New feature: Depressing Video of the Day. Today: “Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground”

Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by Alex in Global Brain

Just because you don’t buy blood diamonds from Congolese street vendors or subsidize the beat-stick funds of Uzbeki cotton plantations, doesn’t mean you aren’t committing horrible atrocities every day just by living out your disgusting bourgeoisie life. Enter e-waste, the latest form of the age old dump the rich has been taking on the poor since the dawn of civilization.

The good news is, a lot of the old computers that we donate away when we upgrade are creating new jobs in places like Ghana and Hong Kong. The bad news is, these jobs consist of picking through toxic waste, burning plastic in the open air, and melting and boiling down toxic chemicals with no safety equipment. In the Chinese city of Guiyu alone, tens of thousands of people do this for a living.

Regulations like the proposed Indian law cited by the video might force electronics companies to take more interest in the end phase of their products’ lives. Until that happens, the beautiful free market will send e-waste to the cheapest processing plants available: wide eyed, beautiful, slowly dying foreigners.

You can find where to recycle your e-waste at Earth911, but I can’t tell you where it will go. God help us all.

PBS FRONTLINE

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