Growing Problems With Electronics Waste

eldavojohn writes "The BBC is reporting that many countries are dumping their e-Waste in poorer African nations. From the article, 'The world's richest nations are dumping hazardous electronic waste on poor African countries, says the head of the UN's Environment Programme (Unep).' The problem with e-Waste (versus other wastes) is that the gases and chemicals that make up a lot of electronics are particularly harmful for the environment. I suppose nobody takes their computer, TV or Radio to the repair shop anymore since a new one is a fraction of that cost down at the local convenience store."

Ah, the old reverse 419 scam

[Anonymous Coward]

Hello, my name is Robert Johnson and I have recently come to aquire 10,000,000 computers that I need to smuggle out of the country...

Is this really such a bad thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

By the time we've filled up Africa, things will have warmed up enough to provide us the whole new continent of Antarctica for dumping.

E-Waste

[timgradwell]

"The BBC is reporting that many countries are dumping their e-Waste in poorer African nations."

I always wondered what happened to the spam emails after I deleted them. Now I finally know where they end up.

So that's how they harvested my EMAIL ADDRESS!!@#!

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks to all the hard drives ending up in hands of 401 scammers!$#$!#@!!

Re:I keep all my old electronics

[YrWrstNtmr]

I don't remember the last time I threw away anything electronic.

You're not married, are you?

Re:I keep all my old electronics

[GWBasic]

You do realize that most of the world isn't interested in starting an antique electronics museum. Besides, you're just procrastinating. Someday, someone will want to dump the stuff.

A couple of weeks ago I helped a local antique computer museam [digibarn.com] put its exhibit in storage for the winter. Even the owner was trying to get rid of some parts; he offered me a 600lb component for a Cray power supply.