Greenpeace Investigation Exposes Illegal E-Waste Disposal

Greenpeace planted a tracking device in an old TV, dropped it off at a recycling center, and tracked where it went. The results were disturbing, but sadly predicable.

The television ended up being shipped from the UK to Nigeria before being dismantled, a complete violation of European Union laws which require that potentially hazardous e-waste be disposed of within Europe.

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“It’s illegal to export broken electronic goods under EU legislation (and) at no point before it was crammed into a container with similar TVs and shipped off was the TV turned on or tested to see if it was in working condition,” Greenpeace said in a statement.

Greenpeace suspects that such e-waste violations are rampant, with most of it shipped to Nigeria, Ghana, Pakistan, India and China. According to Greenpeace, children are often the ones to break apart televisions, cell phones, and other potentially hazardous waste.

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