Wow....Communism has really worked out.

Seriously, what a total social failure.

FrankenPC

I guess you just can't blame everyone in China.
It all boils down to a few corrupt individuals that get paid to look the other way. Mainly the city mayor, the recycling company owner, and a few other culprits.
Most of the companies sending the e-junk are probably not aware where it all ends up... but I'm sure they paid their disposal fees so you cannot make them responsible for it, just as you or I cannot be made responsible for a soda can after we gave it to the recycling guy...

On the up shot, being China, when this stuff is exposed and the cuprits found, the goverment just shoot them. Just like they do with death penalty for drug dealers.

aec007

This is so sad. China only cares about one thing $$$. If we truely cared as a nation about the human rights in China or the quality of goods used in this country, we would at a minimum put massive tarrifs on everything coming from China. In the case of e-cycling we'd ban sending it to any company that sent it to a country with a poor environmental record.

It won't happen because someone is making a lot of $$$ of imports from China. Even while, quality manufacturing is driven under by low quality Chinese goods. Aren't we reliant on them for our steel as well.

That sounds like a safe way to run a Country to me. The yahoos in Congress seem to not realize what a major war could do if we can't supply our own steel. WOW!

Nyle

@Johnny.Shitbox: *warning, Diet Communism has been known to cause cancer in laboratory chil- um, rats... laboratory rats.

Darrone

@feckineejit: amen!

scarbrtj

Communism is fun for the whole family.

survey says kids like Communism 69% more than Diet Communism

Johnny.Shitbox

If you think that is bad, there is a town in China (I can't find it through google) that has or used to have a battery recycling operation going on. They crack/cracked open the batteries and dump/dumped the acid inside on the ground.

Ghede

@pipper:

just because you ship something far away doesn't mean it doesn't have environmental impact.

feckineejit

wowee! There's no way we could handle that much poisoning, these Chinese kids are tough!

feckineejit

@arbilli: tragically, 100% of all my one-night-stand conquests have suffered from lead poisoning. I know I bear responsibility, but it has been difficult to put a dent in this admittedly high rate.

scarbrtj

Why are you people trying to make fun of a sad story?

This is worse than dumping the e-waste in the land field, because at least we can pick a place to bury the haz waste with the least environmental impact.

Now you see the problem: all these green recycle centers/companies who are willingly accept your old printers and CRTs, just ship all these poisonous e-waste to the 3rd world where kid labors are doing all the disassembling without proper gear and protection. And the result is killing them and killing the earth. (these companies do this to maximize their profits)

This is totally disastrous and unacceptable!!

pipper

You're looking at pictures of future Tibet. We're not going to kill them, we're just going to treat them like everyone else!

Darrone

@yoweigh: I don't know, but it's a crying shame and a damn sight worse than 68%, for sure.

In other news, Ivory Soap is 99.44% pure.

scarbrtj

yoweigh,
I think he means that 69% of the children in that area suffer from lead poisoning.

arbilli

we should make a 100% biodegradable computer. excluding the hdd, cpu, psu, and disc drives.

greggantic

Wow, and I thought my job sucked.

We need to send some candy baskets to these kids that are allowing us here to buy a new cell phone every year and sleep at night knowing that we 'recycle' our electronics.

Monty

WTF does it mean if a child has a poisoning level of 69%????

yoweigh

This is really sad

Pelm

they're iron kids...no? alright then.

Sheemo44

And in an amazing turn of coincidence, the e-cycling company that sends the most is owned by Mattel
(joking, but wouldn't be surprised)

DeepFriar

I think Andrew Stanton and the rest of the crew at Pixar foretells the future in Wall-E.

Kaiser-Machead

@greggantic: Biggest problem with that is it'd likely cost 5x more than a "regular" PC so nobody would buy it.

IphtashuFitz

I think it's high time mankind's started looking to build electronics out of components that are easily and safely processed. While I would still put on a mask for silica dust, we shouldn't have to worry about children getting popped full of lead.

Kaiser-Machead

@tutelary: The article was written by Jason Chen, not Jesus.

Munch420s

Yo, Thanks Giz for bringing enlightening articles (and their linked websites) to Gizmodo.

