Mountains of electronic waste is still being sent from the U.S. to sweatshops and open burn pits in Africa and Asia. This has been reported for a very long time and yet still nothing is being done to stem the flow.
The cost of dumping our leftover poison on the poorest and most vulnerable people on Earth is shameful and because it is preventable it is more shameful still.
“Recycling” electronics may be “free” for U.S. consumers but whole cities and regions are being turned into wastelands of toxic smoke and ash and mountains of debris.
How much longer can our collective conscience bear this terrible onslaught of damage to human health and the environment to third world countries? Can we truly afford to just throw our hands up and say “That’s just the way it is”?
Some will argue that our waste gives these people a source of income, and if that is true then aren’t we as the creators of this toxic material obligated to make the handling of it less deadly?
The incredible amount of e-waste we generate is due in part to our addiction to always ‘needing’ the ‘latest’ electronic gadgets, but a lion’s share of that blame falls on a corporate mindset that generates ‘new’ devices with ever shorter life spans in order to maintain a constant profit margin.
How can we reverse the trend of increasing e-waste?
Consumers need to be made aware when they are adding to the e-waste problem and take action to stop buying ‘new’ while ‘old’ is still useable.
Corporations need to make products that last longer even though it cuts into their profit margin and future sales. In short, they need to develop a conscience.
Below is a very short list of recent media documenting how much e-waste is dumped on third world countries. And this is only from the U.S. There is even more coming from Europe and Australia.
Boston Globe: Old TVs spark environmental dispute
Business Management: The global e-waste problem
Business Week: E-waste: The dirty secret of recycling electronics
CBC News: E-waste mounting in developing countries
CrunchGear: Guiyu: E-waste capital of China
Scienceblogs: What we waste: A view of e-trash
ShanghaiIST: Bonfire of the e-salvageries
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