China’s Computer Wasteland

Joffe-Walt, B. (2005). China’s computer wasteland. In P. DePalma (Ed), Computers in society (pp. 169-171). Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill.
Unit 7, Article 35

Review by Kim Doyle

What becomes of the billions of computers that are retired each year? Benjamin Joffe-Walt, author of this investigative report, provides a bleak answer to this question. China has become the dumping ground for electronic waste (e-waste) and the United States is a huge contributor to this dangerous situation. Other countries, including Malaysia, Canada, Sweden and Singapore are guilty of this as well, but international watchdog groups estimated that the United States alone exported more than $1 billion worth of electronic waste to China in 2004. Companies like Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sony, IBM and Apple all manufacture electronic goods in China as well. Products are sold to Western countries and China gets back the rubbish.

This waste is highly toxic and very dangerous to the Chinese immigrant workers who feel they have no choice but to “farm” computers. They cannot find other work and it is the only way they can keep their families fed. The author describes the trip taken to the rural Chinese town of Guiyu where workers are seen sorting through piles of e-waste looking for usable parts that can be sold or burning the rubbish causing noxious fumes that workers constantly breathe in. Dr. Chen, a doctor at a local health clinic, reports that there are many cases of lung problems. The burning releases pollutants that cause this and other diseases, heart attacks and pulmonary edema.

Joffe-Walt reports that China’s e-waste crisis is a byproduct of its unequal development. It is open to international markets and capital has enhanced the divide between urban middle class and the rural poor. E-waste sweat shops are located in secluded areas where migrant workers sit stripping wires or disassembling broken motors earning an average pay of $3 - $4 a day. Local residents who got rich doing this e-waste work are now the e-waste bosses getting rich off the migrants they bring in to do this work for them.

While there are some computer recycling programs available, this author reports that the United States is failing to step up and take responsibility for managing their own waste. Other countries have done a better job of this. In May of 2001, the European Union adopted a directive requiring producers of electronic products to assume responsibility for the recovery and recycling of their own waste and to phase out using hazardous materials. Until the US and other countries do a better job of this, China will continue to face the life-threatening dangers of exposure to this toxic e-waste.

Reaction

This comes as a huge shock to me and it really shouldn’t. Knowing how hard it has been to get rid of my own personal computers I no longer use, it should come as no surprise that this would be an enormous problem for our country. Where do all these old computers go? Now I’m aware of the sad truth and I’m ashamed that as a nation we are so negligent in the manner we dispose of our e-waste. I work for an agency I am proud to say does a good job of addressing this issue. We get maximum use of computers we buy, recycling them throughout the organization so that all those needing computers have machines consistent with their level of proficiency and use. Computers no longer needed by employees are made available to clients who may not be able to purchase one for themselves.

We need to take personal responsibility by supporting programs now available to deal with this waste. We must support proposed legislation holding businesses and computer manufacturers responsible for the recovery and recycling of their own e-waste. We must stop making our problem a disaster for the poor in other countries who feel they have no other option but to work amidst this toxic material.