The trouble lies in the phrase "genuine reuse". Harding admits that the agency simply does not have the resources to check every consignment destined for reuse in the developing world. Part of the problem is that the agency does not even have to be notified about the movement of goods for reuse so it would not know which containers to target.
One organization that has already made a name for itself as a legitimate supplier of second-hand computers to the developing world is Computer Aid International, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary and has sent more than 119,000 computers to countries including Kenya and Chile.
The charity is registered with the Environment Agency as an official e-waste treatment company. Any machines it cannot use are sent to specialist recycling facilities within the EU. Founder Tony Roberts believes the problem with existing e-waste regulations is that outside the EU, they do not make the producer of computer equipment pay for its proper disposal.
Without this cash, there is little incentive for developing nations to start investing in proper recycling facilities. As a result, the e-waste problem is likely to grow, not because of unscrupulous European exporters but because of the increasing number of computers being sold in the developing world.
"When you look at the whole product lifetime of a computer, 75 percent of the environmental damage is done before the computer is switched on for the first time," he pointed out.
"It is the production, the mining, the factories producing the kit and the use of toxic materials - that is where the environmental damage is done. So if we do not make the producer responsible for dealing with these environmental issues, we are never going to get a redesign of computers; we are never going to get computers that are produced in a more environmentally friendly way."
Once Computer Aid's donated equipment reaches the end of its useful life, the company tries to limit the environmental damage caused by its disposal. In Kenya, for instance, it is helping to build a recycling facility that will take not just its own kit but broken machines from across the country. The process is basic but better than using landfill - and circuit boards are re-exported to Britain.
"The problem is the producers are not providing any funds in the developing markets, where they are selling millions of PCs, so we just need to set up similar funds in all markets," Roberts said.
It is a call taken up by Martin Hojsik, toxics campaigner at Greenpeace International. "We want the producers to be responsible for the take-back of their kit," he said.
The hope is that the sheer expense of making producers pay for the disposal of their computer equipment wherever it is sold or used across the world, will spur the industry towards making "greener" machines.
To bring a quick end to the spectacle of children scrabbling around in toxic waste dumps in Africa, Europe's regulators and more importantly, its consumers and businesses, need to take responsibility for the disposing of their computer equipment.
(China Daily May 7, 2008)
