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Apple, Samsung, and Sony Face Child Labor Claims (amnestyusa.org)
An anonymous reader writes: Amnesty International has accused Apple, Samsung, Sony, and other tech companies of failing to do basic checks to ensure minerals used in their products are not mined by children. A new report explains how cobalt is harvested from mines by children as young as seven years old. The cobalt then ends up in lithium-ion batteries sold to device-makers throughout the world. The list of companies who use these batteries also includes Daimler, Dell, HP, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, Vodafone, Volkswagen, and ZTE. Amnesty International notes that half the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where many mining operations have terrible track records for accidents and concern for workers' welfare. They say, "the vast majority of miners spend long hours every day working with cobalt without the most basic of protective equipment, such as gloves, work clothes or facemasks to protect them from lung or skin disease." According to UNICEF, about 40,000 kids worked in mines across southern DRC in 2014.
They have to be accountable for the actions of a 3rd party? I understand sourcing responsible materials is ethically and morally sound, but there has to be a point at which the blame is on the supplier and not the buyer....right?
Only Fairphone.
well since electric vehicles are 6% of the global demand for lithium, probably not. "Other" batteries such as cellphones, laptops, etc are 23%,
Electric vehicles are the biggest growth area, but other devices are currently the biggest demand.
at least according to financial prospectus, and I always tend to follow the money.
In keeping with his current theme, Candidate Trump claimed that if the supply line is the problem to Apple making their products here, he will allow *American* seven-year-olds to mine for Cobalt in the United States, making America Great Again and competitive in the world.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
The beavers collect the birch trees ... the moose mill them into components ... the geese assemble them ... the seagulls are in charge of packaging ... and the seals handle marketing ... and Temporary Foreign Workers write the code.
What do you guys use?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
They haven't "subcontracted" anything to child miners, as nicely inflammatory as that sounds. They bought batteries, simple as that.
And the battery manufacturer didn't subcontract to child miners - They bought individual mass-produced cells and wired them into the desired form factor and electrical characteristics.
And the battery cell manufacturer didn't subcontract to child miner - They bought the various electrolytes and pre-made membranes that get wrapped up and turned into individual battery cells.
And the electrolyte manufacturers didn't subcontract to child miners - They bought simple precursor chemicals that they use as feedstock in producing highly specialized battery electrolytes.
And the precursor chemical manufacturers - Think names like DOW, DuPont, BASF, Exxon, Eastman, etc - didn't subcontract to child miners - They bought cobalt metal on the open commodities market and turned it into convenient, commonly used reagents that have a million and one downstream applications.
Now - The cobalt refiners, they might have bought directly from the mining companies that in turn use child labor. Of course, they no doubt buy from a huge pool of mostly-legitimate miners and don't have the resources to police every hole in the ground that sends them the occasional barrel of crushed ore.
But yeah, let's blame Samsung here for one small portion of a looong supply chain over which they have little control beyond their immediate vendors.
Would not Tesla be the biggest offender.
No. Tesla sources cobalt from North American mines.
Are they not the biggest user of lithium batteries?
No. Several cellphone manufacturers use more lithium batteries than Tesla. Tesla is not even the biggest manufacturer of electric cars.
They seemed pretty eager when we hired them.