They are all of us. Computers, mobile phones, w / a monitors and other electronic gadgets. We all use them, but what happens to them when they become obsolete? It's very simple - they go to special places where disposal. Here begins "Urban mining of precious metals."
26 Photo © REUTERS / Yuriko Nakao
1. Work processing company «Ecomicro» with b / at the monitor in Bordeaux. «Ecomicro» is considered to be the only company in France, dividing 1,500 tons of obsolete computers into separate fragments for processing.
2. Activists "Green Peace" with the installation of the b / u of the computers in protest against the dangerous use of electronics at the office building of the Ministry of Information Technology in New Delhi.
3. Work looks at industrial / used materials at the processing plant of the company «Eco-System Recycling Co» in Honjo, north of Tokyo. Do you want to throw away your old cell phone? Not worth it. It is better to sell the components of gold, silver, copper and other precious metals used in the manufacture of mobile phones, many of which will go for a record price. It's called urban development, when people search for scrap metal from old electronic gadgets in search of just such values, and it is quite a growth industry around the world.
4. The workers collect metal scraps from obsolete electronic boards in Honjo, north of Tokyo.
5. The memory chips of old computers and other electronics in the Japanese company «Eco-System Recycling Co» in Honjo
6. Romanian actor Alin Teglas in his apartment in Bucharest is studying the game for the iPad, under the light of a lamp of computer diskettes, in the kitchen, which he turned into a studio. 35-year-old Teglas makes fashion accessories and lighting of the computer parts.
7. Work lays out the old computer to the new processing plant electronics in Wuhan, Hubei Province. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, waste electronic products are the fastest growing areas in the field - five times faster than, for example, the scope of industrial waste. Affluent middle class in China and India are increasingly using computers and mobile, only exacerbating the problem.
8. A worker puts the old TVs at a new factory waste electronic products in Wuhan, Hubei
9. Children in the slums of Manila's financial district of Makati City, browse electronic boards in search of copper elements that can be sold on the black market.
10. Copier Technicians dismantle the plant processing materials Mankhale, 55 km south of Hyderabad. According to local organizations for the protection of the environment, in 2007 India produced 150 thousand tons of e-waste.
11. A technician at the plant in Mankhale, near Hyderabad.
12. Work breaks old printer at a processing plant in Buenos Aires. More than 35 tons of electronic waste from more than a million computers, 800,000 printers, 500 thousand monitors and other devices were produced in the country over the past two years
13. Discarded computer monitors at a processing plant in Buenos Aires.
14. Discarded monitors at the plant in Buenos Aires.
15. Patrick Maranon with b / at the monitor at the company «Ecomicro» Bordeaux.
16. Scrap from computers on the river bank in the village Yaokuovey close to Guiyu in Guangdong Province. The electronic waste contains thousands of different substances, such as cadmium, chromium, mercury, heavy metals, which are toxic. The residents buy drinking water from street vendors, which are gaining from sources from the nearest mountain.
17. Discarded printer cartridges on the road near the village of Yaokuovey, China. For several years, as electronic waste richer countries made their way to China, and poor rural people are browsing the pile of scrap metal, including processors, printers, keyboards, monitors and other electronic devices that can be dismantled for parts.
18. Workers dismantle old computers at the largest refinery in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan. In 2008, the island produced over 80 million tons of e-waste, and 60 thousand of them can be recycled.
19. The batteries are sorted at a processing plant in Wuhan, Hubei. China is developing a new strategy for the processing of up to 2050, accounting for one-third of the total amount of energy consumption.
20. Work sorts batteries at a processing plant in Wuhan.
21. Work with the board of the mobile phone to the processing plant «Re-Tem Corp» in Tokyo. The company «Re-Tem Corp» researches and develops the processing of rare metals needed in the production of electronics. Japanese companies to develop high technologies are faced with the high cost of rare metals as China slows down exports.
22. Work at the heap of mobile phones in the building processing company «Re-Tem Corp» in Tokyo.
23. Parts of the computer at the processing plant of the company «Re-Tem Corp» in Tokyo.
24. The computer parses board factory in Tokyo.
25. The computer parses board in Tokyo.
26. microchips at the company «Re-Tem Corp» Tokyo
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