A Restorative Environmental Justice for Prison E-Waste Recycling

The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that U.S. Americans own approximately 25 electronic products per household. Eighty percent of U.S. Americans have no qualms about tossing their unwanted electronic items into the trash: 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers are thrown out daily. In response to this mass disposal of electronic items, electronic waste, or e-waste, recycling industries have sprung up all over the globe. Although estimates vary widely, it appears that at least 20 percent of all e-waste is shipped abroad to be "recycled" by makeshift recycling hubs in China, India, Ghana, and Nigeria. In fact, the majority of e-waste recycling centers are concentrated in the Global South, where the longstanding history of the Global North dumping its trash on others manifests in a new form. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.