Electronic garbage from overseas becoming serious problem for China
Shanghai. (Interfax-China) - The Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau has announced the discovery of the most serious attempt to ship electronic garbage into China from a foreign country.
The Shanghai bureau found three containers of electronic garbage shipped from Italy, with a total weight of 50 tons. The containers were full of scrap telephone sets and circuit boards, as well as batteries. For the most part, electronic garbage from overseas currently enters China in one of two ways, Lai Yun, an official with Greenpeace (China) told Interfax. First, a number of Chinese enterprises buy recyclable waste from overseas, which is then shipped to China for processing. Electronic garbage that cannot be recycled is often included in these shipments. Second, electronic waste is also smuggled into China for dumping.
"For the past few years, there has been an increasing amount of overseas electronics garbage shipped to China," an official with the Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, who wished to remain anonymous, told Interfax in an interview. "Some foreign enterprises will pack electronics garbage with recyclable products and then ship them to China, which makes it difficult for us to distinguish between what is recyclable material and garbage. And in my personal opinion, there are probably still electronics garbage being smuggled into China." Once discovered, electronics garbage is returned to their country of origin.
Some domestic cities are gradually becoming prominent destinations for overseas electronics garbage, among which are Taizhou in Zhejiang Province and Guiyu in Guangdong Province, according to Greenpeace (China). Taizhou has become a destination for electronics garbage from Japan and South Korea, while Guiyu has become largely a destination for garbage from North America. After the electronics waste has been dumped, local citizens in these cities often dismantle or burn the electronics garbage in order to obtain valuable metals used in the production of the products.
"The methods the people use to get at these metals is very primitive," Lai said. "This process is dangerous for the people involved and it also damages the local environment." The dismantling and burning of the electronics garbage can expose people to dangerous levels of harmful substances such as lead, cadmium, and mercury.
The problem of electronics garbage does not only involve overseas garbage. China is also now producing ever larger amounts of electronics garbage. "We are seeing a peak amount of domestically produced electronic garbage in China," Lai said. "These products are also often disposed of improperly."
A symposium was recently held in Beijing to discuss the problems of electronics garbage. The main problem with the disposal of electronics garbage is who should bear responsibility for the task, Lai explained. Furthermore, technology for recycling electronics waste is also underdeveloped. Lai further noted that domestic Chinese electronics manufactures have shown no interest in this issue, while many multinationals have been very receptive to dealing with the problem.
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