Upfront’s
article, “Where Your Cellphone Goes to Die,” by Leyla Arcarglu, is about what
happens to our electronics when we recycle them, or don’t. Young children and
women in poor countries melt down our computers, cell phones, and TVs to
extract small amounts of valuable metals. They breathe toxic fumes and deal
with dangerous substances with their bare hands. These people should not be
allowed to continue this work, at least in the form in which it currently
exists. Electronics manufacturers need to step up to make changes to improve
these workers’ lives.
This
work puts human health and even lives at risk. The author writes, “In India,
young boys smash computer batteries with mallets to recover cadmium, covering
their hands and feet with toxic flecks as they work.” The author also writes, “The
World Health Organization reports that even a low level of lead, cadmium, and
mercury – all of which can be found in old phones – can cause irreversible
neurological damage and threaten the development of a child.” Yes, this work
does help the environment – if we don’t recycle, chemicals leach from landfills
and hurt soil and rivers through runoff, and we have to mine more of them in
destructive ways - but there are better options than this for how to recycle
our e-waste.
Some
solutions to this problem are for Congress to pass the Responsible Electronics
Recycling Act and for electronics manufacturers to make disassembly safer. The
article describes the goal of the RERA as, “The aim is to stop dumping e-waste
on the world’s poorest nations and thus to provide an incentive for safer waste
management in the U.S.” If this law was passed, then children and women in poor
countries wouldn’t be exposed to dangerous materials anymore. Another solution
mentioned in the text is “changes in the way manufacturers glue, screw, and
solder components together would make it easier to dismantle discarded phones
and thus reduce the risks posed by crude recycling technologies, like those
employed by children in Ghana.”
While
these working conditions are terrible, the people working on electronic
recycling in poor countries rely on these jobs to support themselves and their
families. If these jobs were taken away, these boys would lose their jobs and
might have no other work. Companies can still improve the conditions for these
workers while keeping these jobs in place by making it easier to disassemble
electronics. That way, they wouldn’t have to smash and burn them, thereby exposing
themselves to dangerous materials. Electronic manufactures need to step up and
take responsibility for the damaging ways their products are being recycled.
When
we recycle our out-of-date electronic products, we put them in a box and feel
like we’re doing something good for the environment. But most people don’t
fully understand what “recycling” is doing to workers in poor countries. We are
not being informed about how dangerous these jobs are, and how these workers
are being put at risk just so that we can buy the latest iPhone and not worry
about the environmental damage from throwing away our old electronics. These
issues are hidden from us so we don’t have to think about them – the manufactures
want us to continue spending money on their new products. It’s time for the
public to be informed about the risks and issues around recycling these
products so that we can improve working conditions in the poor countries that
are taking our e-waste. There’s no quick and easy solution – if we pass laws
that prevent us from sending them, the workers will lose their livelihoods and
we’ll likely just send the dangerous work somewhere else. Something that we can
do is hold on to our old electronics for longer and not buy the latest gadget
the second it comes out. Also, we need to demand that manufacturers make
changes to their products that reduce the risks of recycling.
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