Ewaste

I am utterly appalled at the facts concerning technological waste and how it is handled. Not only do Americans selfishly waste tons and tons of food and water, but we waste our little gadgets and toys, and then ship the broken poisonous parts over to the poor starving countries of the world. It is a difficult and pervasive problem because people are too stingy and too lazy to dispose of the ewaste properly. Even thought there are laws preventing imports of ewaste into certain countries there are still corrupted people in the corporations and in the government that allow these things to continue. I read an article on the Basel Action Network site and some guy said he went online and pretended he was a computer businessman trying to get rid of some old broken computers. He found two US based companies that said they could export the computers for him, into countries where it was illegal, but the men said they had connections and could get past customs. It just disgusts me. Ive never had to get rid of a cell phone or computer or tv before but when I finally do I know I am going to take the advice of the Salon article about recycling ewaste. There were a lot of questions to ask recyclers, but I think its entirely worth it. It is also entirely worth it to pay that money to the original manufacturers who offer to take your old electronics back and dispose of them for you. I know I will do that with my own things in the future. Before reading these articles though, I may have not even given throwing away my computer a second thought.