Economic Growth and Environmental Protection

In a globalized economy, environmental and health issues are shifted from developed countries to un- or under-developed countries, like lead from th US being shipped to China for recycling. That recycled/reused lead is then making its way back into products made for the US. Fairclough says that this is "closing a globilization loop in which toxic materials from high-tech garbage are turned into potentially dangerous gooods for kids and shipped back." Not much is being done to regulate the export of "non-hazardous" materials like the e-waste that is being recycled for its lead components becasue the EPA doesn't classify the e-waste components as hazardous. In this situation no one wins.

Some of the Chinese companies and manufacturers claim that "buyers know what they're getting and say using lead is the only way to offer low prices that foreign purchasers are willing to pay". I don't know if I agree with that statement or if I think that the manufacturers are just trying to cover their tracks. I feel, as a consumer, that I have no idea what I'm getting when I buy products. I also am kind of lazy and don't make an extreme effort to check where the product I am buying is manufactured. Maybe I should start doing that though. But, at the same time, the manufacturers or the companies that sell those products should make a little bit more effort to protect or inform the consumers rather than ignore them and hope they don't start a lawsuit later. I also thought it was very characteristic of the US government to begin to research the problem of exporting e-waste to "get an idea of the problem's global scope," rather than doing something concrete about it.