Lucye Rafferty/The Hoya Protestors encourage awareness about the pollutants found in Dell Computers while encouraging recycling.
Clad head to toe in a white Hazmat suit, Andy Asensio (COL ’05) looked like he was ready to make a dive into a toxic waste dump as he stood in Red Square early Monday afternoon. As a “walking petition,” Asensio asked passers-by to sign his suit as part of Georgetown EcoAction’s campaign to raise awareness about toxic substances in electronic waste and the computer industry’s inadequate recycling programs.
“Old computers have toxins in them – lead and mercury being the worst – and if they aren’t recycled they end up in landfills,” Asensio said. He said that there are between 300 and 600 million obsolete computers in the United States, but there is no effective system of collecting and recycling them.
Yesterday’s event was intended to pressure the Dell Computer Corporation to step up its recycling efforts. EcoAction is sending the signature-scrawled Hazmat suit to Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Computer. Dell was the demonstration’s target because the company controls the largest share of the personal computer market in the country and is the leading seller of computers to government and educational institutions. Nonetheless, Asensio said they are lagging behind in their environmental policies.
EcoAction also posted signs in Red Square with information about the environmental dangers of electronic waste and the problems it perceives in the computer industry’s current approach to recycling. The group also tried to draw attention with a tangled pile of metallic wires and old computer monitors roped together with yellow “caution” tape.
Asensio said the mound represented the hazardous electronic waste that results without computer recycling programs. “That’s the kind of chaos we can expect if nothing changes,” he said, pointing to the jumbled heap.
“We want Dell to take responsibility for this problem because, once they acknowledge it, they have to do something about it,” Asensio said. “We want them to phase out toxic materials in their computers and make them more durable and easier to recycle.”
Asensio explained that while Dell does offer a limited program where consumers can mail back their used equipment, the consumers must pay more to participate. The extra cost, he said, deters many people from sending the computers back for recycling.
According to Asensio, another problem with the current program is that much of the recycling takes place in federal prisons. He said that Georgetown currently ships its obsolete computers to prisons. “Prisoners are the ones actually taking the computers apart, and then they could get exposed to all the toxins inside,” he said.
Georgetown EcoAction partnered with ecopledge.com, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that targets corporations that they feel need more environmentally friendly policies. After a corporation is selected, ecopledge.com asks students to sign petitions saying they will not work for the company and assists students in their own awareness campaigns. A few months ago, Georgetown students and ecopledge.com’s protest effort in from of the M Street Staples proved a success when the company agreed to use at least 30 percent recycled paper in all its products.
Sasha Kinney (SFS ’06), who urged students to sign Asensio’s suit as they passed, said she feels that EcoAction will have similar success with Dell because corporations are sensitive to consumer demands. “Campaigns like this one are great, because they actually get something done,” she said. “You pick one corporation and you put the pressure on them until they make the change, and then the other companies in the industry will do the same, to keep up.”
Brittany Braga (NHS ’05) said that she stopped to add her signature to the suit because computers are such a prominent part of our lifestyle. “Not recycling them would be like not recycling water bottles or cans,” she said.
