Protect the Environment

Why Should You Protect the Environment?

E-waste or electronic waste is the #1 recycling problem in America today. This is due in large part to:

• Proliferation of electronic products
• Increasingly short life spans for these products
• Toxic components
• Lack of industry standards for end of life processing

Recycle: Reducing the Cost to Human Health

Recycling should be the first choice for raw material procurement. It is a little known fact that mining and burning of e-waste produces large amounts of toxics. AOK Recycling is working to keep e-waste out of land fills and incinerators. The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), EPA reports show the Mining Industry:

• Released 1.3 billion pounds of toxics in 2002.
• Released 2,681,256 pounds alone of cyanide in 2001
• Accounts for 88% of all reported mercury releases in the U.S.
• 4.3 million pounds of mercury were put into our air, water and soil in 2001
• Totals 27% of all toxics released by U.S. Industry overall

Arsenic
Arsenic is a naturally occurring element, when disturbed it may be released in the air or water. Arsenic contamination is closely associated with lead smelting. Breathing Arsenic may give you a sore throat or irritated lungs. Ingesting large amounts of inorganic arsenic can cause death.

Cyanide
Cyanide solutions readily form soluble bonds with gold and silver rendering them easier to mine. Cyanide exposure in high levels for a short time harms the brain and heart and can even cause coma and death. Workers who inhaled low levels of hydrogen cyanide over a period of years experienced breathing problems, chest pain, vomiting, blood changes, headaches and enlargement of the thyroid gland. Cyanide in gas form is highly toxic to cells, it is the killing agent used in gas chambers. Cyanide is also released in the combustion of certain plastics.

Mercury
Ingested mercury is almost completely absorbed into the blood and distributed to all tissues including the brain and readily passes through the placenta into the fetus. Mercury is linked to learning disorders, behavioral difficulties, lower IQ and a host of other illnesses.

Lead
Lead is inherently risky to extract. Lead can affect almost every organ and system in the body, the central nervous system is the most sensitive, especially in children.

Lead damages kidneys and the reproductive system and may cause anemia. At high levels, lead may decrease reaction time, cause weakness in fingers, wrists or ankles, and possibly affect the memory.

To read more about it, go to:
www.epa.gov/enviro/
www.womensvoicesfortheearth.com
http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/MiningHealthReport_WVE.pdf
www.csp2.org
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html

Recycle: Reducing Economic Costs

Taxpayers are often stuck with the cost of reclaiming damaged mining sites and reducing sources of harm to environmental and human health. In one example of reclamations staggering costs, state agency representatives in New Mexico recently estimated cleanup for two large open pit copper mines at 800 million.
~ Hardrock Mining: Risks to Community Health, Aimee
Boulanger and Alexandra Gorman, September 2004.

Pollution from the ASARCO smelter in East Helena, Montana is known to contaminate a 100-square-mile area around the site ~EPA, 1995.

Serious health risks to children have been identified, entire yards and lawns have been removed to reduce the danger of lead exposure. ~EPA, 2003.

Increased costs of educational and correction systems for people harmed by toxic waste has not been noted but not estimated; costs are far reaching and multi-faceted.

Millions of pounds of metals are going to landfills in e-waste. A study conducted by the National Recycling Coalition projected that by 2007 computers will be replaced an average of every two years and between 1998 and 2007 500 million computers will have become obsolete.

Please see our Potential of E-cycling page.

• Ignitability
• Corrosivity
• Reactivity
• Toxicity

You may also go to 40 CFR Part 261, Subpart C at the EPA website; www.epa.gov/epacfr40/ then click on Chapter I info to find the portion of 40 CFR that contains Part 261 (which is Subchapter I)
Or Chapter 3 of “Guidelines for the Classification and Coding of Industrial and Hazardous Waste”, RC-022; access at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) website; www.tceq.state.tx.us under the heading, “Publications.”

Or The Universal Waste Regulations for Hazardous Lamps in Texas guide which tells how to comply with state and federal law when disposing of lamps that contain mercury, lead, or other hazardous substances, the same metals found in PC’s. Fluorescent tubes, sodium vapor lamps, metal halide lamps & incandescent lamps may be covered by the regulations; www.tceq.state.tx.us/comm_exec/forms_pubs/pubs/rg/rg-377_201864.pdf