A multimedia look at electronic waste shipped overseas and the toxic effect it has on places such as Guiyu, China--known as "trash town." With an interview with Michael Zhao of the Center on US-China Relations at Asia Society. eDump

China's e-waste capital chokes on old computers

GUIYU, China (Reuters) - Guiyu is a modern day gold rush town. But instead of panning for gold in babbling streams, workers shift through piles of broken old computer parts in acrid smelling shacks, smelting down parts with crude equipment to extract valuable metals like gold and copper.
Every year, millions of unwanted computers, keyboards, television sets and cell phones are smuggled into China by sea. Much ends up in Guiyu, a rough town on the southern Chinese coast, not far from the former British colony of Hong Kong.

There is little regard for safety -- no masks, little ventilation and few signs of government officials enforcing what safety rules do exist in China. Read More

Labels: Culture