What is Digg?16 Comments
- hbyrne, on 05/27/2009, -0/+9I've dropped off items at privately-run free e-waste collection programs. Sorry to learn it probably ended up in a toxic waste dump overseas.
- TheGuruStud, on 05/28/2009, -0/+4And poverty stricken kids barely get paid to sift through it for precious metals.
Old news, really. - Barackalypse, on 05/28/2009, -0/+2The real problem is that it doesn't end up in a dump, it ends up at reclamation sites where people with little safety equipment attempt to recover the heavy metals and all the nasty solvents get into the ground water. You'd literally be better off tossing it in a landfill here (modern landfills have liners and are monitored for groundwater pollution) than "recycling" it in China.
- jayrok, on 05/28/2009, -0/+2Well, still better than when their e-waste heads to us in the form of crappy knock-off mp3 players, iphones, etc.
- Cantholditdown, on 05/28/2009, -1/+3I volunteered at an E-waste event once. I asked the coordinator what he did with the waste and he said it was "proprietary information", and then he stated he made a modest living. This was in San Diego, and I am guessing based on how excited he was seeing all the TVs that he was going to make some $$$ exporting the junk. Make sure you ask questions...I should have been a little more confrontational and gotten the real answers out of him.
- saisumimen, on 05/28/2009, -1/+3You probably wouldn't have. People who sell out like that usually have at least some shame about it (hence his ***** "proprietary information" excuse).
A lot of people are willing to sell their morals in exchange for "a modest living". It's sad. - SemiSarcastic, on 05/28/2009, -1/+2They handle the e-waste because we won't. If you want to take up the burden you have to be willing to live near the dump.
- iiBeLiEvE, on 05/28/2009, -0/+1Wtf did I just click?
- waynehoggett, on 05/28/2009, -0/+1your iPhone will be just as crappy as soon as the next model comes out...
- nhansen, on 05/28/2009, -0/+1Reminds me of the doc Manufactured Landscapes. Depressing scenes of old (85+) ladies breaking motherboards to pieces with rocks. Some towns have so much metal leaching into the soil that all the water is contaminated and drinking and bathing water has to be trucked in. Sick.
- user500, on 05/29/2009, -0/+1that my friends is why China is kicking are rear ends. Action rather than reaction
- MarkusDee, on 05/28/2009, -1/+2I don't understand why it has to be waste, and can't be reused by those who don't have access to such electronics. It sucks that we live in a world with so much poverty, but if I was a kid in such an area I would be tinkering with this junk to make stuff that works. It just seems that there are better uses for such waste than a garbage pile.
- sanskrtam, on 05/29/2009, -0/+1and smell the unhealthy burning plastic parts and expose to heavy metal. Sad.
- GlassAgate, on 05/29/2009, -0/+1Does anyone know what Best Buy does when old TV's are brought in?
- nepidae, on 05/28/2009, -1/+2Uh, isn't this a good thing? I'd much rather it be somewhere else personally /shrug.
- retroworks, on 06/03/2009, -1/+0I have an electronics recycling company and I have visited China, Malaysia, Singapore, Egypt, Mexico, Lithuania and other countries electronics scrap and "ewaste" importing operations. While I would not dispute that operations BAN describes exists, they are largely a biproduct of extremely large and well-run operations which pay top dollar for computers Americans are too affluent to fix or resell. Economically China cannot pay $5000 per container for what BAN shows on the ground, and does not. What is happening is that good USA companies and entire states (like CA) are blindly destroying good product (in reaction to films like this), and the buyers for the factories turn to lowest common denominator USA companies with less labor who ship more junk. Google WR3A or Fair Trade Recycling if you want to hear more than trite sound bites about ewaste.
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