Shanghai Scrap

The English version:

Hardly a season passes without some esteemed media organization running a story on the export of e-wastes from the developed world to south China (Guiyu, in particular). 60 Minutes did the last major one (my thoughts here), and PBS’s Frontline is in the midst of producing the next one. I’ll spare my readers – and myself – the trouble of listing other notable instances; suffice it to say that you won’t lack for results if you google “Guiyu.”

In any case, there’s a couple of necessary components to any Guiyu-oriented story, among the most important being traceable shipping containers leaving a US scrap yard for Hong Kong. Now, as it happens, those are not always so easy to track down. Folks in the e-waste business tend to be discrete and careful, and the people who try to track them down tend to be ignorant about even the most basic details of how the business operates. So it was all the more surprising to me when – back on March 9 – a company located near Portland, Oregon emailed to offer me (and everyone else unlucky enough to land on their mailing list), this:

How, you may be asking, did I end up on ExportGlobal‘s email list? I’m not exactly sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say that the company acquired the delegate directory from a Chinese recycling conference held in Beijing in November. And whoever did the data entry didn’t bother to note that I was registered for the conference as MEDIA. Next, you may wonder: why didn’t I say something back in March? Shanghai Scrap was on a strict hiatus when I received that offer, and anyway, I didn’t think that anybody could be so boneheaded as to send e-waste tenders to a reporter and blogger more than once (and I really do believe that everyone is entitled to do something stupid – once). Oh, how wrong I was: since that first email I’ve received three more emails from ExportGlobal – two of which include opportunities to purchase e-waste, including this most recent offer, sent last Thursday … (more…)

I’ve spent the better part of a week in Japan, now, visiting some of the most advanced recycling facilities in the world. In some ways, it’s been exhilarating: Japan’s strict regulatory structure ensures that the most difficult wastes – say, automobiles – are recycled as far as current technology and economics allow. At the same time, though, I find myself increasingly despondent: despite all of the technology, will, and expense, the simple fact is that a significant part of the first world’s waste isn’t recyclable. Sometimes, it’s just too hazardous; sometimes, there’s just nothing that can be made from a synthetic material after a first use; sometimes, the costs are just too high; and often, the problem is some combination of the three. I’m not talking about nuclear reactors here, either: I’m talking about hybrid automobiles (yes, that Prius), air-conditioners, washing machines and the other accessories of daily life that – for better or worse – many of us assume float into some sort of Green Heaven if we just drop them off at the local recycling station. Below, an image taken in one of the best and biggest television recycling plants in Japan – and that means, one of the biggest and best in the world.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I’m sympathetic but highly skeptical – and even critical – of some of the more outlandish claims made by environmentalists in favor or recycling. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t recycle. Goodness knows, Tokyo is better off for having its televisions recycled to a (world beating) 50% recovery rate than having them dumped into a landfill. But that’s still 50% if you do everything correctly in the world’s most advanced recycling economy. I think the environmental community, and the recycling industry, could do a better job at informing people about these returns.

Meanwhile, China – the world’s most ambitious recycling economy – has spent the last five years or so promising its citizens and companies that it would begin to implement something called a “circular economy” over the next decade or so. I wish the officials and companies involved in this noble effort nothing but the best in their quest, and over the next 18 months or so I hope to highlight both the possibilities – and the limits – of such a system.

Just when I think I’ve seen everything, somebody takes me to a factory devoted to the recycling of pachinko machines. In the foothills beneath Mount Fuji.

For now, I’m going to have to hold off on saying – and showing – much more than that. Merely keep in mind that the most valuable disassembled components are exported to China (and there’s quite a story to be told in re to that, believe me), and George Lucas is apparently licensing his brand to Japanese gambling dens:

After the jump, Fuji from the pier from which these Star Wars themed pachinko scraps are exported … (more…)

A few weeks ago one of this blog’s regular readers who happens to work in the scrap metal industry mentioned that I had never – not once! – posted images of a metal shredder to Shanghai Scrap. So, in the spirit of good will to all scrap metal dealers, I promised him that I would do so at the earliest possible opportunity. And, as it happens, that opportunity came today. This afternoon, at an undisclosed location in Japan, I saw the finest shredding operation that I’ve ever witnessed (and I’ve witnessed a few). I’ll have more to say on why this is such a fine shredding operation in the near future. For now, though, let’s just get to the shredding. For those who care, we’re looking at a 2000 hp Lindemann about to swallow a Lexus.

And then, 9 minutes later, what remains of the Lexus as it runs up a conveyor belt that will lead – within the hour – to a nearby steel mill.

I don’t know about y’all – but I suddenly feel much better.

This morning, while signing in for a meeting a very large corporate headquarters (which shall remain unnamed) in Tokyo, I was handed the following notice:

Full disclosure: I did not gargle.