Right and Wrong Recycle Method of Electronic Waste, Australia needs to know

On Basel Convention, Control of Trans boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, it is stated that it is illegal to export electronic waste to developing countries. This convention has ratified by 92 countries. They signed to not export electronic waste without required licenses. In contrast, according to Greenpeace report, there are 47% of waste including e-waste were exported in 2005 through 18 European seaports. It shows that e-waste exports still exists regardless there is a convention that is already ratified.

The impact of recycling e-waste in developing countries and China as the major destination

According to Basel Action Network report, recycling e-waste in developing countries can creates health issues. The recycling activities are found in countries such as China, India and Pakistan. These countries are very polluted and creates bad impact to the health of the people there. These operations happen due to the weak health and safety regulations in the countries.

China is the biggest destination of this operation. One of ScienceDaily articles stated that old computer, television and other electronics contribute highly in health issues in China. The western companies and people that regularly update the electronics need to think about the impacts they created for people’s health in developing countries such as China which is a place where 70% of e-waste recycled every year.

There are a lot of potential health risks that can be happened due to this recycling activity including cancer and developmental defects. This is happened because the dioxins of the people live around the recycling place get higher.

Furthermore, according to study conducted by Wong, there are higher toxic metals concentrations in China’s e-waste recycling place. This bad condition happened because there is no strong law rules the health and safety recycling activities. It should be our responsible to make sure that our e-waste will not end up contributing health risks for others. IT E-Waste is one of the ways to ensure that our e-waste will not be sold or pass to other people. It will dispose our e-waste in environmentally friendly.

#ewastemethord