E-waste on the increase in China

The problem of e-waste in China is being exacerbated by the export of electronic waste from the West. The Associated Press reports that of the 20-50 millions tonnes of e-waste produced around the world each year, 70 percent is dumped China, with the rest being exported to Africa and India. China also produces more than one million tonnes of its own e-waste each year.

International agreements and European regulations have limited the export of used electronics to China, but many container loads still ‘slip through the net’. And only a small amount are returned to OEMs such as Dell and Hewlett Packard for safe recycling.

The absence of strict environmental standards in China has left the door open for the unsafe and illegal recovery of electronic parts. Reaping the profit from exploiting workers to recover waste in unregulated ‘e-rubbish dumps’ is becoming more and more common practice. It also prevents official recycling bodies in China from being able to carry out their work effectively.

Consumers in the West often think they’re ‘doing their bit’ to help the environment by taking old PCs and printers to recycling points ‘to be recycled’. The problem is, it is hard for the consumer to then follow through and find out where their electronic waste ends up. Increasingly, the trend is for e-waste to be shipped to developing countries such as China, where it is dismantled in shockingly unsafe and exploitative conditions.

Many ‘illegal’ set ups have risen from the dust to take advantage of the growing trade in e-waste parts and metals, such as copper and gold. Such groups will pay workers a pittance to prise computers and printers apart using little more than hammers, gas burners and even their bare hands. The recovered parts will then be sold on the black market.

Unscrupulous Western brokers tend to export e-waste as a cheap alternative to ‘safe recycling’ at home. However, this combined with China’s own domestic waste problem is contributing to a dangerous health and environmental hazard.