Slashdot Mirror
The Darker Side of Computer Recycling
Makarand writes "We all know that with electronics it is very difficult to be green. We leave
our computer waste in the recyle bin lest dangerous chemicals like lead and mercury
seep into our landfills. The more dedicated environmentalists make a trip
to the local recyling center where they may be asked around to pay around $15-$30 to recycle their old PCs. But guess what -- these 'recyclers' merely
ship 50-80% of this stuff overseas. The Mercury News has a
report on this ugly side of the PC industry which merely
exports the recycling problems instead of solving them."
This is pretty heinous, if you ask me. Any time a business takes your money in exchange for some service and then doesn't follow through, an injustice is done. While this doesn't compare to that crematorium owner in Georgia who just dumped bodies in the woods, it is something to be upset over.
It's a great irony, though, that what is eventually done with these recycled computers is much "greener" than actually recycling them would be. Computer equipment is made from minerals and rare Earth metals such as silicon, glass, and copper, not to mention metal for cases. Recycling them involves separating and molding them into new shapes, which is an involved and energy-demanding process that necessarily creates pollution. The raw materials to build these goods from scratch, however, are often mined from the ground, and if the used products are placed in landfills, that's exactly to where they'll return.
While it's atrocious that companies should mislead their customers like this, I'm thankful that in this case the Earth is the greatest beneficiary.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
>Your argument is basically that 99.9% of environmental scientists are totally off in thinking that chemicals getting dumped is a bad thing.
My argument is that 99.9% of environmental scientists are neither chemical nor physical engineers.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Something else for the lefty environmental lobby to whine about. What's new? They'll only be happy when we are all living in thatched huts made of biodegradable straw and eating a true vegan diet.
Or dead. I know one such individual who advocates reducing the global carrying capacity to 250 million. i.e. killing off about 5.75 billion of us. In the name of superior environment.
My ancestors mined coal, worked in steel mills, were cops (exposure to lead!) - these things are not optimal careers if you want to live a long time. Neither is computer recycling, at least the way the Chinese do. When they get their act together, i'm sure they'll think up a way to do it in a far less harmful fashion, as we would do it in the US. When they do so, their environment will reap the benefits. Until then, they are masters of their own destiny.
I couldn't care less. Greenpeace and the rest can go get stuffed.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.