Reduce, reuse, and recycle. This familiar environmentalist slogan tells us how to reduce the amount of rubbish that ends up in landfills and waterways. The concept is being used to deal with one possibly dangerous form of waste – electronic junk (电子垃圾), such as old computers, cellphones, and televisions. But this process for managing e-waste may be used in an unscrupulous way more often than not used, a recent report suggests.
“A lot of these materials are being sent to developing nations under the excuse of reuse – to bridge the digital divide,” said Richard Gutierrez, a policy researcher.
One of the problems is that no one proves whether these old machines work before they hit the seaways. Because of this, the report says, e-waste is a growing problem in Lagos, Nigeria, and elsewhere in the developing world. Much of the waste ends up being thrown away along rivers and roads. Often it’s picked apart by poor people, who may face dangerous exposure to poisonous chemicals in the equipment.
Businessmen also pay workers a little money to get back materials such as gold and copper. This low-tech recovery process could expose workers and the local environment to many dangerous materials used to build electronics. According to Gutierrez, this shadow economy exists because the excuse of recycling and reusing electronics gives businessmen “a green passport” to ship waste around the globe. “Developing nations must take upon some of the responsibility themselves,” Gutierrez said. But, he added, “A greater portion of this responsibility should fall on the exporting state.”
China, for example, has become a dumping place for large amounts of e-waste. The nation is beginning to take action to stop the flow of dangerous materials across its borders. The Chinese government, after many years of denial (否认), is finally beginning to take thelead.

仅供参考：

分解，再利用与再循环。这个熟悉的环保人士口号告诉我们怎样以垃圾掩埋法和水处理法减少垃圾的数量。这种概念同时也被用来处理一种具有潜在危险性的电子垃圾，例如旧的电脑，电话和电视。但是，一份最近的报道指出，这种处理电子垃圾的程序可能经常以不道德的方式进行。

一位政策研究者Richard Gutierrez说道：“这些电子垃圾很多都以重新利用的名义运往发展中国家－－用来连接数据分隔。”

问题之一是没人知道这些旧机器在海运之前能否正常工作。基于这一点，报告中说到，电子垃圾已经成为拉哥斯，尼日利亚以及其它发展中国家越来越棘手的问题了。许多垃圾被人们沿着河边与公路扔掉。通常又被穷人捡回，这些穷人可能面临着那些设备发出的有毒化学物质的危险。

商人也会付给工作一些钱，让他们捡回金，铜之类的材料。这种低技术的再生过程会使工人和周围环境处于被用来生产电子设备的危险物质中。Gutierrez说，这种阴影经济的存在是因为那些商人们有了重循环和重利用的借口，这个借口就成为他们在全球运输垃圾的“绿色护照”。

“发展中国家本身也要付一些责任”，Gutierrez说。但他又补充道“大部分责任应该由出口国担当”

例如，中国已经成为大量电子垃圾的排放地。这个国家已经开始采取行动来阻止危险物质进入边境。中国政府在否认了很多年后，终于带头开始行动了。