Recycle Your Computer Responsibly

(Image from Salon.com: "Woman in Guiyu, China, about to smash a cathode ray tube from a computer monitor in order to remove the copper-laden yoke at the end of the funnel. The glass is laden with lead but the biggest hazard from this is the inhalation of the highly toxic phosphor dust coating inside.")

A parade of trucks piled with worn-out computers and electronic equipment pulls away from container ships docked at the port of Taizhou in the Zhejiang Province of southeastern China. A short distance inland, the trucks dump their loads in what looks like an enormous parking lot. Pools of dark oily liquid seep from under the mounds of junked machinery. The equipment comes mostly from the United States, Europe and Japan.

For years, developed countries have been exporting tons of electronic waste to China for inexpensive, labor-intensive recycling and disposal. Since 2000, it's been illegal to import electronic waste into China for this kind of environmentally unsound recycling. But tons of debris are smuggled in with legitimate imports, corruption is common among local officials, and China's appetite for scrap is so enormous that the shipments just keep on coming. (Elizabeth Grossman)

Salon.com has a pair of must-read articles on the global problem of disposing of old electronics:

• Elizabeth Grossman's "Where Computers Go to Die -- and Kill" explains that over 50% of the US's recycled computers go overseas to poor countries where their toxic components are poisoning people and communities.
• Grossman's companion piece, "How to Recycle Your Computer," provides guidance on how to dispose of your old computer so that it doesn't end up in a toxic dump. The article contains an array of good web links.
  

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