We're throwing away millions of pieces of high-tech equipment a year. At Trent Wolodko's recycling plant in Calgary, he can’t keep up with it. Wolodko says the material is loaded with toxic ingredients:

"We’ve got the plastic from the computer. We’ve got the tin and metals and steel and things like that. Now the stuff that gets a little bit brickier is the copper and aluminum wiring with the PVC insulation."

Wolodko lists a number of other ingredients that are tough to recycle, including:

• lead
• cadmium
• phosphorus

When computers reach the end of their useful lives, some wind up stored in our attics and basements. Some are recycled. Some are just thrown out. But more and more, our high-tech trash is shipped out of Canada, causing problems in other parts of the world.

That's where Jim Puckett comes in. He works for the Basel Action Network — a Seattle environmental group. Puckett recently shot some video he shot in China that he says is evidence of the high-tech trade’s dirty little secret.

Puckett's group is trying to get countries to keep their hazardous waste in their own backyards. His investigation took him to the province of Guiyu in Southeastern China.

"We found villages of women and children that all they did, all day long, was sort wires by day, burn them at night."

Puckett’s video is a snap shot of 100,000 people in neighbouring villages, toiling to recover copper and gold. He found ditches filled with high tech debris — a town’s river transformed into a floating garbage dump.

Puckett says the drinking water is no longer drinkable.

"We found the lead levels in the river there to be 300 times the World Health Organization standard."

'A real cocktail of toxic agents'

Marketplace wondered what handling toxic materials with bare hands can do to people’s health. So, we showed the video to Dr. Chris Van Netten at the University of British Columbia. He analyzes health hazards.

"That’s a real cocktail of toxic agents, when you come to think of it."

Van Netten says burning the plastic around copper wires creates dioxins, which can change our molecular structure. Mercury exposure can lead to neurological problems. Lead fumes may cause brain defects and kidney damage.

If you think what’s going on in China has little to do with Canada, think again.

In amongst piles of rubble, Puckett’s group found a label from a small firm in Vancouver. There was also a label that we tracked to Canadian Airlines. And one that led Marketplace to a federal government office.

We showed some of the video to Judy O’Brien. She buys and sells computers for the Department of National Defence in Esquimalt, just outside Victoria, BC.

"I’m shocked that so much of it ends up over there, and that this is what they’re doing with it," O'Brien said.

Computer trash taced back to DND

When Marketplace showed O'Brien a label that could be traced to her office, she said, "I’m a little bit embarrassed."

But not so embarrassed that she’ll recommend the military make sure its toxic trash doesn’t go overseas.

The Chinese government passed a law in the summer of 2002 making it illegal to import computer junk. But recycler Trent Wolodko says that’s not stopping some Canadian computer brokers from shipping their trash to China.

"Payments. Back door payments," Wolodko said.

Jim Puckett — of the Basel Action Network — says Canada shouldn’t be shipping e-waste to China for another reason: the Basel Convention. The international treaty was signed 13 years ago, to stop rich countries from dumping their high-tech trash into poorer countries. Canada has signed the Convention — but Puckett says Canada’s negotiators are trying to undermine it.

"They’re the only country in the world that we’re aware of that’s a party to the Basel Convention that is saying that electronic waste is not hazardous waste."

Ottawa's position

According to Ottawa, an old computer — full of toxic stuff — isn’t hazardous waste until it’s broken down into parts.

To sort out Canada’s position Marketplace headed to Environment Canada, the folks who negotiated the Basel Convention.

We showed the video from China to John Arseneau, who works with the Toxics Pollution Prevention program.

Arseneau says there’s no problem with Canada shipping computer trash overseas — the federal government doesn’t define it as hazardous.

"We're currently reviewing that, but as it is right now, under our regulations, it isn't considered hazardous waste."

That position doesn't sit well with the Basel Action Network's Jim Puckett.

"Well I’m sorry, the Treaty they signed says it’s hazardous waste. So either they get out of the Treaty, or they respect it."

What about the manufacturers? They’re the ones putting hazardous materials into computers.

"If you’re putting something toxic on the planet, somebody’s going to have pay somewhere," Puckett said.

Canada’s computer industry says the people who buy computers should pay to get rid of the waste. The industry wants to add a $25 fee to the cost of computers to cover recycling.

Since Puckett’s investigation, more recycling sites have been discovered in other parts of China and in other countries — like India, Pakistan and Korea.

"There’s no reason why we could not take care of this equipment here in Canada. We wouldn’t have to send them to China, Pakistan, India or any other country," Calgary recycler Trent Wolodko says. "It could stay right here and we could take care of the problem properly."

That's not likely to happen until computers are made less toxic and recycled in Canada.