電子垃圾工廠到處開 毒害泰國

婦女們蹲伏在一間燈光昏暗的工廠的地上，整理被現代世界棄置的一些內容物：電池、電路板和成綑的電線。

Crouched on the ground in a dimly lit factory, women picked through the discarded innards of the modern world: batteries, circuit boards and bundles of wires.

她們或者用鐵鎚，或者徒手，拆解這些被稱作有害電子廢棄物或電子垃圾的廢品，再由男性工人鏟進一台鏗鏘作響的機器，以回收有用的金屬。有些男工用碎布包住臉來隔擋煙塵。

They broke down the scrap — known as hazardous electronic-waste, or e-waste — with hammers and raw hands. Men, some with faces wrapped in rags to repel the fumes, shoveled the refuse into a clanking machine that salvages usable metal.

當他們賣力工作之時，煙霧飄散至鄰近的村莊和工廠，居民對煙霧中有什麼物質一無所知—塑膠？金屬？誰知道！他們只知道聞起來很臭，讓人惡心。

As they toiled, smoke spewed over nearby villages and farms. Residents have no idea what is in the smoke — plastic, metal, who knows? All they know is that it stinks and they feel sick.

這間名為「新天空金屬」的工廠，是東南亞正蓬勃發展的電子垃圾業的一部分，是在中國大陸決定停止接收毒害其土地人民的全球電子垃圾後，應運而生。泰國特別成為這項產業的中心，過程中社運人士大力阻擋，政府則在公共安全與可觀的收益之間謀取平衡。

The factory, New Sky Metal, is part of a thriving e-waste industry across Southeast Asia, born of China’s decision to stop accepting the world’s electronic refuse, which was poisoning its land and people. Thailand in particular has become a center of the industry even as activists push back and its government wrestles to balance competing interests of public safety with the profits to be made from the lucrative trade.

去年泰國禁止外國電子垃圾進口，然而環境監控人員和產業專家說，新工廠仍然在國內各地開設，處理成噸的電子垃圾。

Last year, Thailand banned the import of foreign e-waste. Yet new factories are opening across the country, and tons of e-waste are being processed, environmental monitors and industry experts said.

「電子垃圾必須有去處。」以反對將垃圾傾倒至窮國為訴求的「巴塞爾行動網路」執行長吉姆．帕其特說，「中國就是把整個作業搬到東南亞。」

“E-waste has to go somewhere,” said Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network, which campaigns against trash dumping in poor countries, “and the Chinese are simply moving their entire operations to Southeast Asia.”

他說：「賺錢的唯一方法，是用便宜、非法的勞力處理極為龐大的數量，而且大肆汙染環境。」

“The only way to make money is to get huge volume with cheap, illegal labor and pollute the hell out of the environment,” he added.

根據聯合國的統計，全球每年製造出5000萬噸電子垃圾，消費者習慣了丟掉前一年的機型，入手新款式。

回收這些小電器的觀念聽起來道德高尚：科技便利的無限循環。

Each year, 50 million tons of e-waste are produced globally, according to the United Nations, as consumers grow accustomed to throwing away last year’s model and acquiring the next new thing.The notion of recycling these gadgets sounds virtuous: an infinite loop of technological utility.

但是，從廢棄的手機、電腦和電視中採集微量的金銀銅之類貴金屬，其實是骯髒且危險的工作。

But it is dirty and dangerous work to extract the tiny quantities of precious metals — like gold, silver and copper — from castoff phones, computers and televisions.

曾經有許多年，中國大陸大量接收世界各地的電子廢棄物。然後在2018年，北京對外來電子垃圾關閉了大門。泰國和其他東南亞國家看到了機會，因為它們環境法律執行寬鬆，勞動力剝削容易，而且商界和政府間關係緊密。

For years, China took in much of the world’s electronic refuse. Then in 2018, Beijing closed its borders to foreign e-waste. Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia — with their lax enforcement of environmental laws, easily exploited labor force and cozy nexus between business and government — saw an opportunity.

「每一片電路板和每一條電線都能讓你賺不少錢，特別是毋須考慮環境或勞工時。」環境監督組織「泰國生態警示復甦」領導人潘重．沙也譚說。

“Every circuit and every cable is very lucrative, especially if there is no concern for the environment or for workers,” said Penchom Saetang, head of Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand, an environmental watchdog.

