In this month’s Wired magazine, Brian Chen has put together the article Where Gadgets Go to Die: Facility Strips, Rips and Recycles.  It is a fantastic article that shows the process by which electronic consumer items make their way through one of the SIMS Recycling Solutions centers.

The toured center is a cavernous warehouse that has a ton and a half of goods coming in on a daily business, which keeps it 60 employees busy processing, separating, and dismantling.

Employees whose safety is a priority:

the nature of their jobs require them to attend monthly, company-sponsored safety meetings. Parts that are too difficult to dismantle by hand are separated and sent to the onsite shredder for grinding and separation using various automated technologies.

Why I found this story interesting, is that through another article China: E-waste and environmental colonialism and the recent 60 minutes piece, one can see just how different things are here in China.

It is largely labor driven, is not being conducted in proper facilities, and it is a problem whose impact is felt in surrounding areas as metal runoff enters the water tables.

.. and it is with this in mind that I hope recent regulations passed in China and the US can effectively address the exportation of ewaste from the US to other countries where standards and infrastructure are lacking.