Electronic waste dump in Guiyu

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The electronic waste dump in Guiyu is located in Guiyu ( Chinese 贵屿 ) in the province of Guangdong of China , an agglomeration of four neighboring villages with a total size of around 52 square kilometers, which is widely perceived as the largest electronic waste disposal site in the world or the “capital” of electronic waste .

In 2005, around 60,000 people were involved in the recycling of electronic scrap in the order of magnitude of around 100 truck loads a day. The handling and processing of harmful and toxic electronic waste without adequate protection for the environment and the employees led to the nickname “electronic cemetery of the world” for the region.

Health impairments

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Many of the primitive recycling methods in Guiyu release toxins and endanger the health of employees. Above-average miscarriage rates are reported in the region. Workers break open electronic devices and components with bare hands to remove reusable parts including chips . Circuit boards are “cooked” to remove chips and solders, to smolder wires and other plastics, and to detach metals such as copper and silver. The gold is extracted from the microchips on the river banks using dangerous, highly corrosive acid baths . This is also where toner is washed from cartridges and printers. Children are exposed to ashes contaminated with polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans ("dioxins"). The smoke around Guiyu is reflected in the area. Lead , chromium , tin and other heavy metals have accumulated in the soil . The discarded electronics lie in poisoned sinks from which water seeps away and makes the groundwater unusable. Drinking water is therefore obtained from other regions. According to the Basel Action Network , the lead levels in the sediment are twice the European limit values. 80% of the children suffer from lead poisoning , and their blood is 54% higher than that of children in the nearby city of Chendian. Ash and plastic waste pile up near the rice fields and levees of the Lianjiang River.

A study assessed the extent of heavy metal pollution in the area: Using dust samples, scientists analyzed mean heavy metal concentrations in a workshop in Guiyu and found that the concentrations of lead and copper were 371 and 115 times higher, respectively, compared to areas 30 km away. The same study found that sediments from the nearby Lianjiang River are three times more polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) than a guideline suggests.

Economic reasons for disposal in Guiyu

Economic incentives, strict environmental protection regulations or missing or unimplemented enforced regulations in the countries of origin and the globalization of the waste trade lead to the export of electronic scrap. The added value with parts of the disused electronics is an incentive for people to move to Guiyu from other provinces and work there. The average employee, adult or child, earns just under 1.50 USD (or 17 US cents per hour) per day with an average working time of sixteen hours with the recycling of parts or raw materials. Even this relatively small profit is enough motivation for workers to risk their health.

Agriculture

The village of Guiyu, which once lived on rice cultivation , is no longer able to grow edible food due to the pollution . The water of the river is no longer suitable for the production of drinking water.

reporting

The situation of Guiyu as a hub for electronic waste was first documented in December 2001 by the non-profit Basel Action Network, whose report and the documentary Exporting Harm shows the practice of collecting toxic waste in developing countries. The health and environmental issues raised by this report and the subsequent scientific studies have seriously affected international organizations such as the Basel Action Network and later Greenpeace as well as the United Nations Environment Program and the Basel Convention . Guiyu's media documentation is strictly regulated by the Chinese government out of fear of exposure or legal action. For example, a November broadcast of 60 Minutes , a popular US television news program, documented illegal electronic waste shipments from recyclers in the US to Guiyu. During the filming of illegal recycling garbage on location in Guiyu, representatives of the Chinese recyclers tried unsuccessfully to have the recordings of the 60 Minutes television crew confiscated. Greenpeace used various methods to raise awareness and protest against the environmental impacts of electronic waste recycling in Guiyu. Including the construction of a statue from electronic waste collected in Guiyu. Moving a truckload of e-waste from Guiyu back to Hewlett-Packard headquarters. Greenpeace lobbied against large consumer electronics companies to stop the use of toxic substances in their products if possible.

The Chinese author Qiufan Chen published the science fiction novel "The Silicon Island" in 2013, for which the landfill in Guiyu served as a model.

Efforts to clean up

Until 2007 the situation in Guiyu had changed little, although the Chinese central government tried to stop the long-term import of electronic waste and to enforce the ban. Studies carried out afterwards show that the region has some of the world's highest environmental pollution with dioxin. Awareness of the situation came through the work of the activist groups. The government and police do not like your work or that of the press. Most of the workers who deal with the scrap come from rural areas.

