TIME magazine recently published an online article about E-waste and the abhorrent conditions that it creates. Most people, as indicated in the article, stereotype the electronics industries as "clean" and "environmentally friendly;" after all, just think of all the paper that the digital age saves! Or so they say.
As the digital age progress and newer and faster; better, electronics debut, the consumerist culture in industrialized nations discards their older electronics -- now at an ever-growing rate.
Just what happens to the computers, old mp3 players, cell phones, and other devices that we discard? Just try getting rid of your old CRT computer monitor (those really BIG ones that have been mostly replaced by the flat-panel LCD ones) at your local recycling center or even in trash. It's considered toxic waste.
The United States has a horrible tendency to ship their waste overseas to countries that will take it -- mainly those with largely impoverished sections, as they will do practically anything for U.S. dollars.
In the YouTube video below, Michael Zhao describes and shows us some of the footage from these countries and describes the paths that our trash takes. A journalist with ties to the Asia Society (which is "working to strengthen relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the United States), Zhao visited firsthand one of the small Chinese towns that has been ravaged by their own industry: E-Waste processing.
In those towns, one might imagine a factory-like building in which workers come to disassemble electronic waste in a controlled and safe environment; but that is not the case. Without clothing protection, eye goggles, or even a mask, the town's citizens burn leftover parts on home stoves, attempting to salvage the tiny amounts of gold within the product.
The toxic fumes are simply inhaled by the workers. Their town is surrounded by mountains of trash. Their waterways are BLACK, like sludge; full of dumped toxic waste. And yet the workers continue to welcome E-Waste imports, for it is a small yet steady stream of much-needed money.
I would agree with some critiques that the United States electronics companies that ship the waste to these impoverished countries are guilty of long-range dumping. They simply export the toxic waste to a location far from their own, and leave the mess for the poor to clean up.
Why? Because it costs less to ship the trash halfway around the world and pay people to take it, rather than dispose of it as best as possible here in the United States.
As an American citizen, I am glad that the toxic waste is not dumped in my country (and am somewhat somewhat guilty myself -- having written this post from my Dell laptop amidst a host of other elctronics), but we have NO RIGHT to expect the rest of the world to deal with our garbage. Even if it is "their" country rather than ours, it is still "our" world -- and our only one at that.
In 1989, the United Nations adopted a treaty to control the stream of hazardous waste that was then flowing from wealthy countries to impoverished ones (See the "Basel Convention on the Control of Trans boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal). But there is one problem: the United States (one of the main exporters) never agreed to it, and poor importer countries (like China) continue to accept the waste for the few dollars that accompany it.
This disgusting irrelevance for the environment and for our fellow humans, this love for the bottom line, and this irresponsible industry behavior is abhorrent! I don't know what can be done, especially with so much toxic waste-to-be still in American households, but we must end the dumping -- yesterday.
WATCH THE BELOW VIDEO FOR MORE INFORMATION:
The TIME article referenced above is available here: Your Laptop's Dirty Little Secret
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