The Plight of Electronics Refurbishers in India
In 2009, SVTC traveled to India to work with Chintan, a group in Delhi working on the electronic waste (e-waste) issue. Together we produced the film, Citizens at Risk. In the following blog series we will be updating you on the progress of the work to work with informal recyclers to improve working conditions and …
#10 – SVTC’s Top Ten: Why Solar Companies Must Take Back & Responsibly Recycle
#10 – Irresponsible companies shouldn’t get a free ride Without mandatory laws for recycling, the companies that invest in recycling will give a “free ride” to those companies that do not set up programs. Companies lacking a takeback and recycling program will have an economic advantage since their costs will not reflect the true cost of doing …
60 Minutes Segment
Last night’s CBS 60 Minutes segment was about electronic waste in China. They showed a film crew attacked by gangsters in Guiyu, China and reporter Scott Pelley incredulously referred to the village – a hub for illegal e-waste recycling – as “the most toxic place on earth.” The 60 Minutes crew captured scenes of women …
Response to the GAO Report
Groups have been reporting for years that electronic waste has been exported out of the United States and dumped in other countries. SVTC’s recent investigation is just one more piece of evidence. But probably one of the most damning pieces of evidence came out today with the report released by the U.S’s General Accounting Office …
Giving hope, Investing in the People
Yesterday we spent the day touring some of the locations where Chintan is doing on-the-ground work with waste pickers. The images of absolute poverty stay with me even when I close my eyes, but at least someone is really doing something about it. We first went with a man who goes to pick up waste …
Mechanized E-Waste Recycling is Not the Answer
Each time we visited a recycler in one of the neglected Delhi neighborhoods Chintan Organizer, Binod, was greeted with warm hugs and news about weddings, births and other family matters before settling down to chat about their recycling business. This trust between the Chintan staff and the informal recyclers living and working in cramped nooks …
This is India…
We landed in Bangalore today – considered to be the Silicon Valley of India. There were no huge skyscrapers with names of electronics corporations like in Hong Kong – but this is India. We traveled with two members of the Chintan staff as well as a recycler they have been working with. Our first meeting …
They are the Working Poor
This area was full of people working and using their creativity and hurting their bodies in the process to make a living. They are the working poor.