Supply and Demand in the International Marketplace .ppt 9 megs

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Supply and Demand in the International
Marketplace Navigating the Export Issue
Economic, Environmental and Ethical
Considerations Robin Ingenthron American
Retroworks Inc. Middlebury, Vermont www.retrowork
s.com
National Recycling Coalition
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Session Goals

• Basic Starting Points
• 2) Case Studies USA, Cameroon, Honduras,
  S.China, N.China, Pakistan, Egypt, Lithuania
• 3) Common denominators for success failure
• 4) Recommended Standards

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Basics behind domestic and foreign demand for
used electronics and scrap
REALITY If USA exports everything, we send 1/3
reusables, 1/3 recyclables, and 1/3 Toxics Along
for the Ride. REALITY if USA exports nothing,
we destroy reuseables (and they cannot afford
new) they mine to replace the recycled metals,
and mining produces even more toxic harm than
recycling. SOLUTION Setting a Higher Standard.
USA processing, limited exports (tested
equipment, copper scrap), simple tests (like CRT
Glass Test) market development to promote best
practices (funded) state processing contracts
with restrictions and incentives etc.
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(No Transcript)
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Market Forces
Low wages, better repair
Manufacturing Demand, Free market mining
CD, Floppy Drives Cords, cables Video cards,
Monitors, ATX cases
Gold Copper Aluminum Steel Plastic
Leaded glass (TVs and bad monitors) Gold process
waste Mercury batteries
Lax environmental standards
Contraband camouflage
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Understanding Export Forces

• Reuse Forces
• 1. High tolerance/demand for used
• 2. Free software
• Cheap parts
• Good, cheap tech. labor

• Recycling Forces
• 1. Metal demand
• 2. Balance of Trade
• Cheap labor
• Cheap env. Laws

Giant Sucking Sound Growth in Chinese demand for
copper (ore and scrap) 20 per year 1999-2003
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USA Mercury Emissions by Industry(Rank 2-7 -
w/o GOLD Mining)
Source http//www.epa.gov/region09/toxic/tri/repo
rt/01/mercury.pdf
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USA Mercury Emissions by Industry(Rank 1-7)
Source http//www.epa.gov/region09/toxic/tri/repo
rt/01/mercury.pdf
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Chinese demand in particular drives both
recycling and mining

• 1. Electric and electronic appliances made in
  China
• 2. Chinese New Deal scale infrastructure
  development
• Asia 1 in per capita consumption of gold
  platinum
• (the only materials which the West does not
  consume most of)

Mining nightmares in Borneo, Chile, Congo,
Philippines, Turkey, etc.
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Better to meet demand than not to?

• E-Scrap is 300 richer in copper and other metals
  than mined ore
• Recycling produces a fraction of the pollution
  from mining.
• Gorilla and orangutan extinction is arguably
  driven by electrics metal mining.
• One Copper mine in Papua New Guinea (feeding
  China) dumped 80,000 Tons Per Day of Cyanide
  tailings into the OK Tedi River from 1990-2000
• USGS At 1990 rate of consumption, all known
  copper reserves will be exhausted this century
  Ocean mining will be the primary source of copper
  in our lifetimes.
• USA Model? 95 from federal lands, 5/acre,
  14/15 largest Superfund sites
• Hard rock mining produces 45 of all toxics
  produced by all USA industries.

Gold mining releases more mercury into the
environment than mercury production and disposal
combined!!!
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Export Goals, Export Policy, Export Standards
Reuse USA is at a disadvantage. Assess
knowledge, experience, ability to support.
Dollars per item, categorization. USA Export
Restrictions on MBPS Recycling Distinction
between lead (CRT) markets (42 of scrap), which
are rare. Gold scrap a problem (process waste),
though demand is certainly high (as compared to
lead). 2nd Container Inspection Importer
promises immediate feedback on first container,
digital photos, permission to do site visit after
second container. Hiding high tech goods Game
playing on tariffs a big frustration.
Corruption and protectionism hurts legitimate
environmental practices.
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Cameroon

• I lived there 1984-86
• Friend/employee/partner is native
• Connection to Rebecca Enonchong, CEO Application
  
• Technologies Inc., World Bank Digital Divide
  Forum Chair
• - Flew Yadji there for 4 months under contract
• Sewing machines
• mixed clothing, shoes
• dual voltage, P2

3 visits 10 container Purchase Order No money
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Honduras

• Former partner lives there 3 months/ year
• Partnership with Vermont Rotary Club
• 6 Public Schools
• - USA 120 voltage, P1-P2

3 years 3 containers Great follow up No money
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Southern China Scrap

• High Demand, fast payment
• Invitation to speak, tour with Sino EPA
• Combined scrap (copper, gold, aluminum) but not
  with repair
• Visit to 2 aluminum, 2 copper, 200 reuse
  operations

6 months 3 containers No problems Casualty in war
on counterfeit
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Southern China Reuse

• High Demand, fast payment
• SKD TV repair demand is booming
• Tour 200 small resellers
• SKD TV Manufacturing
• 1 operation 50,000 per month

