planet earth looks blue

Ever give a thought to where your old computer or tv ends up?  The used equipment that is rife with cadmium, mercury, and lead is piling up in West Africa, forming mountains of toxic e-waste.  Of course not all used equipment makes it all the way from Europe or the US to Africa, some makes it into our own landfills, and is hopefully, properly disposed of.  But a report by Greenpeace found that illegal shipments have been made to Nigeria and Ghana, where the materials are dumped, and then scavenged for spare parts and metals.  The problem is, aside from piling up your garbage in someone else’s backyard - it is toxic garbage that young kids are working in, sometimes seven days a week, where they are exposed to toxins known to cause cancer, slow brain development, and affect hormone levels.  They collect the useful scraps for ten, twenty cents a day.  And just to add some perspective to the situation - often they are raising money to go to school.  

According to the BBC, the UN says that worldwide, we create anywhere from 20 million to 50 million tons of e-waste each year.  Although the dumping is illegal, the used goods are shipped under the pretext of being used again, although the Greenpeace study found that 90% of these materials are unworkable and end up being dumped.  The toxins not only directly expose the kids who are working at the sites, but also make their way into the land, into the water drainage, and eventually into the oceans, contaminating the marine life.  

We who have the good fortune to own our toxic boxes must as a society take responsibility for our waste.  It would be great if Dell and Gateway would take care of the problem (in fact most manufacturers will recycle for a fee), or maybe the government, who has already made responsibility a law, but the truth is, we should be doing it ourselves.  For more information on how to recycle your computer, and useful links, Salon has an informative article.