You know that warm, altruistic feeling you get when you attempt to “go green” by recycling your old electronics? Turns out you’re killing people in Hong Kong and other Asian cities.
That old monitor you’re recycling has poison inside of it. That doesn’t sound so bad, unless you’re the very impoverished and very unlucky guy who’s job it is to mine the valuable metals out of the thing. He inhales the toxins, and then gets sick, and then he dies.
The problem is that many cities, universities, and other large organizations pay to recycle, and it always goes to the lowest bidder. That sucks, because the lower bids are more likely to be the dangerous recyclers.
So you should implore anyone who will listen to check the background of the recycling company they’re dealing with. That old PC could turn into cancer in someone a world away, and that would be your fault, jerk.
America ships electronic waste overseas [Yahoo! News]