E-waste in China - an international case study
According to the United Nations, about 70% of the globally produced e-waste ends up in China!
Even tough China has banned the import of electronic waste, it is still the world largest e-waste bin. The waste gets imported illegally from countries such as America. In the southeastern town of Guiyu, Chinas largest e-waste processor, you can see wires, screens and other e-waste lying around on every street. In the factories, the workers take apart the electronic devices within seconds, only saving the valuables (e.g. the metal disks). The piles of plastic chips are poured into a synthetic fluid, which then gets sold to manufacturers such as Foxconn, which amongst other things produces items for Apple. When recycling is done properly, it is a good thing, but when informal recycling factories, such as the ones in Guiyu recycle it is done under dangerous and highly harming circumstances that have negative effects on the environment and the society, both locally and internationally. Another big problem is that China used to only get the e-waste of other countries, but as its own people are getting richer and its economy is prospering, they are producing more e-waste too, which results in the labour forces in Guiyu having to work more and harder, therefore risking their health even more.
The big amounts of e-waste and the poor quality recycling cause terrible pollution in Guiyu. Most of the toxic pollution comes from the burning of plastic, circuit boards and copper wires, or washing them with hydrochloric acid to recover valuable metals such as copper and steal. These processes contaminate the workers and the environment with harmful substances like lead, beryllium and cadmium, as well as they release hydrocarbon ashes into the air, water and soil. The pollution is so bad, that when you visit Guiyu for the first time, your eyes and nostrils burn. The waste gets dumped on fields and streets around the town, which allows the chemicals to leak into the environment and entre the food supply, not only through the water, but also through the contaminated soil. A study done by the Shantou University Medical College revealed that the children of Guiyu that were tested had higher levels of lead in their blood than the average, which results in the brain and nervous system not developing as good. The livestock of Guiyu also lives in a dangerous environment, as they eat the grass and drink the water, which has been directly affected by the chemicals that are inside of the e-waste. A local rice farmer in Guiyu said, that he would never dare to drink the tap water, as well as his family has and will never eat their own rice, as it is probably highly contaminated by the harmful chemicals form the e-waste. The chemical substances found in electronic devices have extremly bad health concequences that are explained on the 'Impacts' page.
According to local e-waste recyclers, the pollution used to be worse. This is because the government has already taken some legal steps that are supposed to improve the working and health conditions. Some of these steps involve the better control of healthy and correct working conditions, as well as banning the burning of plastic. The government also made the import of electronic waste illegal, however, e-waste is still imported to China, now just on illegal ways. One of the more successful actions taken by the Chinese government includes the collection of their own e-waste and recycling it correctly in 2009 to 2011. However, because e-waste is not only increasing in China, but world wide, Greenpeace has lobbied for manufacturers to use less toxic materials in their electronic devices. Nevertheless, the local workers depend on the e-waste, as it is their only chance for an income, therefore they do not want the government to close down all their businesses, as this would be an economic breakdown for the local community and international e-waste recycling. The problem is that society wants to live cheap, and that only works when people, like the workers in Guiyu, do the work, as they do it quickly and cheap. So until we find a way that is as cheap, but healthier and more environmentally friendly than the work in Guiyu, everything will continue like it has.