We generally think of recycling as something that is good for the environment. And, by and large, that is the case; when done properly, recycling reduces the amount of waste in the world and allows certain substances to be re-purposed and have a longer life. Unfortunately, there are some exceptions to that rule — and one particular case shows just what can go wrong when recycling is not properly regulated.
A truly harrowing investigation in The New York Times by Peter S. Goodman, Will Fitzgibbon and Samuel Granados explored the effects of battery recycling facilities in Ogijo, Nigeria. It’s a location known for its facilities where lead from car batteries can be recycled, and it’s far from the only place globally where such things take place. What is more notable about lead recycling in Ogijo, the Times investigation reveals, are the effects of pollution on residents there.
Of the 70 people whose blood was tested as part of the investigation, 70% had amounts of lead in their bloodstream that were described as “harmful,” including all of the people who worked in recycling facilities. The Times also compared their findings to the lead pollution caused by a now-shuttered auto battery recycling plant in Vernon, California. The investigation noted that soil at a school in Ogijo had around 20 times as much lead as a preschool near the plant in Vernon.
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The automaker’s energy storage system that’s made up of old batteries is undergoing tests at a Mazda factoryThere are ways to avoid situations like this; as the authors of the Times article point out, there are environmentally friendly ways of recycling lead that do not lead to widespread pollution and health problems for people in the vicinity. The United Nations Environmental Programme has explored different ways of reaching this very goal. And as Goodman and Fitzgibbon point out in another article for the Times, tracing environmentally hazardous lead can also change the behavior of some companies in the supply chain. Without more transparency, however, this goal may be hard to achieve.
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