It is reported that some developed countries have shipped broken parts of computers to China. Such a thing can be found almost every day although it is against international laws. Last month Hong Kong officers found 131,000 kilograms of broken computers, TVs and phones sent from Japan.
Things like these are called electronic waste, or e-waste. Dealing with them is not an easy job because dangerous poisons like mercury (汞) and lead (铅) can be round in them. Every time an old computer breaks down, it needs to be dealt with safely. But at present, broken computer parts are usuallyburied. It may be hundreds of years before they are really gone in the earth.
Many places in China are polluted by e-waste. Guiyu in Guangdong Province is one of them. This town is named as "the e-waste capital of the world". It has to deal with l.5 million kilograms of e-waste each year, from which it makes 75 million yuan. But it comes at a cost. Many of the poisons in e-waste find their way into the environment. Plastic is burned outdoors and chemical water is poured into rivers. Greenpeace, an environmental group, has found the air, the earth and the rivers in Guiyu badly polluted.
The Chinese government wants the country to develop, but in a way that doesn't do harm to the environment and people's life. This year, China passed a new environmental protection law, the strictest one we have ever had. Computer companies like Lenovo and Dell will be asked to take back their old computers. This is because the companies that make computers know best how to deal with them safely. Hopefully, the problem with e-waste will be solved in the near future.
