May 24, 2018. Seattle, WA. For the last two decades, China was the world's primary e-waste dumping ground.  Now, however, as China has closed down its polluting and dangerous “backyard” recycling facilities and cracked down on waste imports of all kinds, that distinction appears to have migrated to Thailand and perhaps other Southeast Asia and South Asian nations.  

Many of us have old phones lying in our drawers or old computers in our closet.  All of us know that we should recycle these, right?  But this Earth Day, be forewarned!  Not all electronics recyclers are what you think. According to a recent study entitled Scam Recycling using GPS trackers conducted by the Basel Action Network (BAN), many so-called electronics recyclers don't actually recycle your electronics -- but simply ship it off to developing countries.  There it is likely to be processed by poorly protected workers engaged in smashing and burning your old equipment in highly polluting "backyard" operations.