Initiatives for the prevention and management of electrical and electronic waste

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With the aim of facing the challenge posed by the growing volume of production of electrical and electronic equipment, at SETEM we collect various proposals aimed at the public administration, companies and manufacturers and consumers.

The increasing amount of electronic waste is mainly caused by higher consumption of ESA, short product life cycles, and few affordable repair options.

Before becoming a waste, our devices have travelled a long way to reach our hands. On this route, serious events are currently taking place violations of human and environmental rights.

ESAs are mineral-intensive products and rare earths. The extraction of raw materials for ESA production has generated several socio-environmental conflicts over recent decades, especially in countries of the Global South: labour exploitation, lack of security, high exposure to toxins, child labour, unfair price, financing of armed groups, pollution, water and land grab, deforestation, among other damages. Women and children suffer from these impacts in an aggravated way, extractive projects being a factor that perpetuates inequality gender.

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Research: Working conditions in the Philippine electronics factories from a gender perspective

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In this report, we analyse the working conditions electronic
products are produced by factory workers in the Philippines. An analysis from a gender perspective, since most of the workers in these factories in the region are women. 

The feminization of work in the manufacturing sector has been a global trend in recent decades. The report stresses that working women in electronics factories tend to have less access to education and fewer employment alternatives compared to men, due to the sexual division of labour and gender inequality. Many of them come from rural areas and see paid work in the factory as an
attractive option.

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New research on lithium mining in Chile

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The Danish journalistic group Danwatch reveals in a report elaborated on the ground and coordinated by SETEM Catalunya how our increasing demand for lithium for the manufacture of smartphones and electric cars has serious environmental impacts in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Lithium extraction leads to depletion of the territory’s water resources, directly affecting the livelihoods of local indigenous communities and animals. The research was carried out as part of the European Make ICT Fair campaign, in which eleven non-governmental organizations from Europe take part, including SETEM Catalunya, organizer of the Mobile Social Congress.

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New journalistic research in Malaysia

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The Danish journalistic group DanWatch reveals in a report prepared on the ground and coordinated by SETEM Catalunya that the migrant staff of a factory in Malaysia, supplier of the main chip producers in Europe and the USA, suffer from situations of forced labor, violent threats, passport retention and significant salary deductions. The research was carried out as part of the European Make ICT Fair campaign, in which eleven non-governmental organizations from Europe are taking part, including SETEM Catalunya, organizer of the Mobile Social Congress.

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