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Sins of Our Motherboards

Advanced technology goes hand in hand with environmental degradation and questionable labour practices

by Ilaria Mazzocco

High tech companies draw little attention over their compliance with environmental or labour protection laws. iPhones, for example, tend to bring to mind California and flip-flops, not illegal dumps and assembly lines in China. Despite the rosy connotations most people have, environmental degradation, labour rights and a variety of other issues plague technological devices from the factory to the dumpster.

The shocking series of suicides that took place in 2010 at the Foxconn Technology plant in Shenzhen, China temporarily changed such attitudes. The Taiwanese-owned company produces hardware for companies such as Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Nokia. The Shenzhen campus alone houses several hundred thousand workers, who live and work in the factory. In 2010 fourteen employees committed suicide, while an unclear number of others unsuccessfully attempted to take their lives. It appears that at least some of these suicides may have been motivated by harassment at the work place. Western media covered the issue extensively for a few months, but the incidents eventually faded away. Even when looking at simple indicators such as Google trends, it is clear that the issue lost popularity in June of 2010. Incidentally this coincided with the market release of the much coveted iPhone 4. Sadly, the wave of suicides was far from over and 3 more fatalities occurred last fall. Most recently, a young engineer jumped to her death from a Foxconn building last January, marking the first and—for the time being—only case in 2011. There was little or no coverage of these later suicides in the Western media.

Labour conditions in factories are a complex issue. Living standards in the country and the background of workers come into play, sometimes challenging what are often considered universal human rights. Many young people gain financial independence and emancipation by moving to urban centres and working in factories. Yet the conditions in these facilities are regularly denounced by activists and advocacy groups as inhumane and abusive. Workers themselves are hardly passive victims and as the Chinese population becomes wealthier and better educated, workers are gaining more rights. Widespread demonstrations and strikes by Chinese workers in 2010 led to some improvements in wages, if not in working standards. This trend has been especially noticeable with foreign-owned companies such as Nissan and Foxconn. The latter company increased salaries several fold in what many saw as an attempt to appease western companies and prevent further suicides. It also required employees to sign anti-suicide pledges.

While in theory these developments should appear as entirely positive to those living in democratic countries, they are a cause for concern among some producers. Higher salaries, shorter work hours and overall better working conditions directly translate into higher production costs. In the medium term these could lead to higher prices for popular products like computers, cell phones, tablets and printers. Currently, prices for gadgets have decreased in real terms over time allowing for a high turnover rate for technology. The exponential growth means that the production of high quality items takes less time as more time passes. In turn this makes consumers more likely to replace their old computers and other appliances as they become obsolete increasingly quickly.

The rate of replacement for computers and other technological items feeds into another related problem - the disposal of electronic waste. One malfunctioning component of a computer can lead to the entire set being thrown out; a set that despite all of the high-level research involved in its development is still highly dangerous for the environment. Still produced using highly polluting, often toxic components, such as lead, cadmium and mercury, the scrapping of these metals requires great care. Unfortunately, reports by environmental organizations such as Greenpeace and investigative news broadcasts like CBS News’ 60 Minutes, found that massive numbers of computers and other electronic devices are regularly shipped to developing countries in Asia and Africa violating many national laws and international agreements. According to Greenpeace in 2003, 23,000 metric tons of electronic waste was illegally shipped to Asia and Africa from the UK alone and the numbers have only grown since. Not properly recycled, the unwanted electronics get dumped in the countryside where locals extract valuable metals through highly dangerous procedures. The detrimental side-effects on health are evident in the destinations of electronic dumps. For example, the levels of toxic substances in the blood of children from areas like Guiyu, China is especially high, while the incidence of miscarriages and cancers are also above the average levels.

Unfortunately, solutions to these problems are not immediate or clear. It is likely that higher retail prices may be one consequence of improved labour conditions. Similarly, even if companies find ways to use non-toxic materials to construct their products, taxes on the disposal of electronics may eventually be established. The use of safer materials is currently propagated by Greenpeace, which is putting pressure on Dell to maintain an earlier made pledge to move production in that direction. Though it is simple to reject awareness based on the grounds that there is no alternative, as a technology-based society users should remember that their actions carry a weight far beyond their rubbish bin.