U.S. Falling Dangerously Behind China on the Production of Electronic Wastes

Congolese Cobalt Miners…There are about 100,000 of them. Without him, no smart phones. Most of the cobalt in the world is found in Congo and neighboring Zambia, more than 60% of the world’s total supply in the Congo-Zambia copper belt as it is called

Preparing a lecture on the commodity cycle for smart phones (with emphasis on the [not so] lovely working conditions of Congolese cobalt miners and Chinese electronic component workers for rip-off companies like Flextronics (1.5 million employees worldwide)…came across the growing figures for electronic waste. Some interesting figures…for 2012 a whopping 50 million tons (not pounds or kilos but TONS) of electronic waste was produced – throw away cell phones, computers…all that stuff that people world-wide buy every two years. Leading the wasters is China which alone produces 12 million tons of electronic waste, the US of A nibbling at Peking’s heels, producing some 10 million tons. It is expected that by 2017 that there will be 33% increase in electronic waste worldwide predicted to top off at 65 million tons, something to look forward to…but I’m hoping we, the USA, failing hegemonic power, can overtake China by then and become NUMBER ONE AGAIN…something to aspire towards…then we can say we have the most foreign military bases in the world (more than 900 worldwide – next competitor is France with 5, China has none) and that we waste the most electronic equipment, more than any other country, I mean what kind of superpower is the United States anyway if it can’t produce more electronic waste than China.