Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Chapter 4: The toxic cradle of productionBox 13: The most (post)modern wasteA growing and toxic electronic waste stream flows from the so called ‘post-industrial’and ‘resource light’ economies of the North. The major components of e-waste arediscarded personal and mainframe computers, printers, copiers, faxes, cell phones,telephones, televisions and high-end telephonic equipment. In Europe it is growing3 to 5 times faster than municipal waste as a whole. In the US, where around halfof all households own a personal computer, the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) estimated in 2001 that e-waste in US landfills would grow fourfold.This rapid growth results from the purposeful design of inbuilt obsolescence. Fromthe 1950s, as Annie Leonard observes, industrial design journals “actually discusshow fast [designers] can make stuff break and still leave the consumer with enoughfaith in the product to go buy another one” [2008]. Electronics take obsolescenceto new heights. Rapid technology change is part of the arsenal. Old computersare made to become incompatible with evolving information and communicationtechnology (ICT) systems. They could be designed for upgrading but, says Leonard,the “piece that changes” is given a different shape so it won’t fit and “you gottachuck the whole thing and buy a new one” [2008]. With cell phones, it is not justthe technology, but marketing contracts are structured to force ‘upgrading’ to newphones every two years.E-waste is toxic, yet most of it enters the municipal waste stream. In 2001, e-wastewas reported to be the source of 70% of the heavy metals in US landfills, includingmercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium (the biologically absorbable formof chromium). Computer monitor screen glass contains lead to stop radio-activegamma rays from the display cathode from reaching user’s eyes. This contributes40% of the lead now in US landfills. Computers also contain polyvinyl chloride(PVC) which generates dioxins and furans during production and disposal byincineration, as well as PDBEs 59 which are endocrine disruptors.By 1999, only 11% of discarded computers in the US were recycled. The task ofrecycling is dangerous to workers’ health, especially in informal or semi-formalconditions. E-waste is moved to the South as ‘donations’, much as expired pesticidesare ‘donated’, where they become toxic pollution sources.Sources: Pichtel 2005; Leonard 2008.59 Polybrominated diphenylethers- 84 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation
Chapter 4: The toxic cradle of productionbe called up or dispensed with at a moments notice; and, in the ‘peripheral zone’, a vastpool of informal workers and unemployed people made surplus to the requirementsof networked capital.Fifth, the age of globally networked capital is integrally bound up with the neoliberalpolicies associated with the names of Thatcher and Reagan and given globalforce through the ‘Washington consensus’. A critical aspect of this revolution fromabove was the financialisation of capital – that is, an increasing reliance on financialdealing rather than production to secure profits, accompanied by a shift of power fromproduction to finance capital. This turn to finance was a response to the crisis of the1970s. At bottom, this was a crisis of ‘over accumulation’. The finance houses foundthemselves with more money than they could invest safely and at a rate of profit whichsatisfied their shareholders.This crisis was first passed onto Third World countries as low interest loans made in the70s were turned into high interest loans in the 80s. It has since manifested in a seriesof spectacular financial crises in the South, virtually collapsing a number of nationaleconomies and engulfing most of eastern Asia in 1997. Each of these crises yieldedhigh returns to global capital which could appropriate assets at fire sale prices. This wasjust one aspect of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ through which, during this wholeperiod from the 80s to now, capital has managed a spectacular transfer of wealth frompoor to rich globally and within most countries South and North. But the crisis couldnot be contained in the South for ever and has now returned to its proper home andcollapsed the bubble blown up by global finance capital. Finance is, of course, also aservice sector and it is financialisation, rather than reduced materials intensity, thathas ‘dematerialised’ economies. In South Africa, the finance sector now accounts for20% of GDP but, as Ben Fine [2008] argues, this was not a contribution of ‘valueadded’ to the economy but rather the finance sector’s appropriation of value from theeconomy.The crisis was also passed onto workers and the environment as indicated in thefirst and third points above. Beyond e-waste, however, WBCSD is very much partof the neo-liberal moment, promoting ‘flexible business solutions’ in opposition tomandatory regulation and precisely to deflate pressure for such regulation. Murrayprovides a seductive account of initiatives by this or that corporate. Many of the samecorporations, however, operate by other standards in other parts of the world. And,as lead corporations in global production networks, their demands on subordinateWasting the Nation - groundWork - 85 -
Page 4:
Foreworda valuable service to the p
Page 8 and 9:
ContentsMining waste ..............
Page 10 and 11:
- 8 - groundWork - Wasting the Nati
Page 12 and 13:
Chapter 1: Dust and Ashesprioritise
Page 14:
Chapter 1: Dust and AshesSea trashT
Page 17 and 18:
Chapter 1: Dust and Ashesenvironmen
Page 19 and 20:
Chapter 1: Dust and Ashesservice -
Page 21 and 22:
Chapter 1: Dust and AshesThe poor h
Page 23 and 24:
Chapter 1: Dust and Asheslazy, crim
Page 25 and 26:
Chapter 2: Rubbish FiguresChapter 2
Page 27 and 28:
Chapter 2: Rubbish FiguresThe defin
Page 29 and 30:
Chapter 2: Rubbish FiguresThese fig
Page 31 and 32:
Chapter 2: Rubbish FiguresTable 5:
Page 33 and 34:
Chapter 2: Rubbish Figureswaste ope
Page 35 and 36: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteCha
Page 37 and 38: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteEar
Page 39 and 40: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteIn
Page 41 and 42: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteBox
Page 43 and 44: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteSpu
Page 47 and 48: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteThe
Page 49 and 50: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteimp
Page 51 and 52: Chapter 3: The politics of wastetsu
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteIn
Page 57 and 58: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteDSW
Page 59 and 60: Chapter 3: The politics of wastebot
Page 65 and 66: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteLiv
Page 67 and 68: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteInd
Page 69 and 70: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteIt
Page 71 and 72: Chapter 3: The politics of wastecha
Page 73 and 74: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteand
Page 75 and 76: Chapter 3: The politics of wasteFor
Page 77 and 78: Chapter 3: The politics of wastewas
Page 79 and 80: Chapter 3: The politics of wastesal
Page 81 and 82: Chapter 4: The toxic cradle of prod
Page 85: Chapter 4: The toxic cradle of prod
Page 129 and 130: Chapter 5: Modernising municipal wa
Page 137 and 138:
Chapter 5: Modernising municipal wa
Page 139 and 140:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsChapter
Page 141 and 142:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsBisasar
Page 143 and 144:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpscoming
Page 145 and 146:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpscompost
Page 147 and 148:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsissuing
Page 149 and 150:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsofficia
Page 151 and 152:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsexclusi
Page 153 and 154:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsWhere t
Page 155 and 156:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpslocal a
Page 157 and 158:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsplunder
Page 159 and 160:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsWaste p
Page 161 and 162:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsThe Gau
Page 163 and 164:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsIllegal
Page 165 and 166:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpstime th
Page 167 and 168:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsThe cur
Page 169 and 170:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsThe mai
Page 171 and 172:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsfifteen
Page 173 and 174:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsOn May
Page 175 and 176:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsSince 2
Page 177 and 178:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsan incr
Page 179 and 180:
Chapter 6: Down at the dumpseThekwi
Page 181 and 182:
Chapter 7: The question of the futu
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
ReferencesDavis, D. 2002. When Smok
Page 195 and 196:
ReferencesKemmer, F. 1971. Pollutio
Page 197 and 198:
ReferenceseThekwini Municipality 20
show all

Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?