Where Does The Electronic Waste of America End Up?
Jim Puckett flies above the Pacific Ocean looking for the electronic waste of America. He wants people to know what happens to their devices as the USA produces more e-waste than any other country.
Jim Puckett flies above the Pacific Ocean looking for the electronic waste of America. He wants people to know what happens to their devices as the USA produces more e-waste than any other country. Lead and mercury can be found in the devices, and there are around 50,000 trucks full of electronics recycled every year.
Basel Action Network have spent the last two years researching and have discovered that some electronic wastes are being exported rather than recycled. Along with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they have placed 200 tracking devices into old computers and then sent them to centers that advertise themselves as green or environmentally friendly.
As a result, it was possible to track the devices and see where the property had ended up. Almost a third were sent to other countries – some of them clocking up 12,000 miles and of these six had been deposited in Oregon and Washington. Some Wastes were found in China, Thailand, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico, and Canada.
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Puckett met Chines journalist Dongxia Su, and they looked around the region of New Territories in Hong Kong where a lot of the electronic devices ended up. Following the tracker’s they arrived at a dirt road and counted down the feet until they arrived at a wall of packing containers.
Here, devices are searched for, refurbished and sent to Pakistan. Regardless of health and safety, mercury is being released into the air and masks are not used. Operation Green Fence has been set up by the Chinese authorities, and this prevents electronics crossing the border.
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Helena Marsh
Helena Marsh is the Editor-in-Chief at TrendinTech, where she leads editorial strategy and oversees coverage across artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enterprise technology. With more than a decade in technology journalism on both sides of the Atlantic, she previously served as a senior editor at Wired UK and covered the technology sector for The Guardian, following the rise of the big platforms, the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the regulatory push from Brussels and Washington. Helena holds an MA in Journalism from City, University of London and is a regular speaker at Web Summit in Lisbon and CES in Las Vegas. She believes technology reporting should be rigorous and plainly written, so readers understand what actually changes for them rather than what a company's announcement promises.
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