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Thanks to the tighter restrictions, residents say conditions in Guiyu have improved somewhat. But environmental experts say it will take time to develop the economic zone and promote safer recycling practices.
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Local authorities have intervened and are encouraging businesses to move the more dangerous recycling into a newly opened "special economic zone." The town has high hopes that it will clean up the recycling business and make it safe, and it's been cracking down on the illegal burning of waste.
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The e-waste business comes at a heavy price, and Guiyu has been called the world's most poisonous town. In the past, recycling was often done with little or no regard for health and safety, and toxic substances leaked into the air and water. Workers used fire and acid to remove precious metals from circuit boards.
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Used processors are sold wholesale in Guiyu for as little as 1 yuan (US$0.16). The old chips sometimes end up in toys or electronic greeting cards.
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Some homes in Guiyu buzz with the sound of plastic and metal being shredded. After the electronics are stripped of the more valuable components, workers break down the remaining material into tiny bits for resale. Businesses that sell recycled plastic can be found on most street corners.
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Other workshops specialize in mobile phones. After a worker pulls off the outer casing, another methodically removes tiny chips from the motherboard and places them in cups.
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A worker cuts the CPU and memory chips from a motherboard using an electric circular saw. It's a common activity at hundreds of small workshops around Guiyu.
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Residents in the town of 200,000 buy discarded electronics from dealers, break them down for parts and sell what remains for cash. In this photo, a woman removes components from a pile of PC power supplies and circuit boards.
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Environmental experts say the town is probably the world's biggest e-waste site, and it has made a business of recycling old electronics for over two decades. Originally, many of the old products came from foreign countries via Hong Kong, but increasingly the e-waste coming to Guiyu is domestic. It includes old monitors from brands Dell, Acer and Sony.
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Credit: IDG
Come to Guiyu, a town in southern China, and you'll find old trashed electronics of every kind. The local economy specializes in recycling e-waste, including mobile phones, PC motherboards and the plastic casing on VCRs. Old electronics products pile up in each neighborhood, waiting to be broken down and processed.
A look inside China's most notorious e-waste town
10 Photos
The town of 200,000 is known as the world's largest e-waste site
