Where computers go to die -- and kill

[phantom power]

For years, developed countries have been exporting tons of electronic waste to China for inexpensive, labor-intensive recycling and disposal. Since 2000, it's been illegal to import electronic waste into China for this kind of environmentally unsound recycling. But tons of debris are smuggled in with legitimate imports, corruption is common among local officials, and China's appetite for scrap is so enormous that the shipments just keep on coming.

In Taizhou's outdoor workshops, people bang apart the computers and toss bits of metal into brick furnaces that look like chimneys. Split open, the electronics release a stew of toxic materials -- among them beryllium, cadmium, lead, mercury and flame retardants -- that can accumulate in human blood and disrupt the body's hormonal balance. Exposed to heat or allowed to degrade, electronics' plastics can break down into organic pollutants that cause a host of health problems, including cancer. Wearing no protective clothing, workers roast circuit boards in big, uncovered woklike pans to melt plastics and collect valuable metals. Other workers sluice open basins of acid over semiconductors to remove their gold, tossing the waste into nearby streams. Typical wages for this work are about $2 to $4 a day.

Jim Puckett, director of Basel Action Network, an environmental advocacy organization that tracks hazardous waste, filmed these Dickensian scenes in 2004. "The volume of junk was amazing," he says. "It was arriving 24 hours a day and there was so much scrap that one truck was loaded every two minutes." Nothing has changed in two years. "China is still getting the stuff," Puckett tells me in March 2006. In fact, he says, the trend in China now is "to push the ugly stuff out of sight into the rural areas."

(...)

Because high-tech electronics contain hundreds of materials packed into small spaces, they are difficult and expensive to recycle. Eager to minimize costs and maximize profits, many recyclers ship large quantities of used electronics to countries where labor is cheap and environmental regulations lax. U.S. recyclers and watchdog groups like Basel Action Network estimate that 50 percent or more of the United States' used computers, cellphones and TVs sent to recyclers are shipped overseas for recycling to places like Taizhou or Lagos, Nigeria, as permitted by federal law. But much of this obsolete equipment ends up as toxic waste, with hazardous components exposed, burned or allowed to degrade in landfills.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/04/10/ewaste/

[acmejack]

1. If that picture doesn't rip your guts out.

That was as bad as the ship-breakers in India. These scenes are surreal, something from a survivalist flick set in a devastated (maybe not so distant) future. That little kid amid all that wire and god knows what else...

edit: when I went to your link, it is the same story but the pictures are edited from this morning.

[skids]

2. Here's another great link on this problem.

...maybe the article already has it on the other side of the subscribtion wall, but
the "Exporting Harm" reports have been out for years now, and there are more photos and some
video clips from that same set at this site:

http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/technotrash.htm

[skyblue]

3. :patriot: Website Reference

The website for Basel Action Network referenced in this article is www.ban.org

[One_Life_To_Give]

4. Are any states adopting the European WEEE Directive?

DIRECTIVE 2002/96/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 27 January 2003
on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)

Directive 2002/96/EC

[phantom power]

5. I forgot to add this link about how to recycle your computer

If you follow the link they have a list of recycling resource links at the bottom.

The Rethink Program hosted by eBay has a good computer recycling FAQ section and many useful links to recyclers, as do CompuMentor's Tech Soup site and the EPA's eCycling Web site. But be aware that the recyclers listed on these sites have not been vetted or approved by these organizations in any way. The public agency that handles garbage disposal and recycling in your region may also list electronics recyclers on a Web site but these lists are not vetted either. Tech Soup and Rethink both have links to data-wiping software.

The Basel Action Network Web site carries a list of electronics recyclers that have signed BAN's stewardship pledge, under which recyclers agree not to export e-waste or add it to landfill, or use prison labor, and to document where equipment, parts and materials go. Its list includes recyclers in all parts of the U.S. The following links to select groups and manufacturers should help you find the best methods and places for recycling.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/04/10/greenguide/

[Dogmudgeon]

6. The Japanese, as usual, are ahead of us -- and paranoid

Every battery I've seen in the last few years that comes from Japan -- they are often in TV remote controls -- says "absolutely no mercury or cadmium!" Cadmium poisoning, in particular, causes a form of poisoning Japanese kids started calling "ittai-ittai" or "ouch-ouch".

The Japanese electronics experimenters' web pages often have ads for Hg- (mercury) and Cd- (cadmium) free batteries and parts.

--p!