That was incredibly sad, but so glad I saw it. The rest of the photography on the linked site [www.china-pix.com] was amazing as well.

Bruhaha

jesus this makes me feel bad :\

tutelary

@Kaspir: that .56 is stuff from the warehouse, rat droppings, pieces of cockroaches, dust you know the same stuff found in hersheys candy bars.

fostina1

@arbilli: actually... the lead's in the pencil (or is supposed to be).

scarbrtj

i thought china was slowly poisoning the u.s. to slowly take over the world. i didnt realize that they are just morons.

fostina1

@scarbrtj: I've always wondered about that, so is the last .56% of Ivory Soap impure....and doesn't that make it unacceptable? what exactly is that other .56% made of? do they just put anything they can find in there to fill it out??? why not just cut the last .56% of the bar off and call it 100% pure?

The kid in the picture looks ok, unless you look at anything but the kid in the picture....then he looks kinda screwed in life.

Kaspir

Communism have nothing to do with it. This is pure capitalism. When you are poor, you do anything to stay alive. Cancer and education is not a concern, when you need to work today, so that you get subsistence level of food tomorrow. This is 20th century version of "Brave new world." No need to clone humans to do dirty jobs, when you have 2 billions of them to choose.

Aleung

If any of you want to see the full scope of this, rent "Manufactured Landscapes":

+ Watch video

johnnyabnormal

The sad thing that the last two pics (black color river and trash at side of road) are a common sight all over rural China.

Azndude51

@Nyle: Skip your first sentence and move onto the second.

The sad part is that most everybody only cares about $$$. The countries, the companies, you, me. Check the polls - what does it mean for the country to be going in the right or wrong direction? How the economy is doing. Why is Putin so popular? Because Russia is doing well economically. What determines ultimate support for Chavez at home? How he's handling economic issues at home. Courage to stand up to Mugabe in Zimbabwe after decades? Economic collapse. (The examples go on, for whatever reason those were the first ones that jumped into my head.)

"It's the economy stupid" = How much do I got and can I keep it.

So if we're all trying to make a buck (and legitimately all put food on the table and support our families) who is responsible for this mess?

The platitude is correct. We all are.

92BuickLeSabre

@scarbrtj: Well I guess lead is does make for a safer condom, and it keeps superman's prying eyes out of the bedroom.

arbilli

@newgalactic: Oooh. That one stings.

bmoctta

I saw this on the news a few months ago. The reporter that went and visited the site where the kids burn the plastic off of metal wires couldn't even stand around it without throwing up. It is really terrible.

I didn't think that people actually tried to "recycle" their electronics. That is very stupid. If the electronic that you dont want anymore is not good enough for you, then what the hell do you think anyone else is going to want with it?

Inepsa

Designed by Apple in California

...Made in China*

*along with everything else electronic

newgalactic

Yeah! Way to go China! You won! Your one of the best pollution producing countries!

bmoctta

@Aleung: Totally agree. It's easy to blame the Chinese people, but that'd be missing the big picture.

Pollution and poisoning isn't a concern when you're struggling to put food on the table. And it's not like whoever gets exploited to do this is educated enough to fully appreciate the implications.

This is capitalism at work. The Chinese don't get to enjoy 99% of the iPods and other stuff they make. They didn't produce 99% of the e-waste they're "recycling". If every single iPod sold in the US is to be manufactured and recycled properly in the US, it'd probably be twice as expensive. Are you willing to pay a grand for an iPhone?

subyfan

@Munch420s: I think he ment:
Jesus [coma] this makes me feel bad.

from the geez, I cannot believe so many of us dont really have an idea of how devastating is the technology and gadget industry to our environment.

Or from the: even when im an apple fan, if el jobso pulls another upgrade/new product release for the 3 month new line of products, I will stop buying mac products, Like I have done it already.

gadgets are good for only 2 or 3 holistic reasons (productivity or pleasure are the two I can think now). They are fun, they are cool but not good for the environment, overall consumer economy (return on your investment) and disastrous for post processing recycling.

dysthymia

That's pretty sick... They should get somekind of regulations on working :E

Bash_

@Nyle: this doesn't happen because American importers want more money. of course they do, but I don't agree with bundling it all on "greedy industry". It's capitalism. The American importer needs to keep prices low because YOU AND I bitch about $400 cell phones and $500 game consoles.

kahri

in one of those pictures it doesn't even look like electronic waste, it looks like paper and plastic waste from food/drink containers, toilet paper, and other trash.

