Toxic Waste and Poverty

Paper Summary:

The paper explains that the technology boom produces vast amounts of waste, especially when manufacturers purposefully incorporate obsolescence into their products. The paper relates that wealthy nations are able to pay to ship their toxic waste to poorer nations, causing them to choose between poverty and poison. The paper contends that to deal with this issue, the developed world needs to provide more technical assistance to developing communities that are processing e-waste in order to make the recycling and disposal process less dangerous for workers and for the environment.

Outline:
Introduction: What Is E-Waste?
Toxic Electronics and Their Environmental Impact
Making a Living from Toxic Waste in the Third World
Conclusion: The Terrible Choice between Poverty and Poison

From the Paper:

"Unfortunately, we rarely think that there is any association between toxic waste contamination and poverty. There is, however, a direct correlation between the level of affluence of a nation and its willingness to accept toxic waste from other nations. In some respects, wealthy nations are simply able to pay to ship their problems to other, poorer nations. Those poorer nations have less economic recourse to deal with the toxic waste with the end result being the pollution of the health of the environment and the people with toxic waste. In many parts of the Third World, such as nations in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, communities have been forced to choose "between poverty or poison" (Great e-waste, 2002). This is a choice that highlights the relationship between poverty and toxic waste."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Great e-waste recycling debate, the. (2002). Vital Waste Graphics. United Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved November 13, 2007, from http://www.vitalgraphics.net/waste/html_file/36-37_ewaste.html
• Munn, A. (n.d.). E-waste crisis. Computer Industry Impacts on the Environment and Society. Retrieved November 13, 2007, from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/section002group3/e-waste
• Lee, S. (2002, May 12). Ghosts in the machines. Basel Action Network. Retrieved November 13, 2007, from http://www.ban.org/Library/ghosts_in.html
• Puckett, J., Byster, L., Westervelt, S., Gutierrez, R., Davis, S., Hussain, A., and Dutta, M. (2002, February 25). Exporting harm: the high-tech trashing of Asia. The Basel Action Network. Retrieved November 13, 2007, from http://www.crra.com/ewaste/ttrash2/ttrash2/
• Steiner, A. (2006, November 7). E-Waste & Cote D'Ivoire Crisis. Speech presented to the Opening of the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention.

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• Persuasive Essay # 145147 : "Toxic Chemicals and Hazardous Wastes"

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