This article or section needs to be revised: When was the decree issued?
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A decree has been issued by the Guiyu Township Council that prohibits the burning of electronic waste in an open fire and the dissolving of components in sulfuric acid . Controls and fines were announced for violations. Within this legal framework, more than 800 coal stoves were dismantled, whereby the air quality again reached level II, which is acceptable for residential areas.

The Comprehensive System for Solving Electronic Waste Pollution in the Guiyu Region of Shantou City , ( Chinese  汕头 市 贵屿 地区 电子 废物 污染 综合 整治 方案 , Pinyin Shàntóu shì guì yǔ dìqū diànzǐ fèiwù wūrǎn zònghé zhěngzhì ) was launched by the Province of Guangdàn in 2013 approved.

In December 2015, recycling companies were relocated to a newly created industrial park, which has a planned processing capacity of 4 million tons of electronic waste. 1.7 million tons are currently processed there annually.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tim Johnson: E-waste dump of the world , The Seattle Times , April 9, 2006.
  2. ↑ a b China's Notorious E-Waste Village Disappears Almost Overnight. bna.com, accessed December 2, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Xinhua General News Service: China Daily: Chinese recycling base in pursuit of sustainable development
  4. ↑ Miranda Yeung: There's a dark side to the digital age , South China Morning Post April 21, 2008.
  5. ^ A b Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia. February 25, 2002 (PDF).
  6. ↑ George Monbiot: From toxic waste to toxic assets, the same people always get dumped on. In: The Guardian. September 21, 2009.
  7. ↑ Liangkai Zheng, Kusheng Wu, Yan Li, Zongli Qi, Dai Han, Bao Zhang, Chengwu Gu, Gangjian Chen, Junxiao Liu, Songjian Chen, Xijin Xu, Xia Huo: Blood Lead and Cadmium Levels and Relevant Factors Among Children from an E. -Waste Recycling Town in China. In: Environmental Research. 108, 2008, pp. 15-20, doi: 10.1016 / j.envres.2008.04.002 .
  8. ^ Anna OW Leung, Nurdan S. Duzgoren-Aydin, KC Cheung, Ming H. Wong: Heavy Metals Concentrations of Surface Dust from e-Waste Recycling and Its Human Health Implications in Southeast China. In: Environmental Science & Technology . 42, 2008, pp. 2674-2680, doi: 10.1021 / es071873x .
  9. ↑ Waste not want not? In: Business Daily Update.
  10. ↑ You'll never think the same way again. ( Memento of March 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on theforbiddenknowledge.com.
  11. ↑ Scientific Articles ( Memento of April 6, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Following The Trail Of Toxic E-Waste. cbsnews.com
  13. ↑ Tschang Chi-Chu: Greenpeace launches e-waste drive in China (microfilm roll NL26190 eresources.nlb.gov.sg ) The Straits Times. May 24, 2005.
  14. ↑ Jens Balzer: Circuits of Hell. In: The time. December 11, 2019, accessed May 23, 2020 .
  15. ↑ China's Electronic Waste Village. ( Memento from January 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ^ Nicola Albrecht: Tödlicher Müll in China , ZDF auslandsjournal 2013
  17. ↑ 'Clean-tech' start-ups are pushing the green button. ( Memento of July 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on unep.org.
  18. ↑ 汕头 贵屿 90% 儿童 受 重金属 污染 - 中国 日报 网. (No longer available online.) Chinadaily.com.cn, archived from the original on November 9, 2016 ; accessed on December 1, 2016 (Chinese, Shantou Guiyu 90% of children affected by heavy metal pollution ). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.chinadaily.com.cn
  19. ↑ 贵屿 环境污染 综合 整治 通过 省 验收 _ 要闻 _ 汕头 市政府 门户 网站. (No longer available online.) Shantou.gov.cn, April 1, 2016, archived from the original on November 9, 2016 ; Retrieved December 1, 2016 (Comprehensive Treatment of Environmental Pollution from Guiyu Province). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / shantou.gov.cn
  20. ↑ China Deals With Growing Electronic Waste Challenge. bna.com, accessed December 2, 2016 .