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Cleaning Up:  Be careful where you e-cycle...  |
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MsCwick
True Blue Farmgirl
775 Posts
Cristine
Farmville
Virginia
USA
775 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 13 2008 : 09:08:21 AM
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Pertaining to what people will do for money(man made diamonds post)
Here is another amazing and very sad tidbit of info...
Watch the clip from 60 minutes here... http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4586903n
American Toxic E-Waste Not Being Recycled Here But Instead Ending Up In China.
November 10th, 2008
My friend david from The Good Human sent me the link to the story, and I watched this on TV Sunday evening and it made me ill. Watching recycling companies send our toxic e-waste illegally to China and disposing it in one of the most toxic places on earth was heart-wrenching and shameful all at the same time. What is wrong with these people??
60 Minutes is going to take you to one of the most toxic places on Earth - a place government officials and gangsters don’t want you to see. It’s a town in China where you can’t breathe the air or drink the water, a town where the blood of the children is laced with lead.
It’s worth risking a visit because much of the poison is coming out of the homes, schools and offices of America. This is a story about recycling - about how your best intentions to be green can be channeled into an underground sewer that flows from the United States and into the wasteland.
Executive Recycling, of Englewood, Colo., which ran the Denver event, promised the public on its Web site: “Your e-waste is recycled properly, right here in the U.S. - not simply dumped on somebody else.”
Executive does recycling in-house, but 60 Minutes was curious about shipping containers that were leaving its Colorado yard. 60 Minutes found one container filled with monitors. They’re especially hazardous because each picture tube, called a cathode ray tube or CRT, contains several pounds of lead. It’s against U.S. law to ship them overseas without special permission. 60 Minutes took down the container’s number and followed it to Tacoma, Wash., where it was loaded on a ship. It turns out the container that started in Denver was just one of thousands of containers on an underground, often illegal smuggling route, taking America’s electronic trash to the Far East. |
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Contrary Wife
True Blue Farmgirl
2164 Posts
Teresa Sue
Tekoa
WA
USA
2164 Posts |
Posted - Nov 13 2008 : 6:58:25 PM
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This is disgusting. Where will the greed end? Knowledge like this really makes it hard not to be cynical. The people at Executive Recycling should have to live there, and the Chinese govt like usual, taking advantage of it's own citizens. Like so many governments, our own included.
Teresa Sue
Farmgirl Sister #316
MJ's Heirloom Mavens Badgebadger
MJ's Heirloom Mavens Bookclub Coordinator
"Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly." The Dalai Lama |
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Nance in France
True Blue Farmgirl
1438 Posts
Nancy
St. Laurent de la Salanque
France
1438 Posts |
Posted - Nov 14 2008 : 07:18:56 AM
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What a sad thread this is, and you are right. Where will the greed end? But it starts with individual greed, wanting the latest and greatest, so "we" ditch our slightly used/outdated computers/CD players/phones, etc. to keep up with the Joneses. I listened to a segment on NPR last fall about trinkets being made in China for the tourist trade......made out of the lead that comes out of these "not our problem anymore, let's send our trash overseas" discarded PCs. The sellers were interviewed and their view was that the tourists don't ask any questions, so everybody is happy!! Unsuspecting tourists are buying this jewelry, etc. and wearing it!
I think it all boils down to supply and demand. No matter HOW many newfangled shiny high end bling products the big companies produce, if we stop standing in line like lemmings to snatch them up, they will get the message and stop making so much. Faster is not always better.....just ask the tortoise! Hugs to all, Nance |
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MsCwick
True Blue Farmgirl
775 Posts
Cristine
Farmville
Virginia
USA
775 Posts |
Posted - Nov 14 2008 : 07:43:23 AM
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related to nance's comment new fnagled shiny stuff...check this out...and watch the little video
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
I do not sell anything imported in my store, nor do I buy anything from china for personal use. I think they are immoral and unethical people, just as there are people of that magnitude in this country. But I choose not to pad the pockets of such people. I read every single label when I grocery shop. I dont buy ONE thing unless it is made in the US. grown in the US. Some 80% of chinas waterways are polluted with raw sewage and the other 20 are probably polluted with dioxanes. hopefully we dont get any meat from there.
I read a great article at naturemoms.com
Every day we vote with our shopping dollars. Are we supporting unsustainable, toxic products and companies or are we supporting conscious, safe, and sustainable companies and products? When we go down the aisle of the grocery store and pick up a bottle of cleaning fluid or a box of cereal we are casting a vote in support of that product and that company…are you voting for the people and things you want to be?
Every day we vote with our forks. Everything that goes in our mouths and bodies is a vote in support of that industry. Are we supporting organics, ethics, and kind planetary practices? Are we supporting animal cruelty and factory farming?
We have lots to consider every time we take a bite of food or open our wallets…we vote everyday for the world we want.
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Edited by - MsCwick on Nov 14 2008 07:44:20 AM |
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Cleaning Up: Be careful where you e-cycle... |
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Be careful where you e-cycle...
