Gadget recycling may be poisoning China's children
Think about this next time you upgrade your PC: toxic metals from old electronic goods are finding their way into school grounds in China. Seventy per cent of the world's discarded phones and computers are exported to China. Most are processed in family-run workshops, where the circuit boards are ripped out of old equipment and heated over open fires. This melts the solder, allowing individual components to be removed and resold. The bare circuit boards are then burned.