So lets all blame capitalism for making that kid tear apart electronics so his family can eat in his communistic country and not go to school, or grow up and get a job or choose to go to school some more and get a better job.

---=fuck=---

Johnny.Shitbox

They make it, we buy it, we send it back.

China is a mess. Utter and complete mess. I spent while there not long ago and was overwhelmed by things like these pics.

James

They need to start making criminals clean up the place like we do

Istrutnice

Did anyone bashing China even read the article, or did they just scan the title, and copy and paste their pre-made "Bash China" reply.

This was an article about e-Waste from corporations being dumped into China, not another "China is flooding the world with evil, poisonous blank" story.

Kyang

First off no one is forcing these people to do this work and don't give me that argument "well what else are they going to do?" They can very well say NO and do something else, but as long as there are people who will do the dirty work what else is there to be said. The only thing I find unacceptable is that black river that looks tar pit like. Where human beings have a choice to say no mother nature cant defend herself its up to us to protect her and that black river is unacceptable. Another problem is that many of the Chinese people are lazy or don't do a damn thing because they fear the government. I live in Canada and when my the area around where I lived started to see trash being thrown around everywhere I made my voice heard and the careless tossing of trash out car windows stopped. I hit City Hall, news stations and since then the streets are clean. I guess some people opened their eyes and their hearts. But that lady just casually biking over the black river, does she even care?

@ yougottabekidding I agree 100% its not the technology the but recycling process or lack there of. China has a lot of problems and this is just one. It's not the fault of the common people but the dirty nasty fucking inbred swine running the government. The Olympics should have NEVER been in China. A country with an ancient and wonderful history has become nothing more and industrial barbarians. Until China cleans up its act I will NEVER go to China, which is really rather sad.

Daimyo Nintendo

@lulu321:

as a poster above said, China is also to blame for this. But some people really like to 'blame whitey'

Spaceboy

yea china is probably the most ridiculous country when it comes to industrial waste. i remember reading something in the economist a few years back saying that they report around 100000 cases of stomach and liver cancer due to the heavily polluted water that the non-urban population relies on. they really have no souls over there. even if it's not eco-friendly. those are their own people their are killing. f*cking retards. so yeah, china is modernizing, wowee, but they do this by paying attentnion to maximizing profits with their own frickin people bein regarded as expendable. un-frickin-believable. 2/3 of a population being considered expendable in the world's most populated area is , idunno i best stop ranting cuz some readers just laugh at this stuff anyways, sigh.

dedalus987

The Western countries blame China for manufacturing and exporting lead toys while they are shipping e-waste to China to poison Chinese children.
How ironic.

lulu321

@Johnny.Shitbox: well is more like blame capitalism for producing such a high levels of waste and also, corrupted legislative and policy making politicians (including the usa one) for allowing companies to do it.

dysthymia

It sounds to me like this has nothing to do with the technology being the problem that is causing the pollution or heavy metal poisoning, but rather the methods by which China (and other nations) go through in actually recycling that material and disposing of the 'unusable' waste in a responsible intelligent manner. Technology recycling can in fact be far more profitable than mining operations, and in many cases, less destructive to the environment if properly handled. For as long as mankind has existed there has been trash and waste, and there always will be. We just need to come up with better, safer ways of recycling it, and not have children picking apart junk with a screwdriver.

yougottabekidding

Now I understand all the incidents of kidsd toys painted with lead paint - they're just sending us back some of our own!

On the upside for China, the mental deficiencies caused by the lead poisoning will probably lessen the amount of stret protests in the future.

Oh, and one more thing: the abbreviation for THEY ARE is THEY'RE NOT THEIR or THERE!

