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After we buy new TVs, phones and other gadgets, what happens to all our unwanted and discarded electronic devices?


The Center for Investigative Reporting and 

 followed the global trail of America's electronic cast-offs.


The Consumer Technology Association estimates that more than 700 million pounds of electronics were recycled in 2015. In America it's against the law in half the states and Washington D.C. to throw electronics into a landfill or ship them overseas, but many people either don't know about these rules, or choose not to abide by them.


To help develop trust, e-waste companies can become certified, meaning that they make a promise to follow these rules on dumping and shipping.


"But there have been companies that have been certified that have actually not done what they say they're going to do. And it's not like you can be arrested for it or that a cop is going to come out and give you a ticket ... it's kind of a self-governing thing," Evelyn O'Donnell, CEO of GreenMouse Recycling in Silicon Valley, said.

When companies dump the unwanted electronics in places with fewer regulations, the waste can lead to contaminated water, soil and air.


In the small Chinese town of Guiyu, this kind of electronic waste dumping has been devastating to the environment as well as the people's health — with one study from a nearby university estimating that more than 80 percent of children in the town had lead in their blood.

In the 1980s, the United Nations attempted to put a lid on this kind of dumping by developed countries into less developed parts of the world, a practice they called "toxic colonialism." The treaty was called the Basel Convention and almost every member of the U.N. ratified the motion. The United States was not one of them.


In 2015 the Chinese government stated it would no longer allow e-waste from the U.S. into Guiyu — but the workers at the industrial park there are still using unsafe recycling techniques on the waste they receive from China, reported the Global Reporting Centre's Allison Griner.

To listen to the full report, click the audio player above.

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The Center for Investigative Reporting followed the global trail of America's electronic cast-offs. Here's what they found.

After we buy new TV's, phones and other gadgets, what happens to all our unwanted and discarded electronic devices?

Here's where your electronic waste is landing. It's not pretty

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