Guiyu: The World's Electronics Graveyard

The iPhone 6 was just released and people worldwide are eager to scrap their iPhone 4’s and 5’s to get their hands on Apple’s newest piece of technology. Have you ever wondered what happens to the older, now “obsolete” phones people trade in for the newest model? Apple may not be sending their used products overseas to be processed, yet the majority, about 50 – 80%, of American electronic waste is sent to Africa or Asia to be recycled. In 1998 the overall e-waste volume from the U.S. was about 5 – 7 million tons, a figure that is much higher today and, along with the amount of e-waste from the rest of the world, is rapidly growing.

            Guiyu is a town of 150,000 people comprised of twenty-eight villages in southeastern China. It is the largest e-waste disposal site in the world. Beginning in the 1990’s, Guiyu accommodates millions of tons of e-waste from overseas and domestic sources every year. While the U.S. generates an exorbitant amount of e-waste, most of the e-waste processed in China is generated in China. Most families in Guiyu run small scale, family-run e-waste recycling operations, employing approximately 100,000 migrant workers. These workshops utilize very primitive practices in processing the e-waste. Safe, high-tech recovery methods in recycling electronic waste are available, yet they are expensive and, thus, unattainable for these poor workers.

            To start, old electronic equipment is
dismantled using various, simple tools. Circuit boards of computers and other large appliances are heated over coal fires to melt solder to release valuable electronic components like microchips. Microchips and computer parts are soaked in acid baths to extract gold and palladium, precious metals. The waste acid is dumped into nearby fields and streams. Wires and cables are stripped and then burnt in open air to recover metals. Remaining plastic parts are also sorted by rigidity, color, and luster, fed into grinders, and then discharged into tiny pieces which are then purchased by companies such as Foxconn, a supplier for Apple products. Transformers, chargers, batteries, and cathode-ray tubes are also separated and hammered open to recycle metals such as copper, steel, silver, and aluminum. In many cases, the only source of ventilation in workshops throughout these processes is a small household fan.

            E-waste material and residues are often dumped in yards, roadsides, open fields, irrigation canals, riverbanks, and ponds. As a result, high levels of toxic heavy metals and organic contaminants are in dust, soil, surface and groundwater in the town. Many Guiyu residents refuse to drink the well water, tainted with heavy metals like lead, chromium, and tin, and eat the rice they harvest because of severe soil and water pollution. The rice, however, is still shipped out to be eaten elsewhere, perhaps fueling the country’s problems with cadmium-contaminated rice.

            Such severe environmental contamination from e-waste recycling has had many negative health repercussions. Lead, contained in many electronic components such as cathode ray tubes in older TVs and computer monitors, is a major contaminant among Guiyu’s population, particularly young children. A study in Environmental Health Perspectives, an academic journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, examined the blood lead levels (BLLs) of children ages six and under in Guiyu. Blood samples were collected from children at kindergartens from four different villages in Guiyu, each involved in separate stages of e-waste processing. For comparison, a control group from neighboring Chendian, a town centered on the textiles industry not e-waste processing, was also measured. The results showed that on average, the blood lead levels of children in Guiyu were significantly higher than those in Chendian. 81.8% of children in Guiyu had BLLs higher than 10 µg/dL, compared to only 37.7% of children in Chendian (the U.S. Centers for Disease Control defines elevated BLL as those greater than 10 µg/dL). The average BLL among children in Guiyu was 16.14 µg/dL, much higher than China’s 9.29 µg/dL average. The study concluded that elevated BLLs in Guiyu children were common due to exposure to lead contamination from primitive e-waste recycling practices.

Another study conducted by the National Research Center for Environmental Analysis and Measurement found high levels of dioxins in farmland soils of Guiyu. Dioxins are persistent organic pollutants that bioaccumulate in fatty tissue. They are highly toxic and can cause serious health problems, such as cancer as well as immune and nervous system impairment. Dioxins, along with other heavy metals and contaminants, such as mercury and cadmium, found in Guiyu stemming from primitive e-waste recycling, are likely what is causing the high incidences of skin damage, headaches, vertigo, nausea, chronic gastritis, and gastric and duodenal ulcers.

It is unjust that electronic waste from the United States plays a role in the contamination of Guiyu’s environment and degradation of the citizens’ health while the U.S. remains largely unharmed by these effects. The poor residents of Guiyu have little choice but to continue to live and work in such a toxic environment. However, some migrant workers express that, while the conditions are horrible, working at e-waste processing workshops in Guiyu allow more freedom than working on factory lines where hours are strict and young children are barred from the premises.

There is hope for improvement in Guiyu and other major e-waste dumpsites in the world. The Basel Convention, for example, is an international treaty in which all ratifying nations agreed to reduce exports of hazardous waste to a minimum and handle their waste problems within national borders. Under the Basel Ban Amendment, exporting hazardous waste (which includes e-waste) is prohibited from developed countries to developing countries. The United States, however, is the only developed country in the world that has not ratified the Basel Convention. In the U.S., action to address e-waste problems is driven by nonprofits, such as e-stewards and Greenpeace. The European Union has been very proactive in addressing the issue of e-waste. Their Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive requires electronics sellers to accept any of their used products brought back by customers for recycling, free of charge. The EU’s goal is to have properly recycled 85% of their waste by 2019. Japan also requires electronic manufacturers to establish their own recycling facilities, or commission third parties to recycle their products.

In China, in order for change to occur domestically, there must be government and consumer pressure on manufacturers to design electronics with end-of-life issues in mind so as to facilitate the recycling process, as well as sell products with a prearranged recycling service. Consumers, particularly, in China bear the burden for what happens to electronics after they are used as there is little government regulation and industry initiative. Aside from a government subsidized program, “Home Appliance Old for New Rebate Program”, from 2009 to 2011 which collected tens of millions of obsolete home appliances, little has been done within China’s own borders to solve their e-waste crises.

Evidently, Guiyu is the world’s well-kept secret. Not many know about the area’s perilous environmental and human health situation resulting from e-waste disposal. It is imperative to increase public awareness about the effects of exposure to toxic metals and organic pollutants from e-waste, as well as arouse governments’ interest in the public health and safety of residents in vast e-waste dumpsites like Guiyu. Change is possible, and it begins with any consumer of electronic goods. Be an informed consumer; know where your product is coming from, how it was made, and where it will go when you no longer use it.

Sources:

"Researchers at State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Dioxin Pollution Control Target Farming." Agriculture Week

Han, Dai, et al. "Elevated blood lead levels of children in Guiyu, an Electronic waste recycling town in China." Environmental Health Perspectives 115.7 (2007)

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/30/world/asia/china-electronic-waste-e-waste/

http://www.ban.org/E-waste/technotrashfinalcomp.pdf

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs225/en/

Acaroglu, Leyla. "Where do old cellphones go to die?" New York Times 5 May 2013

http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/campaigns/toxics/problems/e-waste/guiyu/

http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/Global/eastasia/photos/toxics/ewaste/guiyu-woman-river.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Guiyu-ewaste.jpg