ELECTRONICS In the middle of the 1900s many home electronics such as radios and televisions used vacuum tubes to control electrical currents in ways that made the product work These large glass and metal tubes connected to other parts of the electronic circuit on a circuit board that held everything in place Because they are smaller and use less energy transistors eventually replaced vacuum tubes Then integrated circuits ICS or chips replaced large numbers of transistors and other components ICs are called chips because they are made on a chip or flake of silicon Some ICs contain millions of components within a small area ICs attach to a circuit board which connects to other electronic components Metals that conduct electricity connect all of the components on a circuit board The board itself is made of glass fibers and epoxy a tough polymer or glue mixed with a flame retardant Chinese scientists documented methods used to separate the materials in the e waste Workers baked circuit boards over coal fires to remove electronic components Workers soaked circuit boards in acid baths to extract precious metals such as gold and palladium They dumped the acid waste onto nearby fields or in streams Sometimes they stripped plastic from wires and cables or burned the plastic in open air to release the copper wire inside Workers burned fragments of plastics to identify the type of plastic by smell To remove valuable metals they hammered open many components including batteries transformers and computer monitors containing heavy glass cathode ray tubes CRTS For the most part workers carried out their tasks without protective equipment Children either helped process the materials or played with discarded electronic components These processes exposed the workers and their children to dangerous levels of toxic chemicals The toxins increased miscarriages and premature births Toxins were also related to children's lung health growth rates and behavior The processes polluted the air dust and drinking water with poisonous levels of heavy metals Many films and
photographs documented the conditions in Guiyu These images dramatically showed the human health risks poor working environment and environmental damage in and around Guiyu TOXIC DUMPING FORMAL VERSUS INFORMAL RECYCLING Recycling can be part of a regulated or For more than a decade Guiyu and similar places in other unregulated economy A garage sale is an example of an unregulated or informal developing nations have represented the ugly side of business activity It operates alongside Western countries throwaway culture especially that of the formal businesses such as bookstores pawn shops and antique stores that buy United States In throwaway cultures consumers buy cheap and sell used items The stores pay taxes have accountants who manage their money electronics use them for a year or two and then discard them and may be required to follow certain without worrying about where the waste ends up governmental regulations Garage sales account for a lot of money changing hands but they are a part of the informal economy Guiyu has been the subject of many news articles They do not pay taxes or follow regulations photographic essays a 2001 film documentary and a 2008 like formal businesses do Informal recyclers such as those in Guiyu operate as news documentary These stories contain powerful images of informal businesses piles of discarded electronics and cluttered workshops where workers roast circuit boards over open fires Images from Africa show young men standing in muddy fields surrounded by electronic debris and tending flaming balls of plastic coated copper wires the wires puffing poisonous black smoke Many of these stories say that the United States and other developed countries are dumping unwanted e waste into developing nations In developing nations workers who informally recycle e waste are
A worker in Guiyu uses a lighter to burn plastic off a copper wire Burning plastic releases toxic chemicals unprotected by regulations Poor workers without any other way to earn a living are recycling the waste in dangerous conditions The informal recycling trade damages the workers health and the environment Guiyu and other places where e waste is recycled informally have earned a horrific reputation from news stories and documentaries But the stories are also misleading in some ways Exported electronics are not all waste to be dumped on developing countries
that do not want them Shipments of electronics have been tracked to Ghana in Africa The electronics were mostly reused by people there These reused electronics bridge the so called digital divide The digital divide is the large difference in people's abilities to get computers and Internet access in developing and developed nations The problem is also not that developing countries are recycling e waste The materials that are recycled have value or the recyclers would not take the time to extract them It is also important that the materials in e waste be recycled to avoid having to mine new materials which requires energy and causes environmental damage Recycling e waste may be the only way some workers can earn a living The problem is with how e waste is recycled and the question is how to ensure the safety of workers and the environment WASTE VERSUS SCRAP Although the term e waste is commonly used it is not completely accurate E waste is actually one form of what is known as scrap or discarded materials that are suitable for recycling Some of the most valuable forms of scrap are metals There is a worldwide trade in scrap that is an important part of the economy Trading and processing scrap provides work opportunities for many people Trading and recycling scrap metal helps avoid mining new metal It takes much less energy to make new products out of recycled metals than newly mined metals Scrap trade makes economies more efficient and conserves limited resources A MOUNTAIN OF E WASTE The world produced 46 1 million short tons 41 8 million metric tons of e waste in 2014 This is about the weight of 200 000 large passenger jets enough jets to line up between New York New York and Los Angeles California four times This waste is made up of mostly large and small appliances such as microwaves and dishwashers but it also includes
