Guiyu, Guangdong: Difference between revisions
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The predominant recipient of the worlds [[e-waste]] is [[China]]. The area within China that has attracted the most media attention is a town known as Guiyu, located in the [[Guangdong]] region. A google search of Guiyu, even on the Chinese version of [[Google]], brings up only articles on the e-waste epidemic occurring there. The articles and the images attached with them are appalling. Children playing upon mountains of scrap. Men and women, backs bent low, dismantling toxic computer parts by hand. Heaps of burning plastics, surrounded by the very shacks of those who set the blaze. Guiyu began its e-waste industry in 1996, slowly attracting rural peasants from the country side. The current day estimated 100,000 e-waste workers in Guiyu are now trapped in these toxic villages, no other economic options are available in the surrounding farmlands. Men, women, children, young, and old suffer in this place. The average worker makes just $1.50 a day, the average workday is sixteen hours. This $1.50 is made by recovering the valuable metals and chemicals that are within the discarded electronics. Every single operation in Guiyu is toxic. From the gigantic cargo ships that arrive in the port of Nanhai, the dismantling of the parts, the burning of the plastics, and the discarding of these molested toxic pieces into the local ecosystem. No protection from harm is given, from the young woman scrapping toner out of the printer cartridges, the men melting chips in acid to separate out the gold, to the children playing in piles of dioxin ash. For a $1.50 a day these people have been lethally contaminated. For a $1.50 a day the environment surrounding the villages in Guiyu have been destroyed. The soil soaked in lead, chromium, tin and other heavy metals. The water undrinkable, it is trucked in from villages further out. Tomorrow it will be worse. For this absurd level of irreversible human and environmental damage, someone must be making more than $1.50 a day. |
The predominant recipient of the worlds [[e-waste]] is [[China]]. The area within China that has attracted the most media attention is a town known as Guiyu, located in the [[Guangdong]] region. A google search of Guiyu, even on the Chinese version of [[Google]], brings up only articles on the e-waste epidemic occurring there. The articles and the images attached with them are appalling. Children playing upon mountains of scrap. Men and women, backs bent low, dismantling toxic computer parts by hand. Heaps of burning plastics, surrounded by the very shacks of those who set the blaze. Guiyu began its e-waste industry in 1996, slowly attracting rural peasants from the country side. The current day estimated 100,000 e-waste workers in Guiyu are now trapped in these toxic villages, no other economic options are available in the surrounding farmlands. Men, women, children, young, and old suffer in this place. The average worker makes just $1.50 a day, the average workday is sixteen hours. This $1.50 is made by recovering the valuable metals and chemicals that are within the discarded electronics. Every single operation in Guiyu is toxic. From the gigantic cargo ships that arrive in the port of Nanhai, the dismantling of the parts, the burning of the plastics, and the discarding of these molested toxic pieces into the local ecosystem. No protection from harm is given, from the young woman scrapping toner out of the printer cartridges, the men melting chips in acid to separate out the gold, to the children playing in piles of dioxin ash. For a $1.50 a day these people have been lethally contaminated. For a $1.50 a day the environment surrounding the villages in Guiyu have been destroyed. The soil soaked in lead, chromium, tin and other heavy metals. The water undrinkable, it is trucked in from villages further out. Tomorrow it will be worse. For this absurd level of irreversible human and environmental damage, someone must be making more than $1.50 a day. |
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==References== |
==References== |
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Revision as of 08:24, 21 May 2007
Guiyu (Chinese: 贵屿; Hanyu Pinyin: Gùi Yǔ) is the name of a town in China.
Location
Guiyu Town is located within the southwest part of Shantou prefecture-level city, Guangdong province, People's Republic of China.
Transport
Its inconvenience in transportation makes it unknown to most Shantou locals.
Industry
Guiyu Town is the biggest electronic waste site on earth[1]. The health-environmental issues there have concerned international organisations such as Greenpeace.
The predominant recipient of the worlds e-waste is China. The area within China that has attracted the most media attention is a town known as Guiyu, located in the Guangdong region. A google search of Guiyu, even on the Chinese version of Google, brings up only articles on the e-waste epidemic occurring there. The articles and the images attached with them are appalling. Children playing upon mountains of scrap. Men and women, backs bent low, dismantling toxic computer parts by hand. Heaps of burning plastics, surrounded by the very shacks of those who set the blaze. Guiyu began its e-waste industry in 1996, slowly attracting rural peasants from the country side. The current day estimated 100,000 e-waste workers in Guiyu are now trapped in these toxic villages, no other economic options are available in the surrounding farmlands. Men, women, children, young, and old suffer in this place. The average worker makes just $1.50 a day, the average workday is sixteen hours. This $1.50 is made by recovering the valuable metals and chemicals that are within the discarded electronics. Every single operation in Guiyu is toxic. From the gigantic cargo ships that arrive in the port of Nanhai, the dismantling of the parts, the burning of the plastics, and the discarding of these molested toxic pieces into the local ecosystem. No protection from harm is given, from the young woman scrapping toner out of the printer cartridges, the men melting chips in acid to separate out the gold, to the children playing in piles of dioxin ash. For a $1.50 a day these people have been lethally contaminated. For a $1.50 a day the environment surrounding the villages in Guiyu have been destroyed. The soil soaked in lead, chromium, tin and other heavy metals. The water undrinkable, it is trucked in from villages further out. Tomorrow it will be worse. For this absurd level of irreversible human and environmental damage, someone must be making more than $1.50 a day.
 | The neutrality of this section is disputed. |
References
- ^ The Seattle Times (2006). E-waste dump of the world. Retrieved 9th March, 2007
Exporting Harm - http://www.crra.com/ewaste/ttrash2/ttrash2/