June 12, 2014

Rubbish city: China’s e-waste epidemic – in pictures

Photographer Kim Kyung-Hoon documents a village outside Beijing that is home to a large electronic-waste recycling centre for a look at life amid the digital ruins

e-waste from the agencies: Laundry is hung out to dry in the yard — A recycling workers' tenement house in Dongxiaokou. According to Kim Kyung-Hoon, villagers have not profited greatly from the booming market in electronic cast-offs
Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon /Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: A recycling worker moves air-conditioning units — From air conditioners to fridges, China is reportedly the second-biggest producer, after the US, of electronic waste, according to the China Association of Environmental Protection Industry Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: gallery A recycling worker stands surrounded by e-waste — Life among the ruins … a recycling worker walks through waste strewn about a tenement house Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: A man counts his money after selling recycled air-conditioning units — Migrant workers repair or sell as scrap discarded electrical and electronic products Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: A garbage collector takes a nap on his tricycle — According to Reuters photographer Kim Kyung-Hoon, hundreds people gather e-waste from households in downtown Beijing Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: A woman walks near mounds of garbage — Not all e-waste can be recycled. Scrap goes for a reported 1RMB (9 pence) per kilogramme; a rebuilt air conditioner is said to fetch around 1,000RMB Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: A woman dismantles a broken air-conditioning unit — A villager dismantles an air conditioner. After electronics are repaired, wholesale dealers reportedly sell them to new owners in other rural areas Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: Children play on abandoned wood panels — 'Pollutants from the recycling and disposal process have turned the water a strange colour, and the small stream in the village is tainted with a rancid smell,' reports Kyung-Hoon, who says that piles of rubbish that can't be recycled surround the village Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: A woman washes dishes — Along with the risks of handling e-waste, residents of Dongxiaokou live with poor infrastructure and sanitation facilities, says Kyung-Hoon Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: Children play in their house, while their parents work on recycling air-con — A view of children at play Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: A garbage collector carries a sack of of items — 'The poorer rubbish collectors, who cannot afford their own recycling business, hunt for leftovers from the others,' says Kyung-Hoon, "digging up the polluted soil with their bare hands to find the last scraps of metal that have been left behind." Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

e-waste from the agencies: Recycling workers play poker — 'The costs of recycling, both to the environment and their own health, are far from the villagers’ minds,' Kyung-Hoon reports. They're concerned, he says, with the reported demolition of Dongxiaokou for an urban development project Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

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