From Mobile Phones To Toxic Waste

The mobile phone has long left its luxury good status behind to become just another modern disposable. When picking up their latest bargain mobile, hardly anyone spares a thought for the conditions under which these devices are assembled, mostly in Asia. The film details the background to the mobile phone boom. In the port city of Chennai, young migrant workers earn 35 cent per hour assembling mobile phones. Strikes are prohibited in the special economic area and there are no trade unions. Consumers in Europe have thus far been kept in the dark about the underbelly of mobile production in Asia. The “Make IT fair” campaign wants to change this now and is pushing for fairer working and environmental conditions in the production and disposal of mobile phones and other electronic goods. In the suburbs of the Indian capital, New Delhi, thousands work in the most primitive of conditions recycling illegally imported electrical waste from industrialised countries. With bare hands and without any respiratory protection, electrical cables and circuit boards are melted down to separate the valuable metals such as copper and gold. This creates highly toxic gases which poison both people and the soil. What can manufacturers and consumers do to counteract this exploitation of developing countries as a waste dump and cheap production location for industrialised countries?

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