{"id":15299,"date":"2017-10-17T21:05:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T21:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/app-cc-wordpress.azurewebsites.net\/?p=15299"},"modified":"2024-10-17T21:05:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T21:05:25","slug":"john-lingelbachs-response-to-bans-press-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/john-lingelbachs-response-to-bans-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"John Lingelbach\u2019s Response To BAN\u2019S Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-e-scrap-news wp-block-embed-e-scrap-news\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"0RT84lXnyj\"><a href=\"https:\/\/resource-recycling.com\/e-scrap\/2017\/09\/14\/opinion-trackers-ban-ignores-advice\/\">In My Opinion: With trackers, BAN ignores its own advice<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;In My Opinion: With trackers, BAN ignores its own advice&#8221; &#8212; E-Scrap News\" src=\"https:\/\/resource-recycling.com\/e-scrap\/2017\/09\/14\/opinion-trackers-ban-ignores-advice\/embed\/#?secret=MIzSkd8sZ8#?secret=0RT84lXnyj\" data-secret=\"0RT84lXnyj\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Basel Action Network (BAN) has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/resource-recycling.com\/e-scrap\/2017\/09\/08\/tracking-project-accuses-companies-e-scrap-exports\/\">issued a second report<\/a>&nbsp;presenting information derived from its GPS tracking activities. As the first report from a year ago, this report names electronics recyclers and leaves the casual reader presuming each named recycler is complicit in illegal exporting (part of an \u201cexport chain,\u201d as BAN puts it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GPS trackers can be an effective tool for identifying potential wrongdoing that warrants further investigation. However, GPS trackers alone do not provide sufficient information to indict a recycler in the court of public opinion for complicity in illegal exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BAN knows this. Yet it ignores its own advice, as noted in its&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/resource-recycling.com\/e-scrap\/2016\/09\/15\/ban-names-companies-involved-in-exporting\/\">September 2016 report<\/a>: \u201cThe presence of any particular company being listed as part of an \u2018export chain\u2019 by itself is not an indicator of irresponsible behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is not surprising that BAN bases its accusations solely on GPS tracking information. The resources it takes to go further and conduct a thorough investigation of a facility identified by a tracker are substantial. And yet this is the only way to determine the degree of guilt, if any, of a recycler. It is irresponsible to name recyclers in connection with trackers that travelled overseas without such investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even the \u201capparent exporters\u201d (BAN\u2019s term for the last facility in the U.S. that a tracker passed through) may not be guilty. A few of the \u201capparent exporters\u201d identified in the first report a year ago were not, in fact, the exporters. Instead, they sold to U.S.-based buyers, and some may have believed \u2013 even after a good faith effort at due diligence \u2013 that their shipments would not be illegally exported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In its September 2016 report, BAN describes \u201cthree primary categories of companies\u201d caught up in its tracking activities:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>First, there are \u201cthose that willfully export\u201d despite knowing that, given the destination country, the shipment is illegal and may cause harm workers, communities and the environment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Second, there are \u201cthose that are not aware of the export taking place downstream of their operation. But this ignorance may be more because they do not want to know, or do enough to find out.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Third, there are \u201cthose that have taken all steps and have made great effort to ensure against [illegal] export. \u2026 However, this ethical actor may nevertheless be an innocent victim of fraud by a downstream vendor they trusted.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The report goes on: \u201cFor the reasons laid out above, it is impossible to assert definitively that mere appearance within the chain of export means that the company is irresponsible or responsible.\u201d Indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, is the electronics recycling industry \u201can industry that far too often lives a lie, cloaking themselves in green and using the word \u2018recycling\u2019 as a shameful shield,\u201d as BAN\u2019s executive director is quoted as stating in BAN\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ban.org\/news\/2017\/9\/6\/watchdog-groups-gps-trackers-find-more-fake-electronics-recyclers-sending-e-waste-to-asia\">recent press release<\/a>? Well, there are some bad actors in the industry \u2013 companies willing to falsify shipping records or perhaps undertake actions like knowingly presenting an upstream recycler with a Hong Kong \u201cgenerator permit\u201d claiming that it is an \u201cimport permit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, after hundreds and hundreds of hours investigating \u201cexport chains\u201d \u2013 conducting site visits; sorting through bills of lading, invoices and other documentation; communicating with the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department; and working with international environmental law attorneys \u2013 it appears to SERI staff that most of the electronics recyclers identified in BAN\u2019s tracker report that we investigated had shortcomings in their policies and procedures but did not intend, nor were they aware, that illegal exporting was occurring downstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Effective downstream due diligence can be an incredibly arduous task \u2013 and where fraud is involved, it can be virtually impossible. Many companies and auditors need to learn more about what to look for and put more time into their downstream documentation review. The same goes for the legality of exports. For example, Hong Kong prohibits the import of non-working monitors by law, regardless of the type or whether they contain a hazardous substance. Companies need to comprehend the facts about different destinations fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BAN has a mission that includes stopping the export of hazardous electronic wastes from developed to developing countries. It is a good and important mission. However, concerning its use of GPS trackers, BAN shows a willingness to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The harm caused to many good recyclers in loss of business and reputation is substantial. And it could be avoided. What is needed in conjunction with GPS tracking is solid investigative work. It takes time and resources, but it would lead to better results than, possibly, the industry could get behind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>John Lingelbach is executive director of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sustainableelectronics.org\/\">Sustainable Electronics Recycling International<\/a>&nbsp;(SERI), which administers the R2 electronics recycling standard.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe Basel Action Network (BAN) has&nbsp;issued a second report&nbsp;presenting information derived from its GPS tracking activities. As the first report from a year ago, this report names electronics recyclers and leaves the casual reader presuming each named recycler is complicit in illegal exporting (part of an \u201cexport chain,\u201d as BAN puts it). GPS trackers can&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15301,"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15299\/revisions\/15301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/compucycle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}