E-recycling's dirty face

The Guardian is running an interesting series of articles under the title "Greenwash, Exposing False Environmental Claims." The target of their latest article is the rapidly-growing electronics recycling industry.

While many electronics manufacturers have recently tried to put on a green face by launching recycling programs for your old TVs and PCs, much of this hi-tech gear winds up being dumped in the slums of cities across Africa, India and China, where desperately poor people hack them apart trying to recover trace amounts of valuable metals contained by the devices (not exactly my idea of ‘recycling’). But at the same time they're gathering bits of gold, silver and copper, these workers are being exposed to toxic materials like lead and mercury that are also used in producing modern electronics. And once all the valuable bits have been harvested (often by child workers who of course lack any kind gear to protect them from the toxic materials), the smashed and burned electronic leftovers wind up permanently littering the landscape (60 Minutes also did an in-depth report on e-waste last November).

The Guardian says that PC-maker Dell announced a ban on exporting their used equipment to the developing world unless the gear is in working order - but so far Dell is the exception not the rule when it comes to keeping their merchandise from becoming someone else's environmental problem.