E-Waste & the Regulatory Commons: A Proposal for the Decentralization of International Environmental Regulation
Brooklyn Journal of International Law
E-Waste & the Regulator y Commons: A Proposal for the Decentralization of International Environmental Regulation
Jing Jin
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Article 9
Idreds of laborers, including young children, pick apart
n an isolated junkyard at the edges of Lagos, Nigeria,
hunremnants of discarded electronics to recover valuable minerals
such as gold and copper. Unaware of the dangerous carcinogens
and harmful chemicals that abound in the electronic waste
(“ewaste”),1 these workers often burn the e-waste in open air and
further expose themselves to extremely toxic materials.2 Today,
increasing demand for the latest technologies drives the fastest
growing, and potentially most dangerous, waste stream
worldwide.3 Developing countries are the most common destinations
1. Electronic components contain small quantities of precious metals such
as gold and copper. JIM PUCKETT ET AL., EXPORTING HARM: THE HIGH-TECH
TRASHING OF ASIA 8 (Jim Puckett & Ted Smith eds., 2002), available at
http://www.ban.org/E-waste/technotrashfinalcomp.pdf.
2. Studies indicate that the bodies of those who live near these e-waste
dumps have the highest amount of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. See
Janet K.Y. Chan et al., Body Loadings and Health Risk Assessment of
Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins and Dibenzofurans at an Intensive Electronic
Waste Recycling Site in China, 41 ENVTL. SCI. & TECH. 7668, 7672 (2007)
(noting that breast milk of women who worked in electronic waste recycling
centers had more than two times the concentration of dioxins than do women
working in a control site and that their placentas had nearly three times the
concentration of dioxin than do women at the control site).
3. Christian Purefoy, Serious Contamination Threat from Africa’s
Mounting E-Waste, CNN NEWS (Apr. 9, 2009),
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/08/africa.recycling.computers.ew
aste/index.html. More recent projections by the United Nations’ Solving the
E-Waste Problem Initiative (“StEP”) estimate global e-waste volumes to grow
by 33% in the next four years, making e-waste the world’s fastest growing
waste stream. John Vidal, Toxic “E-Waste” Dumped in Poor Nations, says
United Nations, THE GUARDIAN (Dec. 14, 2013),
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/dec/14/toxic-ewasteillegal-dumping-developing-countries.
for these wastes.4 For instance, the United Nations
Environment Programme (“UNEP”)5 reports that African countries are
quickly becoming the final destination for the world’s e-waste.6
Usually this waste is broken apart and burned by young boys
in countries like China.7 A 2007 study found that blood lead
levels of children in Guiyu, China were 50% higher than the
maximum safe exposure set by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention in the United States.8
Electronics represent the world’s largest and fastest growing
manufacturing industry,9 and the exponentially growing pace
of consumer demand for new gadgets fuels the growth in
ewaste. This waste includes electronic devices such as
computers, mobile phones, television sets, entertainment devices, and
refrigerators.10 Additionally, any components of these products,
4. Vidal, supra note 3.
5. The UNEP was created in 1972 at the United Nations Stockholm
Conference on the Human Environment to serve as the “focal point for
environmental action and coordination” among United Nations members.
Institutional and Financial Arrangements for International Environmental
Cooperation, G.A. Res. 2997, pt. II, para. 1, U.N. GAOR, 27th Sess., Supp. No.
30, U.N. Doc. A/8730, at 43 (Dec. 15, 1972). “The UNEP promote[s]
international cooperation in the field of the environment.” United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development: Framework Convention on Climate
Change, May 9, 1992, 31 I.L.M. 849, Agenda 21 – Chapter 38, part 22, 388.
6. James Simpson, Toxics Alert: Africa Emerging as E-Waste Dumping
Ground, TOXICS ALERT (Dec. 2006),
http://enews.toxicslink.org/newsview.php?id=3 (“According to a study by the Basel Action Network (“BAN”), a
minimum of 100,000 used and obsolete computers a month are entering the
Nigerian port of Lagos alone.”).
7. Bryan Walsh, E-Waste Not, TIME (Jan. 08, 2009),
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1870485,00.html.
8. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-08-1044, ELECTRONIC WASTE:
EPA NEEDS TO BETTER CONTROL HARMFUL U.S. EXPORTS THROUGH STRONGER
ENFORCEMENT AND MORE COMPREHENSIVE REGULATION (Aug. 2008), available
at http://www.gao.gov/assets/280/279792.pdf.
9. See JIM PUCKETT ET AL., THE DIGITAL DUMP: EXPORTING RE-USE AND
ABUSE TO AFRICA 7 (Jim Puckett ed., 2005), available at
http://www.ban.org/library/TheDigitalDump.pdf [hereinafter THE DIGITAL
DUMP]. BAN produced this film and report to document, and increase
awareness of, the harmful effects of e-waste dumping in Africa.
10. Pakistan: Environment: The Dark Side of Digital Waste, THE FR (...truncated)