[SunkenCiv]

And where do those legitimate recyclers send the discarded product?

Image results for electronic waste in china
http://www.google.com/images?q=electronic+waste+in+china&sa=X&oi=image_result_group

[21twelve]

Thanks for posting those images. I was telling one of my kids the other day about this.

Here in America we have triple-lined landfills that are designed not to leak - ever.

But instead we put are junk onto ships and burn fuel and emit CO2 (not that it has anything to do with climate - but for arguments sake...)

Then they get dumped into some poor village in China where they take them apart, burn the plastics off the metal, I imagine use solvents/chemicals to seperate the metals, and dump the crap in the ditch in their yard.

I’m thinking that it is probably just as, if not more, environmentaly damaging than mining for more copper, silver, gold, etc.

[Iron Munro]

And where do those legitimate recyclers send the discarded product?

Not so long ago my local newspaper ran a story revealing that the county recycling center couldn't handle the volume that we good citizens send them for recycling.

So they just reload an average of 40% on trash trucks and haul it back across the county to be buried in the garbage land fill.

I guess you could look at it as another government job creation program.