Mmmm... Kung Pao Circuit Board

So the good news is that China has started doing some recycling work. The bad news is that it could make you sick. According to a report from the Basel Action Network, solder from old circuit boards and car batteries is being cooked down and recycled into trinkets and jewelry.

In 2002, the Seattle based Basel Action Network (BAN) in its report “Exporting Harm” revealed that about 80 percent of the electronic waste in the United States that is brought to recyclers is in fact not recycled in the United States but exported to Asia, and especially China where it is melted down in primitive, environmentally damaging conditions including the cooking and melting of computer circuit boards in vast quantity.
Dr. Weidenhamer’s analytical work now implicates electronic waste as a source of the lead that comes back to harm our children in the form of toxic children’s jewelry made in China for the American market. The vast majority of electronic waste found in China comes from North America.