alt Hacker NewsIndia's billion-dollar e-waste empire
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E-Waste recycling is a major pillar of India's Critical Minerals Strategy [0][1]
The Indian government explicitly exempted specific types of e-waste from import fees and provided additional subsidies such that such waste would come to India in order to be reprocessed [2]. Additionally, the Indian government is allocating around $200M in subsidies explicitly for companies to import, recycle, and process E-Waste within India [3][4] plus additional funding to add capacity.
These are the exact same steps China took in the 2000s as well with almost the exact same word-for-word criticism [5][6], yet it helped them solidify their REE and Green economy to what it is today.
And this is why rare earth processing left America - it is a VERY VERY VERY dirty industry with very low margins. There is no way to get around treating unskilled workers in this industry as expendables - even safety gear can destroy the margins in this industry.
You need to choose between whether you want sub-$10K EVs and low cost solar panels like in China and India OR strong worker protections in their upstream industries like REE processing. You can only choose one.
That said, for every abusive processor, you have less abusive one's as well [7][8]
[0] - https://mines.gov.in/admin/download/649d4212cceb01688027666....
[1] - https://primuspartners.in/docs/documents/Final%2020%20Aug_Ra...
[2] - https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2112...
[3] - https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/land-use-biodiversity...
[4] - https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulat...
[5] - https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/docum...
[6] - https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/world/asia/18iht-waste.1....
[7] - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oesZJxrVgeU&pp=0gcJCRsBo7VqN5t...
My buddy owned a small motorcycle repair shop in the middle of Saigon. He was on a street full of other similar shops.
The guy next door to him had a small battery recycling shop. They'd sit out on the street in the hot sun, all day long, banging open the batteries with hammers, dust and toxic stuff flying everywhere. Nasty shit, zero concern for health.
I can only imagine this happening on a global scale, with far more toxic substances.
Andrew has a few videos about waste and the waste industry in countries such as India, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
For instance, in Delhi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fojw7yviYU
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> “Our forefathers did this. … No one else can do it,” he continued. “If someone tried, he will be beaten black and blue.”
It's telling that the journalist did not investigate and elaborate on this. The ancient feudal structures that pervaded India for millennia continue to this day. There is a veneer of democracy, but those who live here know how thin the veneer is. For example, even the choice of ISPs available in some locality is controlled by cartels. If an ISP tries to serve a locality that already has a few ISPs, their cables will be severed and their workers will be beaten up. I am talking about a city with a relatively good police presence. In smaller cities, towns, and villages, many more aspects of business are controlled by feudal structures. Every political party has a hierarchy of feudal structures, and most of them have gang-lords at lower levels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_Raj