Electronic waste in Guiyu

Guiyu (Chinese: 贵屿), in Guangdong Province, China, is an agglomerate of four adjoined villages widely perceived as the largest electronic waste (e-waste) site in the world.[1] In 2005 there were 60,000 e-waste workers in Guiyu who processed the more than 100 truckloads that were transported to the 52 square kilometre area every day.[2] The constant movement into and processing of e-wastes in the area leading to the harmful and toxic environment and living conditions, coupled with inadequate facilities, have led to the Guiyu town being nicknamed the "electronic graveyard of the world".[3]

Health impacts

Many of the primitive recycling operations in Guiyu are toxic and dangerous to workers' health with 80% of children suffering from lead poisoning.[4] Above-average miscarriage rates are also reported in the region. Workers use their bare hands to crack open electronics to strip away any parts that can be reused—including chips and valuable metals, such as gold, silver, etc. Workers also "cook" circuit boards to remove chips and solders, burn wires and other plastics to liberate metals such as copper; use highly corrosive and dangerous acid baths along the riverbanks to extract gold from the microchips; and sweep printer toner out of cartridges. Children are exposed to the dioxin-laden ash as the smoke billows around Guiyu, and finally settles on the area. The soil has been saturated with lead, chromium, tin, and other heavy metals. Discarded electronics lie in pools of toxins that leach into the groundwater, making the water undrinkable to the extent that water must be trucked in from elsewhere. Lead levels in the river sediment are double European safety levels, according to the Basel Action Network.[5] Lead in the blood of Guiyu's children is 54% higher on average than that of children in the nearby town of Chendian.[6] Piles of ash and plastic waste sit on the ground beside rice paddies and dikes holding in the Lianjiang river.

A recent study of the area evaluated the extent of heavy metal contamination from the site. Using dust samples, scientists analysed mean heavy metal concentrations in a Guiyu workshop and found that lead and copper were 371 and 115 times higher, respectively, compared to areas located 30 kilometres away.[7] The same study revealed that sediment from the nearby Lianjiang River was found to be contaminated by polychlorinated byphenyls at a level three times greater than the guideline amount.

Economic rationale

The economic incentives created by strict domestic regulation, non-existent or unenforced regulations in developing countries, and the ease of free trade brought about by globalization, led recyclers to export e-waste. The value of parts in discarded electronics provides an incentive for poverty-stricken citizens to migrate to Guiyu from other provinces to work in processing it. The average worker, adult or child, makes barely $1.50/day (or 17 cents/hour). The average workday is sixteen hours. This $1.50 is made by recovering the valuable metals and parts that are within the piles of discarded electronics. Even this relatively tiny profit is enough motivation for workers to risk their health.[8]

Agriculture

Once a rice village,[9] the pollution has made Guiyu unable to produce crops for food and the water of the river is undrinkable.

Media coverage

Guiyu as an e-waste hub was first documented fully in December 2001 by the Basel Action Network, a non-profit organization which combats the practice of toxic waste export to developing countries in their report and documentary film entitled Exporting Harm.[5] The health and environmental issues exposed by this report and subsequent scientific studies[10] have greatly concerned international organizations such as the Basel Action Network and later Greenpeace and the United Nations Environment Programme and the Basel Convention. Media documentation of Guiyu is tightly regulated by the Chinese government, for fear of exposure or legal action. For example, a November 2008 news story by 60 Minutes, a popular US TV news program, documented the illegal shipments of electronic waste from recyclers in the US to Guiyu. While taping part of the story on-site at an illegal recycling dump in Guiyu, representatives of the Chinese recyclers attempted without success to confiscate the footage from the 60 Minutes TV crew.[11] Greenpeace has protested the environmental impacts of e-waste recycling in Guiyu using different methods to raise awareness such as building a statue using e-waste collected from a site in Guiyu, or delivering a truckload of e-waste dumped in Guiyu back to Hewlett Packard headquarters. Greenpeace has been lobbying large consumer electronics companies to stop using toxic substances in their products, with varying degrees of effectiveness.[12]

Cleanup efforts

Since 2007, conditions in Guiyu have changed little despite the efforts of the central government to crack down and enforce the long-standing e-waste import ban. Recent studies have revealed some of the highest levels of dioxin in the world.[13] However, because of the work of activist groups and increasing awareness of the situation, there is hope for the site to be improved. "It can be done. Look at what happened with lead acid batteries. We discovered they were hazardous, new legislation enforced new ways of dealing with the batteries which led to an infrastructure being created. The key was making it easy for people and companies to participate. It took years to build. E-waste is going the same route. But attitudes have changed and we will get there," says Robert Houghton, president and founder of Redemtech, an asset management and recovery firm.[14] Zheng Songming, head of the Guiyu Township government has published a decree to ban burning electronics in fires and soaking them in sulfuric acid, and promises supervision and fines for violations. Over 800 coal-burning furnaces have been destroyed because of this ordinance, and most notably, air quality has returned to Level II, now technically acceptable for habitation.

In 2013, 《汕头市贵屿地区电子废物污染综合整治方案》(Comprehensive Scheme of Resolving Electronic Waste Pollution of Guiyu region of Shantou City) was approved by Guangdong Province government.[15][16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Johnson, Tim (April 9, 2006). "E-waste dump of the world". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
  2. ↑ "China focus: Chinese recycling base in pursuit of sustainable development". Xinhua General News Service. May 23, 2005.
  3. ↑ Yeung, Miranda (April 21, 2008). "There's a dark side to the digital age". South China Morning Post. Guangdong, China.
  4. ↑ Monbiot, George (September 21, 2009). "From toxic waste to toxic assets, the same people always get dumped on". The Guardian. London.
  5. 1 2 "Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia" (pdf). Basel Action Network. February 25, 2002.
  6. ↑ http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/realfiles/members/2007/9697/9697.html
  7. ↑ Leung, Anna (March 4, 2008). "Heavy Metals Concentrations of Surface Dust from e-Waste Recycling". Hong Kong.
  8. ↑ "Waste not want not? Not in the world of computers". Business Daily Update. September 27, 2006.(registration required)
  9. ↑ "You'll never think the same way again". July 2010.
  10. ↑ "Scientific Articles". Basel Action Network.
  11. ↑ "Following The Trail Of Toxic E-Waste". cbsnews.com. CBS News. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  12. ↑ Chi-Chu, Tschang (May 24, 2005). "Greenpeace launches e-waste drive in China". The Straits Times. Singapore.
  13. ↑ "China's Electronic Waste Village". Time Magazine.
  14. ↑ "'Clean-tech' start-ups are pushing the green button". United Nations Environment Programme.
  15. ↑ http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hqgj/jryw/2013-06-17/content_9324285.html
  16. ↑ http://shantou.gov.cn/cnst/0305/201604/41ef2b4bd6f349c28d1634353915db56.shtml

External links

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