Question

Ethics of Exporting Used Batteries

Lead is a highly toxic metal, and lead in this case relates to exporting used batteries to Mexico. Elevated levels of lead in the human body have been associated with damage to many organs and body tissues, including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. High lead exposure in young children is particularly worrying. It can result in lower intelligence and learning disabilities, impaired hearing, reduced attention span, hyperactivity, and antisocial behavior. It is not surprising then that exposure to lead has been highly regulated in developed nations. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has mandated tough rules designed to limit lead pollution. One consequence of these rules has been to increase the cost of recycling lead batteries. These rules, however, do not prohibit companies from exporting used batteries to other nations where standards are lower and enforcement is lax.

A study conducted by the reporters from the New York Times found that about 20 percent of used vehicle batteries and industrial batteries in the United States are exported to Mexico, tripling this form of export in just five years. The lead in these batteries is then extracted and resold on commodities markets. It is a booming business. Lead scrap prices stood at $0.73 a pound in July 2015, up from $0.05 a decade earlier. Recycling in Mexico is also a dirty business. While Mexico does have some regulations for smelting and recycling lead, the laws are weak by American standards, allowing plants to release about 20 times as much as their American equivalents. To make matters worse, enforcement is lax due to the lack of funds for quality control. For example, a government study in Mexico found that 19 out of 20 recycling plants did not have proper authorization for importing dangerous waste, including lead batteries.

At some recycling plants in Mexico, used batteries are dismantled by people wielding hammers and their lead smelted in furnaces whose smokestacks vent into the open air. Point in case, a sample of soil collected from a schoolyard next to one of the recycling plants showed a lead level of 2,000 parts per million, five times the limit for children’s play areas in the United States, as set by the EPA. The New York Times reporters documented several cases of children living close to this plant who had elevated levels of lead in their bodies. One four-month-old had 24.8 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood, almost two and a half times as much as the level typically associated with serious mental retardation.

The value chain for used batteries and this form of lead exports is also done by intermediaries in the United States who buy up old batteries and then ship them across the border to the cheapest processors, typically a Mexican company. Some large multinationals are also in this business, however, although they mostly try to adhere to stricter standards and regulations. For example, one large U.S. battery company, Exide Technologies, has five recycling plants in the United States and it does no recycling in Mexico. According to an Exide official, it was not in the company’s best interest to skirt regulations. Another large U.S. battery manufacturer, Johnson Controls, does ship a significant number of batteries to Mexico, but it has its own recycling plants in Mexico as well. Johnson Controls states that its Mexican facilities abide by the stricter U.S. regulations, rather than the Mexican standards. Its recycling operations in Mexico are also well below current U.S. standards for employee blood levels and substantially better than average.

1.Which country’s regulations should apply to a company—the stricter regulations or the country’s regulations in which operations are taking place? What happens if all multinational corporations focus on countries with the least strict standards?

2. With more than 200 countries in the world, is it realistic to expect ethical guidelines to be established across all countries or even within industries across countries? Is one person’s or one company’s ethics likely to be similar to other people’s or companies’ ethics?

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Answer 1

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Answer1:

Hill explains to his readers that international companies hold moral obligations in terms of employment conditions, human rights, corruption, and environmental pollution to the country and other people within which they operate. thus although the country within which they operate holds lower standards the officers of the international company ought to apply the rules of the stricter nation. corporations shouldn't solely be guided by rules however by ethics and therefore the officers of the corporate might forever lead therein regard. If all international companies target countries with the smallest amount of strict standards, then that may cause saturation of business in such countries. On the otherhand, there may additionally be a rise in areas like pollution, exploitation and corruption.

hand there may additionally be a rise in areas like pollution, exploitation, and corruption. it's not wrong for international companies to form that move once it's done de jure and that they abide the ethics. it's up to the leaders of the countries that they enter to line limitations and do vetting once necessary, in a trial to confirm that such business would facilitate build and maintain their economy and other people.

Answer2:

When staring at this question the thought of moral dilemmas come back to mind. As countries take issue, their moral pointers and expectations take issue. as an example, as noticed in Hill, the executing for a few western countries is unlawful, nonetheless, in different countries, it's the nor. Therefore, persons argue that business ethics depends on culture; which is true, moral laws vary from country to country. what's guarded as moral in a very country might not be thus in another country? Consequently, it extremely fantastic to expect moral pointers to be established across all countries or perhaps among industries across countries. Having aforementioned this, it's additionally informed note that corporations and other people endorse totally different frameworks of moral thought and behaviors. so persons and corporations aren't obligated to share similar ethics. whereas it's probably that person or people could share similar similar ethics it's additionally probably that there'll be variations.