The highway of poisoned products that runs from China to the United States is not a one-way street. America ships China up to 80 percent of U.S. electronic waste -- discarded computers, cell phones, TVs, etc. Last year alone, the United States exported enough e-waste to cover a football field and rise a mile into the sky.
So while the
media ride their new lead-painted hobbyhorse -- the danger of Chinese
wares -- spare a thought for Chinese workers dying to dispose of
millions of tons of our toxic crap.
Most
of the junk ends up in the small port city of Guiyu, a one-industry
town four hours from Hong Kong that reeks of acid fumes and burning
plastic. Its narrow streets are lined with 5,500 small-scale scavenger
enterprises euphemistically called "recyclers." They employ 80 percent
of the town's families -- more than 30,000 people -- who recover copper,
gold and other valuable materials from 15 million tons of e-waste.
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