Think about this when buying your next computer

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

I dont know how much truth that article holds.

I know here in florida at least there are very stringent regulations and processing agenceys / plants designed and operated with the sole purpose of dealing with discareded electronics of all types, computers included.

For anything that 'slips by' the original screening the landfill dumps are constantly 'patrolled' and any discarded electonics from an AA battery to large televisions are extracted and sent to the processing plant.

A good deal of time and money is spent by the goverment to assure that we are not 'posining' anything.

correct.

I dont know how they do things in Sierra Leone but over here we dont allow that sort of thing

[gutted]

no sympathy from me.

maybe if they quit fighting each other, and move into the 21st century and manufacture something the world wants... they wouldn't be our dumpsters.

same goes for every other backwards country.

Originally Posted by gutted

no sympathy from me.

maybe if they quit fighting each other, and move into the 21st century and manufacture something the world wants... they wouldn't be our dumpsters.

same goes for every other backwards country.

Like the USA?

[Skybird]

The United Nations estimates that up to 50 million tons of electronic waste are thrown away globally each year. It costs about €3.50 ($5.30) to properly dispose of an old CRT monitor in Germany. But it costs only €1.50 to stick it on a container ship to Ghana.

An international treaty, the Basel Convention, came into effect in 1989. The treaty is sound in its concept, forbidding developed countries from carrying out unauthorized dumping of computer waste in less developed countries. A total of 172 countries have signed the convention, but three of them never ratified it: Haiti, Afghanistan, and the United States. According to estimates by the US Environmental Protection Agency, around 40 million computers are discarded each year in the US alone.

European Union directives with acronyms like WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) and RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) followed the Basel Convention, and individual countries have signed them into law. Germany's waste disposal laws are among the world's strictest, and shipping computer waste to Ghana can lead to a prison sentence. In theory.

The German government recently set out to examine how things look in practice. Experts at the German Federal Environment Agency are still completing a paper that will be published in the coming weeks, but the upshot is already clear -- there are serious holes in the country's recycling system. According to the study, export firms in Germany ship 100,000 tons of discarded electrical appliances south each year, far more than experts had feared.

"This is a business worth millions, not something that falls under petty crime," says Knut Sander at the Hamburg-based environmental institute Ökopol. He authored the study, which took him months to research. His investigations landed him warnings that he should watch out for his own safety.

Having laws and treaties (or not) is one thing. Reality is a different thing.

You guys now see the problem?

[August]

Yeah because it's better to let those poor kids starve to death than allow them to do a potentially dangerous job.

Originally Posted by August

Yeah because it's better to let those poor kids starve to death than allow them to do a potentially dangerous job.

Planning to go there and starve kids? Usually it's napalm for the kids when it comes to you Americans.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

Planning to go there and starve kids? Usually it's napalm for the kids when it comes to you Americans.

August proposed that a potentially dangerous job was better than starvation.

You proposed the theory that Americans intentionally drop napalm on children.

I propose that this was an unwarranted attack, and further propose that you be censured.

[NeonSamurai]

More then potentially dangerous, are you aware of the kind of stuff found in electronics like circuit boards and how they extract the valuable material? The stuff is full of mercury, lead, and other toxins (plus plastics, etc) and the valuable metals are usually extracted by burning it in an open fire. Its pure explotation and circumventing environmental regulations.

This is just like how they dismantle ships in the various third world countries. Absolutely no regard for the workers or environment, only money.

[gutted]

Originally Posted by NeonSamurai

M the valuable metals are usually extracted by burning it in an open fire. Its pure explotation and circumventing environmental regulations.

This is just like how they dismantle ships in the various third world countries. Absolutely no regard for the workers or environment, only money.

natural selection at work.

i dont see the problem.

if you know the socket has electricity in it, and you still put a fork in it... why should i care?