China used to be one of the world’s premier dumping grounds for electronic waste, but that ended last year when the government banned such imports—yes, there are valuable materials that can be recovered from old computers and phones, but there’s a lot of poisonous stuff in there too, and people involved in the recycling industry were suffering chronic health problems. So now it’s Thailand’s turn. As detailed in a new Reuters report, the authorities there are now battling illegal imports of discarded electronics, by companies that have no license to bring them in. Electronic waste processing can harm people’s health by bringing them into direct contact with materials such as lead and cadmium, and by exposing them to toxic fumes. Credit: Seeker+Sci
