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The politics of e-waste-A cadmium lining
POOR countries have long been a popular
destination for the rich world’s toxic trash. In 1987 an Italian importer
sparked international outrage by dumping 8,000 leaky barrels in the Nigerian
village of Koko. On January 9th Nigeria fined importers $1m for trying to bring
in two 12-metre containers full of defunct televisions, computers, microwaves
and stereos, aboard a ship from Tilbury in Britain—the fifth such incident in
three years.
Waste consisting of dead electronic
goods, or e-waste, is growing at three times the rate of other kinds of
rubbish, fuelled by gadgets’ diminishing lifespan and the appetite for consumer
electronics among the developing world’s burgeoning middle classes. In 1998
America discarded 20m computers; by 2009 that number had climbed to 47.4m.
China alone retired 160m appliances in 2011, 40% of America’s haul. A 2011
report by Pike Research, a consultancy, estimates that the volume and weight of
global e-scrap will more than double in the next 15 years.
International efforts to regulate the
trade in waste revolve around the Basel Convention, passed in 1989 following
the Koko row. It aims to stop the rich world dumping its harmful detritus in
poor countries. But e-waste is not just poisonous: it contains precious metals,
too. Processors, chips and connecting pins (known as “gold fingers”) contain
seams of silver, gold and palladium; these “deposits” are 40 to 50 times richer
than dug-up ores, according to a study conducted by the United Nations
University. Other less valuable and more troubling lodes for “urban miners”
include cadmium, lead and mercury.
High-tech recyclers—such as Umicore in
Belgium and Xstrata in Canada—can recover up to 95% of the metal using furnaces
and solvents. But dirtier methods are cheaper. In the Guiyu area of southern
China 100,000 people work in e-waste recycling. It is “ground zero for the
e-waste trade,” says Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, a green group.
Standard practice is to separate the plastic by boiling circuit boards on
stoves, and then leach the metals with acid. Workers risk burns, inhaling fumes
and poisoning from lead and other carcinogens. A study by the nearby Shantou
University found high miscarriage rates in local women.
So far, manufacturers are doing little
to make their products easy to dismantle and recycle cleanly. Mr Puckett and
his allies want a blanket ban on e-waste shipping to stop the West “exporting
harm”. The Basel signatories took a big step in October 2011 towards a general
ban on the export of hazardous waste—which would include electronic scrap. But
poorer countries already produce a quarter of the world’s e-waste pile; they
could overtake rich ones as early as 2018. Choking off the trade will not stop
the acid cauldrons bubbling.
Adam Minter, a Shanghai-based journalist
and author of a forthcoming book, “Junkyard Planet”, says that China’s wages
and location give it a comparative advantage. “It’s no accident that Guiyu is
so close to where iPads are being made,” he says. Feng Wang, an e-waste expert
at the UN University, notes that the authorities in Guiyu are supporting safer,
high-tech recycling plants. Mr Minter says other recyclers there have been
using heated centrifuges to dislodge the valuable bits from circuit boards;
they have charcoal filters to absorb the fumes. Guiyu would not meet Western
health and safety standards, but, he says, “it’s progressed from the medieval
era to the 1970s.”
Those endorsements ring hollow for Mr
Puckett. He cites the dearth in developing countries of enforceable safety
rules, health care for workers and courts to redress grievances when things go
wrong. While poor countries lack these arrangements, he says, rich countries
should not send them e-waste. And many countries do not recycle at all: most
televisions and computers that end up in Nigeria are dumped. Nigeria’s
parliament is currently considering a bill to prohibit traffic in e-waste
altogether. The Chinese may be cheering for that.
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