6 Personal electronics have become integral to the daily lives of individuals around the world, regardless of age, socio-economic status, or political or religious affiliation. However, this rapid growth and consumption of electronic devices is putting significant strain on scarce natural resources, the labor force, and limited global recycling capacity. In 2010, China publicly stated that their domestic mines of rare-earth minerals, which are vital to the function of electronic devices, would run out as early as 2025.7 E-waste is now the most rapidly growing stream of waste globally8—largely due to the increased individual ownership of multiple personal electronics, rapid obsolescence due to technological advancement, and consumer desire to remain “on-trend.” © Global Solution Networks 2015 Ensuring Sustainability and Reducing E-Waste Networked Solutions for the Electronics Industry 3 According to Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP), 48.9 million tons of e-waste were produced globally in 2013 and this number is expected to increase to 65.4 million tons by 2017 (equivalent to the weight of 200 Empire State Buildings or 11 Great Pyramids of Giza).9 Coltan MIne in Rubaya Ineffective management of this waste stream has had a number of perverse effects including the permanent loss of valuable materials, human rights abuses, and environmental degradation. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) website describes the current e-waste situation as a “ticking time-bomb.”10 Mr. Smail Alhilali, an Industrial Development Officer for UNIDO, states that this issue is “of increasing concern in developing countries due to the dramatic increase in e-waste, the lack of infrastructure and an overall lack of knowledge and awareness about the matter.”11 Successful problem solving in response to these issues will require the collaboration and cooperation of various stakeholders and might benefit from new models of networked governance and innovation. While daunting, these issues present a significant opportunity for global problem solving from a systemic perspective. As Realff et al, state, “Above all this is a systems problem, where innovations at different scales and