E-waste imports overwhelm Thailand processing infrastructure
Wednesday, July 11, 2018 - 09:36:26
Tens of thousands of tonnes of electronic waste is being shipped to Thailand and dumped there illegally as a result of China’s recent outlawing of this practice on its own shores.
Sky News reports that e-waste from many western nations, including the UK, has allegedly ended up in Thailand as part of what effectively amount to smuggling operations.
Everything from old mobile phones to outdated computer monitors can be found in huge piles in certain parts of the country, with unlicensed dealers taking an off-the-books approach to processing it, away from the official recycling infrastructure.
In the worst case, the old gadgets are simply set alight and allowed to burn out. More advanced techniques see the valuable minerals they contain stripped away, while the useless plastic components are then discarded, creating an environmental hazard on a huge scale.
Each year almost 45 million tonnes of e-waste is created globally, of which about three quarters ends up off the grid, whether via illegal trading or unwarranted dumping.
Experts are concerned about the extent of this problem, but also fear that many people in developed countries who think they are doing their bit by recycling their unwanted devices are actually being misled.
The best solution is to sell an old mobile phone to a reputable recycling company which will either refurbish it for resale, or alternatively dismantle it and process the materials it contains in a way that does not pose a threat to the environment, or to any Asian nations like Thailand, where such waste can end up.
2018 has seen a lot of attention drawn to the issue of single use plastics, but the e-waste problem is still something which needs to be prioritised, both by right-minded consumers and also by governments around the world.
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