International perspectives and issues in contemporary society

International Perspectives and Issues

The article, "China's Computer Wasteland" by Benjamin Joffe-Walt, published in 2005 is an illustration of how developing countries assume an unfair share of the costs of globalization.

China produces computers for export mostly to more developed Western countries. After they are ready to be recycled, China gets billions of them back. Joffe-Walts describes a situation where e-waste sweatshops have "made poor mainland farming regions an ecological disaster area."

Sweatshops exact their toll mostly on poor immigrants who have to work in them. The average salary for sweatshop work is only $3 to $4 per day for men and about half that for women. This is a low amount for a job that requires breathing in toxins from burning rubbish which causes pulmonary problems, heart attacks and other diseases. The workers are not necessarily "free" to make the decision to not work in the sweatshops because jobs are scarce and the work is the only way the immigrant workers can support their families. Many fear retaliation if they speak out.

Joffe-Walt argues that China's e-waste crisis is due in part to its unequal development within the country. Globalization is supposed to lift countries out of poverty, but in China its has only increased the divide between the urban middle class the rural poor. E-waste recycling, like some many other business ventures, is just another example of a few getting rich off of the poor masses.

The author wants to see the practice of e-waste sweatshops in China end. He believes that the solution is to have developed countries take responsibility for their own waste rather than exporting the problem and to require manufactureers to discontinue using hazardous materials in their products.

The article "China's E-Waste Problem: Facing Up to the Challenge" written by Yingling Liu in 2006 is a great supplement to the article, "China's Computer Wasteland" written by Benjamin Joffe-Walt. In particular, it states that Joffe-Walt's proposal of having developed countries take responsibility for their own waste to solve China's e-waste problems won't necessarily work.

Liu explains that China banned the import of e-waste way back in 2000. Thus, the continued import of e-waste is from black market trade fueled by China's abundant, cheap, and skilled labor force. The e-waste is shipped to Hong Kong that then smuggled into China where local authorities are willing to look the other way because it is such a hugely profitable business.