space Press Releases, News Stories

By John Gittings, The Guardian Weekly

CHINA, 6 June 2002 -- The export to Asia of electronic waste - e-waste - is the dark face of the West's latest technological revolution, with tons of toxic-rich junk sent for "recycling" in primitive workshops in China, India and Pakistan. The environmental groups Basel Action Network (Ban) and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition said earlier this year that as much as 80% of electronic waste from the United States is shipped to Asia. China has now announced a clampdown on the import of e-waste after an outcry in the Chinese press sparked off by the BAN report* - a welcome indication that Beijing can respond to pressure particularly where the environment is concerned.

The list of restricted items will include "TV sets, computers, xerox machines, video cameras and telephones" according to a statement from the State Environmental Protection Administration (Sepa). To prevent China becoming a dumping ground for electronic junk, local police will crack down on "the smuggling of dangerous wastes", Sepa said.

Chinese media have revealed that young children are being employed to smash up computers and that local water supplies are being poisoned by toxic waste. Visitors to villages near Guiyu town in the southern province of Guangdong have witnessed how printed circuit boards and other junk are "cooked" over open fires to extract precious metals.

One Chinese reporter saw a four-year-old girl prising copper coils out of shattered components. "Completely unprotected, without even basic safety goggles, the girls pound away and laugh as bits of metal and plastic fly."

In Beilin, the reporter noted, women with pliers worked in front of small furnaces "to retrieve chips from circuit boards immersed in pools of molten solder. A thick acrid stench [hung] constantly in the air." The new measures do not amount to a complete ban - Sepa appears to have left a loophole by saying that if "proper methods" are used, the environment need not be harmed - but it is an important step forward.

However, what is potentially good news for China will be bad news for those areas in India and Pakistan where the Ban report says that conditions are even worse. "In Pakistan, circuit boards are de-soldered with blow-torches with no ventilation fans, and acid operations take place indoors with less ventilation. In India, open burning of circuit boards in the middle of New Delhi neighbourhoods is routine as is the use of child labour."

Like any other trade, the e-waste business seeks the line of easiest penetration and lowest labour costs. The brokers in Singapore and Dubai that handle the Asia-bound traffic will simply re-route the containers unless similar restrictions are imposed in South Asia. Yet why should it be left to Asia to defend itself against this toxic trade?

Jim Puckett of BAN points out that international restrictions are already in place: "The Basel convention [of 1989, extended in 1994] has in fact enacted a hazardous waste export ban from rich to poor countries precisely because export bans appropriately place the onus on countries responsible for producing the waste".

Puckett argues that it is a lot easier to enforce an export ban in the rich countries than it is to enforce an import ban in poorer economies. One major problem is that the US has not ratified the Basel convention, while others that have done so fail to impose effective export restrictions. The Ban report cites three reasons why so much waste is exported from the US: labour costs in Asia are low; environmental and occupational codes are poorly enforced; and US law does not impose controls on such exports. Most of the e-waste in Guiyu comes from the US, with smaller amounts from Japan, South Korea and Europe. Those who condone the trade often attempt to present it as "recycling" and preferable to the disposal of e-waste in domestic landfill. Some US exporters even argue they are helping to provide employment.

Such a specious argument ignores the reality of life in areas where electronic junk is "recycled". Workers are in no position to demand proper conditions and local governments are only too likely to turn a blind eye.

The trade in e-waste in Guangdong has persisted in spite of claims last year that the provincial government was taking effective action. Dealers say they merely suspended work while inspections were being made, and residents claim that police officials have been paid off.

A Shanghai reporter who visited Guiyu under cover was threatened with violence when local bosses discovered his identity. Earlier one of the bosses had told him that the local water was so polluted "that our faces come out in scabs if we wash in it".

Because of ground water pollution, drinking water has to be trucked in. Local irrigation canals have been filled with broken lead-laden monitor glass and plastic waste.

Villagers say they know the health risks but have no alternative because the financial yield from farming is so low. In any case the land is now too poisoned for crops to grow on it.

Chinese press accounts suggest up to 100,000 people may be employed in processing e-waste in Guiyu. Some operations were halted after earlier exposes in the Hong Kong press, and tougher controls are expected after the new ban. Even if these are effective, massive problems of resulting unemployment and land contamination will have to be tackled.

* Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia. See: www.ban.org