So, after its toxic trip around the globe, it lands in my hands. I love it for a year or so and then it starts drifting further from its place of honor on my desk or in my pocket. Maybe it spends a little time in my garage before being tossed out. And that brings us to disposal, which we think of as the end of its life. But really it’s just moved on to become part of the mountains of e-waste we make every year.

 

 

 

Remember how these devices were packed with toxic chemicals? Well, there’s a simple rule of production: toxics in, toxics out! Computers, cell phones, TVs, all this stuff is just waiting to release all their toxics when we throw them away. Some of them are slowly releasing this stuff even while we’re using them.

 

 

 

You know those fat old TVs that people are chucking for high-def flat screens? They each have about five pounds of lead in them. Lead as in lead poisoning.

 

 

 

So, almost all of this e-waste either goes from my garage to a landfill or get shipped overseas to the garage workshop of some guys in Guiyu, China whose job is to recycle it.

 

 

 

I’ve visited a bunch of these so-called recycling operations. Workers, without protective gear, sit on the ground, smashing open electronics to recover the valuable metals inside and chucking or burning the parts no one will pay them for. So, while I’m on to my next gadget, my last gadget is off poisoning families in Guiyu or India or Nigeria.

 

 

 

Each year, we make 25 million tons of e-waste which gets dumped, burned or recycled. And most recycling is anything but green. So, are the geniuses who design these electronics actually evil geniuses? I don’t think so! Because the problems they’re creating are well hidden even from them.

 

 

 

You see the companies they work for keep these human and environmental costs out of sight and off their accounting books. It’s all about externalizing the truth costs of production.

 

 

 

Instead of companies paying to make their facilities safe, the workers pay with their health. Instead of them paying to redesign using fewer toxics, villagers pay by losing their clean drinking water.

 

 

 

Externalizing costs allow companies to keep designing for the dump. They get the profits and everyone else pays. When we go along with it, it’s like we’re looking at this toxic mess and saying to companies “you made it, but we’ll deal with it.” I’ve got a better idea. How about “you made it, you deal with it?” Doesn’t that make more sense?