Skeptical_Geezer

why the hell are they extracting metal from circuit boards...
at least when our coal miners get black lung it was worth it... cuz we get good quality steel and shit and they don't want to pay for good quality so this is what they get.

Hypenotist

In related news coal dust is good for U.S.A. kids lungs and shit.

Hypenotist

@Aleung: Negative Ghostrider - Capitalism does a hell of a lot better cleaning up after itself. FAR from perfect but a 100X better than this. This is the downside of communism, pure and simple. This is why communism only works on paper. The people at the top always get rich and the ones at the bottom always suffer. Same thing happened in Russia.

dzazter

I saw a story on Current awhile back on this. It's really sad.

chasema

@Skeptical_Geezer: GOMDL!!!

newgalactic

Population control?

;-)

CODIFEROUS

over half the products we buy come from china. so in reality, this is more than likely partially your junk too.

anyway, do you guys read vice magazine?
they did an amazing spread on this about two months back.

s.ape.esquire

SwampApe

this was featured in National Geographic not too long ago. Africa has similar problems in this regard. Check it out if you want, January 08 issue.

B.Zanetti

Here's the link to the vice article:
[www.viceland.com]
pretty amazing.

vancurenw

if anyone is truly concerned and wants to know more... check out edward burtinsky's (sp?) "manufactured landscapes" book AND dvd. i know i'm advertising here, but he is one of my top favorite photographers, and his books are amazing. he favors taking photos of china and all of it's waste and residual round-up of technology. check out his dvd!!!

devianaut

@Giz Thanks for the article, and wow.. What interesting photos, especially the link.

I am amazed by these Hard working people. These people that, even in such harsh conditions etch out a living. Some of the conditions were pretty rough looking. I am truly impressed.
Especially by the Eight year old mechanics. These are truly going to be some tough ass adults, the ones who grow up.

-Core-

Somehow I can't get beyond the tragic irony of this being posted on a website who's slogan is "So much in love with shiny new toys, it's unnatural."

Gizmodo, thanks for putting it up, but I'd love to know that a major blogger of new technology, you might take steps to make this problem better somehow.

patela

Interesting article. There is, however, nothing suprizing here. Even science supports this kind of thing. Overpopulation, Over-extended resources, poor choices learned from poor parents (not monetarily). These things lead to natural selection. We think we as a species are above such lowly things. In fact, we only suppress it, but it's like steam.....we don't want to deal with it, so we trap it.....pen it up, let it gather and fester, let it whisper quietly to it's self until the revolution is fully ripe...then ka-BLAM-o

Just a matter of time...but then, is that such a bad thing? Not just the Chinese, or any others.....the species. Could use a little chlorine in the biosphere swimming center.

odiekokee

I was shocked and dazed for about 4 mins in front of my laptop after seeing these terrible pics...I am a partly white-washed Chinese who spend most of time in NA. So I didn't really get to know my home country well. Needless to say, chinese gonverment don't give a shit them and their craving for money made it that way...When they need money to live, less choices were left for them but to take on those dirty jobs...Not only should every one of us see this, but chinese government as well...

adoreabor

@scarbrtj: Pencils are graphite now not lead

DozeUser

@pipper: I agree totally man and good post all of those trying to make this a laughing matter go and do this job themselves

DozeUser

Dear The People of China,

The Party invites you to join the party in Guiyu, China! ...Where the water is undrinkable and the children have lead poisoning levels of 69%...

Sincerely,
The People's Republic of China

--

Dear The People's Republic of China,

Thanks!

Sincerely,
The People of China

P.S. Beijing Olympics here we come!

pbaughman

The problem, it would appear, is disposal of perfectly functioning though outdated electronics.

Brillemeister

I feel sorry for the poor people given the task of handling all this e-waste. Perhaps this should be a lesson for electronics manufacturers: stop producing such cheap and flimsy devices. Back in the days when most electronics were manufactured in Japan, you'd have appliances working for 20+ years. Nowadays, you're lucky to get 2-3 years from a device made in China. And when you take it to a repairer, they just tell you "it's cheaper to buy a new one than to get this one repaired", resulting in unnecessarily rapid turnover of electrical devices. That's what's causing this e-waste problem.

B