6 months 3 containers No problems Casualty in war
on counterfeit
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Northern China Scrap

• Officially sanctoined
• 16M in matching Beijing bank loans
• Tour not on schedule
• No visible equity

Did not proceed, no trial shipments
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Lithuania

• Officially sanctoined
• EU, NATO member
• Establishex
• Tour not on schedule
• No visible equity

2 trial shipments, TW, AL, scrap printersThey
want negative value material, but Dont show how
they will handle it
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Other Visits (Fly and Buy)

• Pakistan All the right answers. Failed
  surprise site visit.
• Egypt Working units only, Pentium II and above
• Columbia/Bolivia/Peru Black 27 TVs
  (repairable)
• Belgium, England, Spain gold bearing scrap
• Ghana Promising but importer was neophyte
• South Africa Screenvision no reply,
  non-profits
• Malaysia Impressive 30 page environmental
  dossier, lies about CRT
• Nigeria corrupt mess

2 trial shipments to Egypt2 trial shipments
(TVs) to Peru, Bolivia Ghana no-show
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Overall USA Monitor Management spent and earned
per 1000 monitors
Most demand for used is overseas
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Possible USA Monitor Management spent and
earned per 1000 monitors
If copper and lead returned to 1900 prices, and
monitors were repaired at 75 rate
Countries with high reuse and no mining subsidies
have the advantage
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Overseas Monitor Management spent and earned
per 1000 monitors
No mining subsidies, and 10 technical and
handling labor cost
Countries with high reuse, no mining subsidies,
and low wages are the winners
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Chapter 3 Know your supply

1. Keep 1/3 domestic
2. Evaluate exports
3. Keep records
4. Evolving standards

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Understanding your own supply

• 1) Pristine takeouts for auction, clean scrap
• - you can deal with anyone directly
• 2) Toxic Junk, Contraband, leftovers
• - you should insist on domestic processing
• 3) I dunnoMix of good, bad and ugly
• - you should deal with USA company with capacity
  to separate, process and market, and get
  documentation

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Understanding your own supply

• 1) Pristine takeouts, off-lease equipment (Reuse
  material)
• Highly Sorted Working and repairable monitors,
  P2s, cords, peripherals, cartridges
• positive revenue
• dollars per item (not pennies per pound)
• high overseas demand, with incentives to hide it
  from tariff collectors and anti-gray-market
  enforcers

• Working monitors
• No screen damage
• No VGA
• No Apple
• Make, Model, COM,
• Year, other tech details

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Understanding your own supply

• 2) The Dregs
• Cherry-picked material, TVs, obsolete equipment,
  residue, shredded or baled material.
• Damaged CRTs
• Pennies per pound
• Overseas demand based on copper, gold and
  aluminum content

One USA company sold good stuff to one export
market, and (misrepresented) bad stuff to another
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Understanding your own supply

• I dont know Then make sure the company you
  select has capacity to handle either type of
  E-Scrap.

Working monitors
Crapple
Were switching to flat screens
One fellow insisted his 1990 public school Stuff
works as good as when it was new.
Another commercial client insisted that working
monitors, replaced by flat screens, should be
recycled/destroyed here in the USA.
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4 Simple Due Diligence Tests

• Glass recycling records
• Gold bearing scrap records
• Sample manifests (declared reuse items)
• Employees or capital investment per ton

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1. CRT Glass Test - no known market in Asia for
screen burned, scratched or busted tubes.
Legitimate USA recyclers must be able to show
where the non-repairable glass goes. Guidance
document at retroworks.com, several other sites
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2. Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Gold Test -
Nasty recycling (and nastier mining) practices.
We do all Printed Circuit Boards
domestically. Q Will this lead to more
mining? A Gold mining is maxed out already
Reuters chinese miner
BAN chinese circuit board / gold recycler
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3. Truth in Exporting Test - Ask for shipping
manifests (sensitive market info can be blocked
out). Legitimate bill of lading shows
make/model/voltage/COO/condition. DHS will
enforce existing high tech export rules, customs
declarations. How picky ? Picky is good
If for repair, is it wrapped, tested, sorted
and manifested?
One export market included a carton of cigs in
every sample photo of e-scrap they are soliciting
at high prices. Hmmmm.
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• 4. Employment / Capacity Test
• How many tons did the company handle last year?
• How many employees per ton?
• If fewer employees, how much automated processing
  equipment is in place?
• One NE company has 2 employees and ships 1000
  containerloads per year

This container certainly has several hundred
cords, power supplies, and hard drives which
could be reused - but its TAR, an abuse of reuse.
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4 Ethical Questions

• Is there a limited number of environmental
  dollars?
• Is the Perfect the enemy of the Good?
• Does Environmental good justify tariff avoidance?

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• mineralpolicy.org
• mpi.org.au
• USGS.gov
• moles.org
• ban.org
• copper.org
• www.antigraymarket.org
• these and other links www.retroworks.com