TMW Ideas

Slashdot have a link to an excellent photo essay on recycling used computers in China.

It's fairly low on facts but the contrast between the relative richness in metals of the waste (e-waste is 17 times richer in gold than gold ore) and the absolute poverty of the people doing the work (average salary USD 2-4 per day) is astonishing. Most worrying are the environmental impact of the extraction process by-products and the health of the workers. Given the peak in demand (and price) of most metals markets over the last few years you might anticipate that this industry would have matured into something a bit more high tech than someone cooking a circuit board on a hot plate and collecting the runoff for resale.