ASIA
SOCIETY VIDEO: E-WASTE AND THE AFTERLIFE OF ELECTRONICS, BY CAROLINE PATTON:
12/03/2008
(MaximsNews TV)
UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 12
March 2008 -- Ever wondered what happens
to your computer when you get rid of it? Your cell phone? Your printer? Michael
Zhao of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society set out to show people the answer when he created eDump and made a video
about the afterlives of electronics that has gotten 300,000 views.
Our lives in the First World are filled with electronic gadgets, computers,
phones, printers, televisions, and all their accountrements, but when they
break, become obsolete or are replaced with a newer and more exciting model they
end up in industrializing countries like India, China, and Nigeria in poor towns
with no other industry or source of jobs.
Because of the toxic materials inside electronic devices, they cannot be
recycled easily in the US and therefore are shipped to the Third World via
transit points in big cities like Hong Kong. They end up in villages like Guiyu,
the epicenter of e-waste in China. Guiyu receives a million tons of e-waste
annually and 80 percent of the village are involved in processing e-waste.
The
operations are crude, with no regard for the safety of those involved. The
workers have no masks and use industrial acid to strip away the metal of
computer parts to extract miniscule amounts of gold. The waste from the melting
and dismantling of electronics components gets discharged into the river,
turning the water black in places. Cleaning up the village would ruin the town,
taking away its only economic sustenance.
Most
industrial countries have signed the Basel Convention which prohibits the
movement of e-waste but real change will not be possible unless electronics
manufacturers, especially computer companies, can be enlisted to help by
removing toxic materials from electronics. Some have already moved in that
direction. Some progress has been made by encouraging the donation of used
computers but the problem will continue, and will only grow, as people crave
more and newer technology.
Zhao's website at http://www.michaelzhao.net/eDump/
includes lists of companies and countries and their stances towards e-waste, as
well as information on the e-waste industry. He says
Americans have 3 billion electronics but discard hundreds of millions a year,
300 million in 2005. This amounts to 2.2 million tons, of which half goes to
developing countries.
The consequences are bad not only for the thousands engaged in the dangerous
work of processing electronics but also for the environment.
MaximsNews®
LLC
NEWS NETWORK FOR THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
MaximsNews Network® LLC is a Global News Network
that is read worldwide, in 195 countries and territories. It is associated with MediaChannel.org and Globalvision News Network, global news and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 135 countries.
Established in 1999, MaximsNews now publishes in
the six UN working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and
Spanish.
