26 images Created 11 Nov 2011
WERE COMPUTERS GO TO DIE
WHERE COMPUTERS GO TO DIE
By Luigi Narici
GUIYU, CHINA. NOVEMBER 2003.
Since 1995, Guiyu has been trasformed from a poor, rural, rice growing community to E-waste processing center. Throughout a clandestine network of sea-freight transports a remarkable percentage of computer age´s waste arrives here; mainly it comes from USA but also from Europe and technologic Asia.
In the streets of Guyu, men, women and children work without masks and gloves in contact with extremely dangerous acids and chemical solutions separating heaps of computers, printers and scanners in order to recover plastic and metals from the electronic components. All the pieces that cannot be recycled are burned in the dumping grounds along the Liangyang river where ever-lasting fires release smoke containing dioxin and other seriously toxic components which make the air of Guyu impossible to breathe. According a research made by the Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition a stock of five hundred monitors, keyboards and printers contains 717 kilos of lead, 1.36 kilos of cadmium, 86.3 grams of chrome and 287 grams of mercury. There´s no-more drinkable water in Guyu and the ground contains dangerous substances in a quantity that is esteemed 2000 times higher than the tolerated average. As rivers and soil absorb a mounting influx of carcinogens and other toxin, people are suffering high incidences of birth defects, infant mortality, cancer, turbecolosis and blood diseases, as well as particularly severe respiratory problems.
An agreement of United Nation of 1989 even subscribed by China wanted the exportations of toxic waste from rich countries to poor areas to stop but United States never respected that agreement. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition forecasts that in 2007 more that 300 million computers and electronic tools will be eliminated by only United States: who knows where those computers will go to die...
By Luigi Narici
GUIYU, CHINA. NOVEMBER 2003.
Since 1995, Guiyu has been trasformed from a poor, rural, rice growing community to E-waste processing center. Throughout a clandestine network of sea-freight transports a remarkable percentage of computer age´s waste arrives here; mainly it comes from USA but also from Europe and technologic Asia.
In the streets of Guyu, men, women and children work without masks and gloves in contact with extremely dangerous acids and chemical solutions separating heaps of computers, printers and scanners in order to recover plastic and metals from the electronic components. All the pieces that cannot be recycled are burned in the dumping grounds along the Liangyang river where ever-lasting fires release smoke containing dioxin and other seriously toxic components which make the air of Guyu impossible to breathe. According a research made by the Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition a stock of five hundred monitors, keyboards and printers contains 717 kilos of lead, 1.36 kilos of cadmium, 86.3 grams of chrome and 287 grams of mercury. There´s no-more drinkable water in Guyu and the ground contains dangerous substances in a quantity that is esteemed 2000 times higher than the tolerated average. As rivers and soil absorb a mounting influx of carcinogens and other toxin, people are suffering high incidences of birth defects, infant mortality, cancer, turbecolosis and blood diseases, as well as particularly severe respiratory problems.
An agreement of United Nation of 1989 even subscribed by China wanted the exportations of toxic waste from rich countries to poor areas to stop but United States never respected that agreement. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition forecasts that in 2007 more that 300 million computers and electronic tools will be eliminated by only United States: who knows where those computers will go to die...
