ADChina_04_2_004967
In Chaoyang county in southern Guangdong province - China's richest - whole farming families have turned into scavengers over the last decade for extra cash...For years, so called "e-waste" from richer countries has found its way to China, where armies of rural poor rummage through computer monitors, central processing units, printers, toner cartridges and other high-tech trash to sell what they can to recyclers. ..Plastics, metals and other recyclable materials lay in heaps everywhere, waiting to be trucked to smelters...Electronic waste can contain 1,000 different substances including lead, cadmium, chromium and mercury - heavy metals which are highly toxic...Unwanted electronic junk is seen in open rice fields everywhere, on riverbanks and in ponds, and some families in the area have stopped drinking well water because it has taken on a yellow hue...In April 2000, China specifically outlawed e-waste importation. But occasional crackdowns have done little to curtail recycling, which thrives on corruption and strong market demand...
