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By Neil Gough, Time Asia

GUIYU, China, 11 March 2002-- At the bottom of America's electronics wastebasket lies the township of Guiyu. The cluster of villages in southern China's Guangdong province is a dumping ground for mountains of scrapped computers and high-tech appliances, the detritus of a digital revolution going on an ocean away. Blue Dongfeng trucks with heaving loads of broken hardware dominate the roads and kick dust into the faces of the bicycle-cart drivers, their own cargo of tangled wires swaying with each turn. Atop a riverbank junk heap near the Meizhou bridge, a piece of cardboard flutters in the breeze--printed on it are keystroke instructions and the words: "WordPerfect for IBM, 1989."

That the world needs an e-graveyard is no surprise. For every new technology born, an old one is laid to rest, and new technologies come along rapidly in the information age. But a report issued last week by the Basel Action Network (BAN), a Seattle-based NGO, sheds new light on where old computers go to die-- and on the environmental consequences. E-waste, electronic gear containing hazardous material, is routinely sold and shipped from the industrialized world to developing countries in Asia for recycling. It's a messy business that "leaves the poorer peoples of the world with an untenable choice between poverty and poison," says Jim Puckett, co-author of the BAN report. Computers and other appliances contain valuable materials: gold, platinum and other electrical conductors are used in microchips and motherboards; lead is in solder and computer monitors; copper can be mined from wires and internal circuitry. But in China, which according to BAN receives nearly 90% of America's castoffs, recycling is a crude process carried out in places like Guiyu by tens of thousands of peasants equipped with the most rudimentary of tools. Components must be laboriously broken apart by hand. Some are dipped in acid baths to leach out precious metals, while the plastic covering on wiring is sometimes burned away to free the copper underneath. The work is menial, dangerous, and illegal. Often it results in the release of highly toxic chemicals into the air, water and soil. Along the waterways of Guiyu, computer monitors are smashed with hammers, exposing workers to toxic phosphor dust. Lead and barium from the crushed components seep into the riverbank. Toner cartridges are cracked open for their carbon-black dust. Used in industrial processing, the material "is a great seller," says one worker, "more than 10[cents] per cartridge." But its effects when inhaled are unknown. While the environmental and health impacts are hard to trace to specific pollutants, some effects are strikingly clear. The wells in and around Guiyu have gone bad. Locals consistently described the water as undrinkable, even after being boiled. A restaurant owner tells of a nearby village where residents drank the local water. "Their teeth have gone all black," she says. "They can't be brushed clean."

Nearly all of the e-waste at Guiyu is imported from America and Japan. But the U.S. government isn't liable for the damage, says Bob Tonetti, a senior scientist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Under an agreement called the Basel Convention, most of the world's developed nations and all 15 E.U. members have banned the export of hazardous materials to poorer countries. The U.S., however, permits e-waste export on the condition that it is destined for recycling, regardless of how polluting that may be. In April 2000, China specifically outlawed e-waste importation. But occasional crackdowns have done little to curtail recycling, which thrives on corruption and strong market demand. According to Guiyu junk dealers, shipments often reach the mainland at Nanhai, a Guangdong port city, where they are sorted at large warehouses owned and operated by Taiwanese businessmen. From there, the goods are shipped via truck to Guiyu, where they are then re-sorted and the last round of scrapping is performed. For now, at least, e-waste meets its true and final end in the air of Guiyu's skies, the water coursing its rivers and the blood that runs through the veins of its citizens.

BOX STORY: EXPORTING HARM COMPUTER MONITORS Recycling process: Smashed to recover copper Health risk: Glass contains lead; highly toxic phosphor dust is inhaled Environmental hazard: Heavy metals leach into groundwater from broken, discarded scraps MICROCHIPS, CIRCUIT BOARDS Recycling process: Treated with acid baths and burned to collect bits of gold Health risk: Workers inhale acid fumes, chlorine and sulfur-dioxide gasses Environmental hazard: Leftover sludge is dumped into rivers ELECTRICAL WIRING Recycling process: Burned to recover copper Health risk: Inhalation of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons Environmental hazard: Hydrocarbon ashes discharged into air, water and soil PARTS ENCASED IN PLASTIC OR RUBBER Recycling process: Coverings melted to recover steel and other metals Health risk: Potential dioxin exposure Environmental hazard: Hydrocarbon ashes including known carcinogens are released into air, water and soil Source: Basel Action Network