說文解字看新聞【莊蕙嘉】

有害的electronic-waste是愈來愈嚴重的環保問題，這個字比照e-mail的用法，也簡寫成e-waste。電子垃圾之所以有害，在於每件裝置都包含多種材質，例如金屬、貴金屬、塑膠、玻璃等，必須動用人力拆解，才能提高回收率，處理過程會危害人類健康並汙染環境。

文中用來形容電子廢棄物的字包括waste、scrap、refuse和trash等，都有「垃圾」之意，其他常見單字還有rubbish和garbage等。

英國皇家化學學會科學家指出，一支智慧手機至少含有30種以上金屬，除了金、銀、銅等precious metals（貴金屬），還有銦、鉭等rare-earth elements（稀土元素），有效回收能讓金屬再利用，量少價高，也是電子垃圾最lucrative（有利可圖）的部分。

出國不住飯店！ 寄宿家庭正夯

戴懷特和女友康斯坦絲．韓森去年七月規劃秘魯之行時，決定不住飯店，改住寄宿家庭。寄宿家庭位在庫斯科省聖地牙哥區，每晚35美元（約台幣1050元），物超所值，而65歲的主人媽媽、寡婦瑪麗更用溫暖的接待贏得了他們的心。

While planning a trip to Peru last July, Brian Twite and his girlfriend, Constance Hansen, decided to skip hotels and stay with a host family. At $35 a night, the accommodation in the Santiago district of Cusco was a bargain. But the warmth of their host mother, a 65-year-old widow named Marie, won them over.

戴懷特回憶說：「我們醒來時她就會大喊『孩子們！』，要我們過去吃早餐。」戴懷特是美國芝加哥人，從事製造業物流工作。

“We’d wake up and she’d yell, ‘Chicos!’, calling us for breakfast down the hall,” said Twite, a Chicagoan who works in manufacturing logistics.

32歲的戴懷特說，在秘魯聖谷遊覽一整天後，他很感謝能回到寄宿家庭，跟瑪麗和她的兒子喬納森分享當天趣事。戴懷特說：「我們坐下來用餐，談談那天發生的事。他們會問，『你們做了什麼？去了哪些地方？』這真的很美妙，住飯店你不會得到這種經驗。」

After a long day of sightseeing in the Sacred Valley, Twite, 32, said he was grateful to come home and share highlights of his day with Marie and her son, Jonathan. “You sit down to a meal and talk about your day. They asked us, ‘What did you do? Where did you go?’ That was really magical because you don’t get that with a hotel.”

隨著近年來旅客日益渴望更為親密，由當地人主導，且不一樣的經驗，傳統上是背包客和外國交換學生的選擇的寄宿家庭體驗，也以新方式興起。

As travelers’ appetites move toward wanting more intimate, locally driven and nongeneric experiences in recent years, homestays — traditionally the fallback for backpackers and foreign exchange students — are emerging in a new light.

英國英格蘭約克郡退休都市計畫師卡魯瑟斯，上月預訂了在巴基斯坦一個寄宿家庭的住宿，他說：「這是對你到訪的地方產生真切感受的最好方式。」

“It’s the best way to get a feel for the place you’re visiting,” said Cliff Carruthers, a retired urban planner in York, England, who booked a homestay in Pakistan last month.

總部在倫敦的高檔行程旅行社「狂野邊界」創辦人畢爾比說，現在他販售的行程中，80%包含某種形式的寄宿家庭體驗。一些人氣行程也經過修改，納入寄宿家庭體驗，例如2013年推出的巴勒斯坦步行遊覽行程，現在主打薩努爾村住宿。

At London-based Wild Frontiers, a luxury tour planner, the founder, Jonny Bealby, says 80% of his tours today include at least some kind of homestay. In some cases, popular itineraries have been revised to include a homestay; a walking tour of Palestine that’s been offered since 2013, for example, now features a village stay in Sanur.

畢爾比說，「這是為了迎合客人需求」，倫敦、波士頓和紐約的客人似乎願意放棄每晚入住豪華飯店的便利，「他們要的是接地氣」。

“It’s being driven by the customer,” Bealby said, noting that travelers from London, Boston and New York seem willing to forgo the conveniences of a plush hotel every night. “What they want to do is connect.”

Homestay.com旅行社創立於2013年，目前在142個國家有業務，總經理伊馮．費萊說：「這絕對需要一些信任。事實上，你是進入這個人的家，所以必須懷著尊重的心。」

“It absolutely takes a bit of trust,” said Yvonne Finlay, managing director at Homestay.com, which launched in 2013 and now operates in 142 countries. “Effectively, you’re coming into this person’s home. So there needs to be that element of respect.”

寄宿家庭體驗也有實務上的吸引力。古巴旅館有限，寄宿家庭體驗經常是最好的選擇。販售精品行程的旅行社「方位儀」，根據客人感興趣的事物，如美食、音樂和追溯家族根源，把客人與特定寄宿家庭和鄰里配對。共同創辦人卡洛說：「寄宿家庭體驗讓我們更有彈性。」

Homestays also have a practical appeal. With Cuba’s limited hotel inventory, homestays are often the best option. One boutique travel company, Pelorus, pairs guests with specific hosts and neighborhoods, depending on their interests — food, music or retracing family roots. “Homestays allow us to be more flexible,” Jimmy Carroll, the company’s co-founder, said.