Old computers and electronics are being shipped to developing countries for inexpensive labor to dispose and recycle their parts, says Elizabeth Grossman, in an article on salon.com. She says these parts contain toxic minerals that are causing environmental hazards and severe health concerns. Grossman says it has been illegal since 2000 to import electronic waste to China, yet smuggled shipments of debris keep coming. Jim Puckett, the director of the Basel Action Network, an environmental advocacy organization says, “The volume of junk was amazing.” he added, “It was arriving 24 hours a day and there was so much scrap that one truck was loaded every two minutes.” The electronics, when split apart for disposal and recycling, release toxic waste causing health problems and even cancer. “Wearing no protective clothing, workers roast circuit boards…to melt plastics and collect valuable metals. Other workers slice open basins of acid over semiconductors to remove their gold, tossing the waste into nearby streams. Typical wages for this work is about $2 to $4 a day,” said Grossman.Brady Avery, a senior majoring in international cultural studies from California, said, “Instead of taking it apart, keeping what we can, and discarding the rest of it to these poor communities, why don't we ship the computer completely? That would give them access to a computer, a much needed resource to get ahead in our age, and it would stop the polluting at the same time.”Tephota Praide, a junior in social work from Colonia, Yap, Micronesia, said, “I read a bit about this issue, and it’s sad to see many families having to drink polluted water or wash their clothes in contaminated water. Many families have no other choice than except these kinds of jobs due to the need of financial income, but having to sacrifice their health for money should not be something people have to choose from.” Grossmann says “Over a billion computers are now in use worldwide — over 200 million in the United States, which has the world’s highest per capita concentration of PCs. The average life span of an American computer is about three to five years and some 30 million become obsolete here each year.”The National Center for Electronics Recycling based in West Virginia says it’s always preferable to reuse your electronics rather than “dump your junk.” But if you can’t find anyone who could use your old electronics, the NCER urges people to find a responsible recycler. “Sometimes it’s not easy to tell who is a responsible recycler and who is not. One of the best ways to choose a recycler is to rely on certification programs. For example, many recyclers are now R2 and/or e-Steward certified. In addition, the Greener Gadgets directory [at http://greenergadgets.com] can help you locate a list of manufacturer, retailer and certified eCycling locations in your area. Many of these are certified to the above-mentioned standards or work with recyclers that are.”The NCER also encourages people to make sure they remove any personal or protected data from their electronics before recycling or reusing them. “You can read more about the importance of hard drive erasure as well as do a comparison of some of the more popular software programs by going to Tech Soup’s website at: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/software/page5726.cfm,” says NCER information.
Writer: Jennifer Herrera~Multimedia Journalist
