The "e-waste trade" was mis-characterized from 2000-2010. While about 15-30% of exports were scrapped, the scrap was not particularly dangerous (not found to cause the water pollution in Guiyu, and most lead poisoning comes from burning heavy insulated electric cable, not lead solder or CRT glass). There was a lot of fodder to write about, in a debate whether the export glass was 80% empty or 80% full.
There is a change I can report on, from my trip to South America.
During most of the past decade, the USA, Europe and Japan represented "the only game in town" for large scale refurbishing factories. Contract manufacturers (takeback) operated 3-shifts per day, refurbishing and upgrading white-box computers and displays for "good enough" markets in India and China. They depended on wealthy nations with 10 years of surplus in order to operate at scale and meet demand, just as they had depended on those nations as consumers for their scale of manufacturing in the 1990s.
When California took itself off the market, it had supply-demand effects on NJ and VT, because there were only so many places a buyer could go for the supply. Forced to buy from less reputable suppliers (as during any prohibition), quality of imports actually suffered due to the West's anti-export campaign.
During that period, China and India did indeed have their own e-waste and surplus, but it wasn't enough to actually export out of country. What was generated domestically was used or recycled or disposed of domestically, in Dharvi or Guiyu.
That last part is changing. We are not the only game in town. My trip to South America really brought the changes home.
There is a change I can report on, from my trip to South America.
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| da pond ain't so small, eh? |
When California took itself off the market, it had supply-demand effects on NJ and VT, because there were only so many places a buyer could go for the supply. Forced to buy from less reputable suppliers (as during any prohibition), quality of imports actually suffered due to the West's anti-export campaign.
During that period, China and India did indeed have their own e-waste and surplus, but it wasn't enough to actually export out of country. What was generated domestically was used or recycled or disposed of domestically, in Dharvi or Guiyu.
That last part is changing. We are not the only game in town. My trip to South America really brought the changes home.
