At the HMR Sta. Rosa plant, PC monitors are dismantled, the cathode ray tubes crushed to separate the hazardous lead-treated glass plate for recycling in Singapore.

WHAT HMR is currently doing to increase household sourcing of e-waste is to take part in Earth Day, during which it sets up collection stations for electronics recyclables. But so far, the bulk of the residential electronic waste it has gotten has consisted of appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines.

Of the average eight to 10 tons of e-waste HMR Envirocycle receives daily, 90 percent are already defective and obsolete (pre-Pentium 2) and therefore good only for their scrap and recyclable value. Based on the condition of the central processing units (CPUs), HMR buys whole PCs for at least P200 each. The remaining 10 percent, which at times includes Pentium 4-generation computers, can be mined for working parts that can be used to refurbish old but working units for reselling by HMR's Mandaluyong warehouses and retail outlets under the Save-on-Surplus (SOS) chain in Metro Manila and Fivejays stores in Cebu.

Depending on their processing speeds, refurbished computers are usually sold at a low P5,000 to as much as P10,000. (New units cost about P18,000 and upwards.) They also come with a warranty and are covered by a company policy that allows buyers to return the units at the end of their useful lives to HMR for recycling. "If it still has value, we will pay them for it," says Savage. "If it has no more value, we'll still take it and guarantee them that it will not be put in a landfill."

Still, recycling is not a very profitable business for HMR Philippines. At least not just yet, and certainly still very far from being in the same league as its U.S. division in Sacramento, California, where consumers actually pay for the service rendered by recyclers.

"Our revenues are more from the 'resellables,'" admits HMR engineer Cruz. "While the movement of scraps is faster because they are sold by the volume, we are able to recoup our purchase costs better when we extend the life of the electronic devices by repairing and reselling them."

That way too, discarded electronics are temporarily kept out of local landfills and dumpsites, which Cruz says may not be secure enough to handle e-waste. In fact, the concrete wall of PRI's dumping ground in its Bulacan facility collapsed due to heavy torrential rains in May, causing lead waste to spill over to the Marilao River.

The 1997 Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) commissioned study of Metro Manila's final disposal sites for common wastes also noted the inadequacies inherent in the construction, operation and maintenance of the four sites, even recommending the immediate closure of three, including the Payatas dumpsite.

HMR's recycling activity therefore has a transitional value that even Greenpeace's Hernandez admits has some good in the short-term. Yet Hernandez has some caveats: "We applaud that approach but at the same time, they are also unwittingly deflecting responsibility from manufacturers. Since they are able to take care of the hazards that the industry generates, they are becoming the manufacturers' excuse for doing business as usual."

Making manufacturers assume responsibility is the moving spirit behind the European Commission's directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The directive holds makers legally responsible for the reuse and recycling of their products. This has already borne fruit in computer take-back schemes and the extended producer responsibility (EPR) concept undertaken by a handful of firms in the electronics industry. The EC initiative also calls on the industry to phase out some of the worst toxic substances used in the manufacture of electronics. But the computer industry in the United States, which refused to be a party to the Basel Convention, is hedging. It has lobbied for reducing the list of hazardous chemicals scheduled for phaseout and postponing the phaseout deadline until 2008.

"When they are responsible, they are aware that they have to deal with disposal issues," says Hernandez. "So there's an incentive to go clean production, to use less toxic substances and come up with a better design that makes it easier to dismantle computers for recycling."

"As a recycler, we're doing our part," insists HMR's Cruz. But the problem of e-waste, he concedes, entails the involvement of so many players, including manufacturers, recyclers, government and consumers.

End-users can at least exercise the power of their purses. In buying electronic devices like PCs, look for vendors who offer to take the unit back at the end of its life for recycling. People with outdated computers can start calling the stores that sold them the machines; ask the stores what they can do with these discards. Doing these sends signals to companies that that they have to take responsibility.

Unless that stage is reached, Hernandez says the kind of recycling that is being done today will only be a sham. He observes, "When you talk of recycling hazardous waste, you're merely recycling a hazard. You end up with hazardous materials."