Responsible End of Life Product Strategies
Our End of Life project encourages research on sustainable solutions for end of life of plastic and foam treated with halogenated flame retardant chemicals.
Electronic waste, including TVs and computers, pose serious risks to human health, the environment, and especially to communities around the world to which they might be sent. Discarded electronics can end up in municipal landfills and incinerators from which toxins can leach out into the environment. The majority of old electronics are shipped to developing countries where villages are marred by huge dump-sites containing discarded TVs and computers. Workers, usually without protective equipment, take apart discarded TVs to strip out reusable components. Then they burn the waste plastic, producing clouds of dioxins and furans which float into the atmosphere and circle the world.
GSP is working to find better solutions.
Related Articles:
A Green Way to Dump Electronics
TV Recycling Letter to Manufactures – Aug 20, 2008
Petreas: Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in California Waste-streams
Chemosphere 74 (2009) 996–1001
Related Presentations:
Luthy: Cleaning Up Sediments without Throwing the Mud: The High Costs of Remediation of Persistent, Bioaccumulative Organic Contaminants
Robrock: Biodegradation of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs)
Petreas: PBDEs in California Waste Streams
Zeng: A big picture view of halogenated chemical exposures in China