FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2003
Is China a trash bin for PCs?
AFP
BEIJING: Most of the world's electronic trash - especially old PCs - is dumped in China, causing severe environmental problems and illnesses among residents, a state media report said Monday.
About 80 per cent of the world's electronic rubbish is imported to Asia every year, 90 per cent of which ends up in China , the Xinhua news agency said.
Originally, only south China 's Guangdong province was seriously threatened by imported electronic trash, but now dozens of the country's provinces and municipalities are affected.
The large amount of trash dumped in Chinese cities has created serious health hazards for residents, environmental activists warned.
Lai Yun, a leading environmentalist in China , who visited Guiyu town in Guangdong province 10 times last year, said about 80 per cent of local children, as well as some local migrant workers, suffered respiratory diseases and skin diseases, due to pollution from electronic trash.
Some developed countries still allow the export of electronic trash, leading to little effort by computer manufacturers and others to try to retrieve used computers. Signs the problem could be curbed have emerged, however.
The EU has drafted laws to require its computer producers to take the retrieval of used computers into consideration when estimating production costs.
China is also preparing to draft laws to regulate the country's electronic rubbish retrieval and recycling system to make clear that it is the computer producer's duty to retrieve and deal with used products.
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