Report slams export of "e-waste" to Asia

Report slams export of "e-waste" to Asia

Reuters
Hong Kong

Waste from disused electronic components sent to developing
countries such as China and India for recycling and disposal
poses dangerous health and environmental consequences, according
to a report scheduled to be released on Monday by watchdog
groups.

The report, prepared by the Basel Action Network and the
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, cited evidence gathered in the
town of Guiyu, in southern China's Guangdong province, where so-
called "e-waste" including computer monitors and printers is
dismantled at hundreds of sites.

Workers in Guiyu use often-rudimentary tools to extract
primary elements from scrapped components: computer circuit
boards, lead and tin-based solder for resale, aluminum from
printer parts and the copper-heavy yokes of cathode-ray tubes.

"A tremendous amount of imported e-waste material and process
residues is not recycled but is simply dumped in open fields,
along riverbanks, ponds, wetlands, in rivers and in irrigation
ditches," the report said.

Materials dumped in Guiyu included lead-laden glass from
cathode-ray tubes, burned or acid-reduced circuit boards, and
printer toner cartridges.

The report said sediment and water samples taken from the area
indicated the presence of high levels of heavy metals of the kind
found in computers and other electronic components,

"Vast amounts of e-waste material, both hazardous and simply
trash, is burned or dumped in the rice fields, irrigation canals
and along waterways," the report said.

According to unnamed recycling industry resources cited in the
report, between 50 and 80 percent of e-waste collected for
recycling in the western United States ends up on ships headed
for places such as China, where environmental oversight is less
stringent.

The report said much of the waste seen in Guiyu had markings
of North American origin.

Titled "Exporting Harm: The Techno Trashing of Asia", the
report included contributions from Toxics Link India, SCOPE
(Pakistan), and Greenpeace China.