電子毒垃圾肆虐非洲

電腦已成為我們工作和日常生活不可缺少的重要組成部分。社會經濟發展一日千里，電腦更新換代之高速也是前所未有的。

然而在這場科技大潮中，發展中國家成為了西方發達國家快速發展的犧牲品——為了繞開高成本的電子產品回收方式，西方國家干脆打著“技術支援”的幌子，甚至置國際慣例于不顧，明目張膽地往發展中國家出口廢棄的電子產品。這就是本期新聞的話題：來勢洶洶的“電子垃圾”。

Thousands of 1)discarded computers from Western Europe and the US arrive in the ports of West Africa every day， ending up in massive 2)toxic dumps where children burn and pull them apart to extract metals for cash.

The dumping of the developed world’s electronic trash， or e-waste， is in direct 3)contravention of international legislation and is causing serious health pro-blems for inhabitants of the 4)shanty towns that have sprung up amid the smouldering dumps in 5)Lagos and 6)Accra.

Campaigners believe 7)unscrupulous scrap merchants are illegally dumping millions of tonnes of dangerous waste on the developing world 8)under the guise of exporting it for use in schools and hospitals. They are calling for better policing of the ban on exports of e-waste， which can release lead， 9)mercury and other dangerous chemicals.

“10)Ghana is increasingly becoming a 11)dumping ground for waste from Europe and the US，” according to Mike Anane， director of the League of Environmental Journalists in Ghana. “The people that 12)break open these monitors tell me that they suffer from nausea， headaches and 13)respiratory problems.”

More than half a million computers arrive in Lagos every month but only about one in four works. The rest are sold as scrap， smashed up and burned.

Millions of tons of e-waste disappears from the developed world every year and continues to reappear in developing countries， despite international bans.

14)Lucrative

The illegal trade in e-waste is highly lucrative. It is possible to extract more gold out of a tonne of electronic circuitry than from a tonne of gold-bearing rock. But illegal dumping is putting risk at charities and other organisations that donate second-hand equipment to the developing world.

Since the introduction of the Basle Ban outlawing the export of 15)hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries in 1992， computers have become an everyday item. Consumers and businesses are replacing their kit at an ever increasing rate，

creating a new waste mountain.

Six years ago the EU produced the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)

16)directive， which introduced new curbs and restrictions on the movement of e-waste. The directive heavily regulates the movement of e-waste for recycling and bans its export for disposal. It also introduced a scheme under which the cost of properly disposing of electronic equipment put on the market after August 2005 must be picked up by the producers of the waste-manufacturers， retailers and importers.

But DanWatch， a partner organisation of Consumers International， has evidence that computer equipment from British companies and even local authorities is being dumped in west Africa.

“We filmed children as young as six searching for metal scraps in the earth， which was littered with the toxic waste from thousands of shattered

17)cathode ray tubes，” said Benjamin Holst， co-founder of DanWatch. “A whole community is virtually living and working in this highly toxic environment， which is growing every day.”

Unscrupulous

Without this cash there is little incentive for developing nations to start investing in proper recycling facilities. As a result the e-waste problem is likely to grow， not because of unscrupulous European exporters but because of the increasing number of computers being sold in the developing world.

When you look at the whole product lifetime of a computer， 75% of the environmental damage is done before the computer is switched on for the first time. It is the production， the mining， the factories producing the kit and the use of toxic materials—that is where the environmental damage is done. So if we do not make the producer responsible for dealing with these environmental issues we are never going to get a redesign of compu-ters; we are never going to get computers that are produced in a more environmentally friendly way.

It is a call taken up by Martin Hojsík， toxics campaigner at Greenpeace International. “We want the producers to be responsible for the take-back of their kit，” he said.

The hope is that the sheer expense of making producers pay for the disposal of their computer equipment wherever it is sold or used across the world， will spur the industry towards making “greener” machines.

To bring a quick end to the spectacle of children 18)scrabbling around in toxic waste dumps in Africa， Europe’s regulators and more importantly its consumers and businesses need to take responsibility for disposing of their computer equipment.

每天，來自西歐和美國的成千上萬的廢棄電腦匯集到西非國家的港口，堆積成“毒山”，孩子們把這些電腦燒毀拆分，拿其中的金屬部分去換錢。

發達國家大肆傾倒電子垃圾直接違反了有關國際條例，也對當地居民的健康狀況構成嚴重威脅，在尼日利亞首都拉各斯和加納首都阿克拉，簡陋的小屋如雨后春筍般從如山的電子垃圾堆中涌現。

有關抗議者認為，不法廢品商人打著出口供學校及醫院使用的電腦之旗號，堂而皇之地把成百萬噸有毒垃圾傾泄到發展中國家來。這些電子垃圾會釋放鉛、水銀及其他危險化學物質，有關人士呼吁加大對禁止出口電子垃圾的監管力度。

“加納已日漸成為歐洲和美國的電子廢物傾銷場，”加納環境新聞記者聯盟負責人邁克爾#8226;安納內如是說，“拆解電腦顯示器的人告訴我說，他們出現惡心、頭痛和呼吸系統疾病等癥狀?！?/p>

每個月進入拉各斯的電腦超過五十萬部，但僅有四分之一左右依然能使用，其余的都被當廢品賣掉，砸碎和焚毀?！?br>