Recycling: Global Scrap

It seems the global demand for recycled products is shifting...downwards.

Things once bound for export and re-use are heading to landfills.
Prices for recyclables are down. Good for buying. But what if there is no customer?
China seems to be refusing international waste shipments. Chinese companies making products out of recyclables seem to enjoy the price drops, but are having a harder time finding domestic suppliers. Chinese retail recyclers are seeing their deposit rates fall as people elect to repair and patch broken items once bound for the recyclers.

ANECDOTE: Yesterday, I went to visit the woman (and her small child) who perch outside my complex collecting recycling. This is the woman who had no idea how to recycle old clothes. She knew exactly what to do with the overflowing bag of Qing Dao beer bottles.

10 Bottles.
Original price each (with beer): 4rmb
Cost recovery per bottle: .2rmb
Actual beer cost: 3.8rmb
Actual total cost recovery: 2rmb (used for 2 one-way bus fares)


I think I had a dream last night about our throw-away society.

I thought about the average amount of stuff we have as compared to my grandma's generation that grew up during the Depression. My grandma had ONE DRESS that she wore for 20 years. My grandma saved every scrap of fabric and spread every last bit of butter off the wrapping. She made food at home rather than go out.

On the New Hard Times: A NYT video of a13 yo Oak Park, IL kid interviewing his 78 yo grandma, reflecting on the Depression, then and now.

I blame Old Navy. Over the last 10 years, Americans (and indeed citizens of the world) have come to expect their clothes to last for a year. They buy dozens of cheaply produced t-shirts knowing they are quickly bound for the trash heap as soon as the Fashion changes or the bad quality starts to show. At the second hand market here in Kunming, I found vintage clothes, but nothing truly well-preserved. The days of good quality for the masses might be gone.



But the same thing is happening in electronics. The race to get the best fanciest newest fangled devices is making quite a global mess, spreading the "e-waste" to distant corners of the world to be disassembled by desperate people looking to make some cash at the expense of their health.

From Time Magazine:

A lot of exported e-waste ends up in Guiyu, China, a recycling hub where peasants heat circuit boards over coal fires to recover lead, while others use acid to burn off bits of gold. According to reports from nearby Shantou University, Guiyu has the highest level of cancer-causing dioxins in the world and elevated rates of miscarriages. "You see women sitting by the fireplace burning laptop adapters, with rivers of ash pouring out of houses," says Jim Puckett, founder of Basel Action Network (BAN), an e-waste watchdog. "We're dumping on the rest of the world."

A 13-photo slideshow of Guiyu, a poisoned village working for that money, as seen above.

The city of Guiyu is home to 5,500 businesses devoted to processing discarded electronics, known as e-waste. According to local websites, the region dismantles 1.5 million pounds of junked computers, cell phones and other devices a year.

Guiyu — and places like it in India and Africa — fluorish because it is far cheaper to break down e-waste there than it is in the developing world, where companies must follow strict guidelines.

According to Guiyu's own website, the e-waste business generates $75 million a year for the town.

If the above figures are to be trusted, each family averages over $13,000 US dollars a year for their part in recycling our e-waste. I wonder... If there was a health care system that was responsive to the massive environmental degradation and human health consequences, would the benefits still outweigh the costs? Would there be a role for government safety regulation? Or are we destined to have a permenment eco-underclass of people destined to remain well-paid, but suffer sickness and early death? Are we satisfied now with our new Blackberry?

Speaking of gross, excess consumption...!


Cans Seurat, 2007
60x92"

Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds.

I recently came across the work of Chris Jordan. His photographs depict volumes of things: incarcerated prisoners in the US, jet trails, oil barrels... He is trying to put massive quantities in visual scale. This one is particularly clever, but they are all impressive and worth looking at. Each photo has detail pictures so you can see how insane these numbers look when given a physical presence.