Technology Context B101 “Made in Taiwan. Buried in China”. Daniel Pilch

Sustainable development “Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future generations”. For the scheme of Sustainable development to work there are three main parts to take into account. These are: society, environment and economics. Each part has to be equal for things to work. What is Sustainable development? Fig 1: Sustainable Development Scheme

“Every year, the United States sends millions of tons of electrical waste to Third World countries”. “In 1998, seven million tons of high-tech refuse – nicknamed - e-waste - was produced by the United States alone”. “Landfill costs and competitive prices from developing countries make it cheaper to send U.S. waste abroad than to keep it at home despite ethical obligations to manage the waste at home”. Electrical goods recycling

Sending electrical waste offshore to developing countries produces jobs for the citizens however many electrical products have harmful chemicals and or materials in them. A standard CRT monitor gives out has a whole list of hazardous chemicals. These include: Lead – Causes damage to neural and reproductive systems in adults Phosphorous – Blood Calcium content decrease and Osteoporosis Cadmium – Kidney and skeletal damage Barium – causes weakness, and cardiac irregularities when inhaled Brominated Flame Retardants – affects the thyroid and sex hormone secretion Mercury – causes liver and neural system damage PVC – releases carcinogenic substances when burned

Waste prevention As the USA sends over 80% of its waste to china to be recycled to cut corners. Not all of the “e-waste” is recycled. The recycling is not regulated and parts of products such as CRT glass screens are found to not be recycled but instead smashed up and in some cases thrown into a nearby river. An example of this is in one of the largest recycling or circuit board cooking states in China; Taizhou, a city in Zhejiang Province. “Since late 1980s, Taizhou has been a recycling hub for e-waste with over 140,000 workers. Unfortunately, the poor working condition and backward methods only allow primitive recycling processes like open burning and physical dismantling of e-waste, and extraction of metals by making use of concentrated acids. As a result, the release of toxic pollutants have directly contaminated the soil, air, water, and of course, the workers themselves”. Hands contaminated with transformer oil

EUROPEAN LEGISLATION The United States is the only developed country in the world that does not conform to the Basel Convention. “The Basel convention international treaty was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries (LDCs)”. Most of Europe conforms to the Basel Convention as well as the WEEE directive and RoHS. -“The Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) requires manufacturers to pay for the disposal of their own obsolete products”. -RoHS; This directive restricts the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of various types of electronic and electrical equipment. (Lead, Mercury and Cadmium to name just a few).

Conclusions For the USA to be morally and ethically correct they need to take on board the directives that Europe has put in place for waste management. This will limit the amount of jobs people can get in China but it will not put them at risk of hazardous chemicals. The USA are only looking at the present and not the future which goes completely against the values of sustainable development.

References (Citing) Aleks Krotoski(24/2/2005) Made in Taiwan. Buried in China – Retrieved 30 th November 2009, from the Technology review website Author, Peter Essick(19/11/2006) Circuit boards imported to China for recycling – Retrieved from Author, n.a.(10/12/2009) Sustainable Development – Retrieved from Author, Johann Dréo(21/01/2007)Sustainable Development scheme - Retrieved from upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Sustainable_development.svg/500px- Sustainable_development.svg.png Author, Peter Essick(19/11/2007) Scrap metal loaded onto trucks at Taizhou city port – Retrieved from Author, CIES, HKBU(10/12/2008) Impact of transistor oil on workers hands - Retrieved from Author Janet Chan Kit-Yan(11/01/2008) E-waste Transfer Poisoning our Environment – Retrieved from

Referencing (Citing) continued Author, n.a. (n.d.) The Basel Convention – Retrieved from Author, n.a. (n.d.) The WEEE directive – Retrieved from Author, n.a. (31/04/2001) An EU flag – Retrieved from Author CIES, HKBU(19/12/2007) Possible effects of chemicals in a CRT TV set – Retrieved from