Digital Waste Worth More Than Gold, Copper Ore

tcd004 writes "Imagine sheer mountains of discarded Pentium IIIs, tractor trailers overflowing with discarded wall warts. Photojournalist Natalie Behring visited Guiyu, China and documented the world's biggest digital dump where, for $2 per day, the locals sort, disassemble, and pulverize hundreds of tons of e-waste. The payoff is huge: computer waste contains 17 times more gold than gold ore, 40 times more copper than copper ore. But the detritus also leaches chemicals and metals into local water supplies."

Comments

corporate greed

[peas_n_carrots]

This is what happens when corporations are allowed to circumvent the moral and ethical fabric of our country. It's what happens when Bush & cronies overturn environmental laws for the sake of special interest profits. Ironically, those same clowns try to claim that they're the beacons of morality in this country. They will burn, karma will be served.

Thankfully, the ROHS initiative has significantly reduced or eliminated heavy metals and toxic chemicals in electronics. The 3rd world population should be grateful for that industry initiative. There's still a long line of non-ROHS equipment that's heading to the scrapheap, but at least after a few years it will have been processed through.