High-Tech Trash article

What should we do with our old technology, our e-waste? We should learn how to recycle it in the United States but we don’t. It is expensive to recycle and get rid of. Instead it is shipped to poor countries where they can take it apart and sell the valuable materials at a risk of being poisoned from the chemicals. Is this the right thing to do, they are poor and uneducated but they need the money?
In our country dumping of e-waste in landfills is not allowed because of the toxic chemicals put into the ground so it is shipped overseas as recycling. Poor countries burn our obsolete trash to sell the parts and take out valuable metals like gold and silver. Toxic chemicals are polluting the air with carcinogens and other toxins. Is it worth the money they get selling the parts? Even when we think we are recycling to good places it gets to brokers who ship overseas where environment control is bad. The Basel Ban forbids hazardous waste shipments to poor countries, but it is not enforced or even in effect. It is an illegal business overseas to pollute the air with e-waste but it is done anyway and the results show disease and disabilities are increasing. The toxins exist in the air and when its too much parts are then exported to another country so money is still being made. Even charities think they are helping poor countries like Ghana but they are helping to poison them. Some recycling has started in Tampa and Europe but it is very expensive.
Instead of exporting our electronic garbage to third world countries, we should try to lower the cost of recycling here in our country. It will take a lot of working together to make that happen. We as a society cannot close our eyes and think that we are helping poorer countries feed themselves and help their children’s lives by shipping our e-waste overseas. The truth is it is a hazard to their health and that is more important. Just like when we throw garbage out of our car, our car is clean but the environment is not. We know just what we did. Educating about the hazards and taking care of our own junk is a beginning to solve the problems.