E-Waste As A Moral Tragedy
Imagine this life: The sunlight, reddened as it sneaks past a latent layer of atmospheric pollution, is partially blocked by the billowing clouds of black smoke smoldering from the night before. Your shallow lungs ache from your daily vigil in front of fiery altars of consumerist waste. The sight of burning circuit boards is as commonplace as flora once were. You’re surrounded by women, elderly, and children workers whose faces are blackened from the ubiquitous ash; tears in their eyes are merely an occupational hazard from the toxic air. Get ready for a fourteen-hour day of crudely extracting precious metals from discarded, defunct electronics.
It may seem like a scene from a post-apocalyptic blockbuster, but this is daily life for the 100,000 employees of this recycling village in Guiyu, China. Most of the waste is from circuit boards, the toxicity of which is proportionate to their affordability in the United States.
If you recycle your electronics, you may take comfort to know that your electronics were safely recycled in much more modern facilities. Surely our waste isn’t in that pile in Southeast China, right? Unfortunately, much of that waste is from American homes. In addition, many of it was taken to facilities by well-intentioned consumers who believed they were doing the right thing by paying to have it recycled. Capitalism (more specifically, globalization) dictates that the cheapest and most profitable processes outcompete more expensive ones. As a result, it’s often cheaper for domestic recyclers to ship waste to China for “recycling.”
To say nothing of the environmental impact from the fuel of shipping tons of trash across the globe, recycling has a different meaning in developing nations. It’s a very toxic process to manually remove certain metals, and most ends up burned in makeshift campfires by workers for pennies a day. A lack of opportunity and education means that many of these workers don’t even know about the local prevalence of cancer or infant mortality. When people die of lead or mercury poisoning, the toxicity of their work environment is often not even considered.
It’s a troubling state of affairs, but ignorance is not bliss; in fact, the greatest obstacle to a sustainable future may be the denial afforded by trendy “Green” products or propaganda from the recycling industry that trades small change and satisfaction for guilt and certain trash. It’s an uphill battle to change public perception enough to demand that all recycling plants stop this exploitative practice in the name of cutting costs. Until then, responsible recycling may take more work on the consumer side.
People need to do their research to find out whether their local recycler exports waste. Better yet, people should buy products free from mercury and lead. A lot of European companies make lead-free electronics and have to deal with much stricter requirements on the manufacturing side of things. Until then, the best option for your used electronics may be ensuring that it ends up used in someone else’s home. If it has value, it can be sold on eBay, craigslist, or through local newspapers.
If the value is more than $50, it may be worth your time to check out an Easysale store, with 5 convenient locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. You’d be doing more to avoid the destruction of our planet, and you may make some fast cash without much effort. Just think, at a recycling plant, you have to pay them to take your e-waste. How awesome that you can save time, earn money, and do the right thing all at once!
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