World's Fair

What We Waste: A View of E-Trash

Posted by Benjamin Cohen on June 12, 2007
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[To go with this post on images of consumption and that post on what we eat in a week.]

“Each year, between 20 and 50 million tons of electronic waste is generated globally. Most of it winds up in the developing world.”


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The caption from Foreign Policy was simply, “Throwing Stuff”

Foreign Policy has a photo essay, “Inside the Digital Dump,” about the ungodly mounds of electronic waste we ship over to China. Oh you should go take a gander. And I offer a few sample images here for the faint of clicking. They say, by way of preface, “Welcome to the digital dumping ground, where the poor make a living off other people’s spare parts.”

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Lead, nickel, and cadmium end up deposited over the landscape, piled high and deep.

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It isn’t only solid waste that makes its way into the ground, but the air toxics spread by combustion that enter the sky.

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They say of this, “Orange Stuff.” Lots of it.

If you’re looking for more on the subject check out Elizabeth Grossman’s (2006) High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health and Giles Slade’s (2006) Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America. (Fancy that, here is a discussion between Grossman and Slade, at Grist; and here is a review of Grossman’s book in the recent May 4th, 2007 issue of Science.) Both books offer more substance and detail than we’re prepared to deal with.

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Comments

  1. #1 broker
    September 10, 2009

    ERAI , ERAIESCROW can have their offices here in Guiyu. May be then sales of counterfeits from these towns can be regulated and improved. Right now ERAI is only helping Gungzhou and Shenzhen traders to export goods to China.
    Obsolete parts from China are in big demand for US military, pentagon and NASA. Without which billions of dollars worth Aircraft, equipments would be required to be scrapped.

    Many more Chinese suppliers from here require help of Kristal and Mark Snider in selling their products to America.

  2. #2 broker
    September 10, 2009

    ERAI , ERAIESCROW can have their offices here in Guiyu. May be then sales of counterfeits from these towns can be regulated and improved. Right now ERAI is only helping Gungzhou and Shenzhen traders to export goods from China to USA and rest of world.
    Obsolete parts from China ( removed from trash) are in big demand for US military, pentagon and NASA. Without which billions of dollars worth Aircraft, equipments would be required to be scrapped. 75 % of substandard produce pass through American independent brokers for America and further selling.

    More Chinese suppliers from here require help of Kristal and Mark Snider in selling their products to America efficiently with the help of their platform like erai, eraiescrow, parthunter, iaed etc.

  3. #3 BROKER121
    November 26, 2009

    Many American agencies like ERAI.com and their networked brokers who buy cheap parts for fat profit, are responsible for developing and pushing counterfeit industry to its peak.
    Most counterfeits of obsolete parts are traded by American brokers produced in China.
    visit another video with evidences:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O4jslHi4pE

    Many companies like USBID, GLOBAL SOLUTIONS ELECTRONIC, V& C TECHNOLOGIES, IDENTEK, VISIONTECH ARE TRADING MILITARY COUNTERFEITS.

  4. #4 theresa
    south africa
    October 26, 2012

    many people think e waste cause lots of poluttion