It is reported that some developed countries have shipped broken parts of computers to China. A few years ago, 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. Every time an old computer breaks down, it needs to be dealt with safely. What is worse, at present, broken computer parts are usually buried. 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 1.5 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. An environmental group has found the air, the earth and the rivers in Guiyu badly polluted.
Luckily, the Chinese government wants to change the situation. China passed a new environmental protection law. Computer companies like Lenovo and Dell will be asked to take back their old computers. Hopefully, the problem with e-waste will be solved in the near future.
