Electronic trash has caused a crisis

gzlaser

THE town's like this: mountains of keyboards, monitors, photocopiers, printers, radios. They're everywhere, all over the streets. The water in the stream is black as ink. The air also has a color to it, sometimes more than one - it depends on what kind of rubbish is being burned.

This nightmare image still haunts Zhou Xudong's dreams, even though it was two months ago when he went there with 14 other university students from Beijing. They were Greenpeace volunteers, the non-governmental organization that focuses on environment protection. The students were sent there to look at the environment.

The town is Guiyu, in the south of Guangdong Province, a global center of electronic waste products.

\"I'm surprised how people survive in the poisonous town,\" said Zhou, an environment science major at Peking University. The water is so polluted that people need to import their drinking water from neighboring towns. But they can't get away from the toxic air.

So, what makes them stay? The luxury cars like BMWs and Benzes parked near the garbage may provide an answer.

\"Eighty percent of the local people are in electronic waste processing and are making big profits,\" said Li Jie, a volunteer. They take in electronic waste for a high price, remove the useful parts and use acids to sort the metals - gold, copper, silver, and others. The acid and heavy metals run off into the river.

Migrant workers flood into the town for salaries but end up paying with their health.

Li, one migrant worker from Sichuan Province, earns 200 to 300 yuan a day. He's so skilful that he knows exactly what type of plastic it is just by burning and smelling it. This special talent, however, forces him to leave work every six months to go home to get some fresh air. Then he's back as soon as he recovers six months later.

What's the future like for migrant workers like Li, or the town, or the environment?

Greenpeace believes that social responsibility is the answer. \"It's important that the manufacturers not use environmentally harmful materials, including PVC and BFR,\" said Chen Yuhui, project manager for Greenpeace.

The organization has persuaded companies like HP and Lenovo to give a deadline for producing environmentally friendly products.

Their next target is Apple: \"Although Apple doesn't have a big market share, young people like its cool design and are becoming major consumers,\" said Li, the volunteer. \"We'd love Apple more if it were environmentally friendly.\"