Bolivia's Golden Ticket

Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in South America, is sitting on an untapped reserve of Lithium Carbonate. This aqueous metal solution is the primary component in the lithium ion batteries we all use in our phones, tablets and laptops. However, with the popularity of electric vehicles on the rise demand for lithium carbonate is ever increasing, along with the price. Bolivia has the worlds largest known resource of lithium carbonate beneath the Salar de Uyuni salt flats located to the southwest. The salt flats, bordered by the Andes mountain range, are 3,656 meters above sea level in one of the most arid and inhospitable environments on Earth (Image below). However, beneath the 10,500 km squared of dried salt crust is an estimated 5.5 million tonnes of lithium.

I came across two video reports, one from 2009 and another from 2012 assessing the rather individual way that the Bolivian government is planning on exploiting the precious resource that they hold (links below). The master plan being that foreign companies would be allowed to utilise the lithium resource as long as all battery manufacture would take place within Bolivia and all profits made would be reinvested into the country. With this proposal the government hopes to bring an end to foreign exploitation of resources. However, it would seem that in the intervening 3 years between the reports Bolivia has made little progress in completing its goal to create a fully intergraded battery manufacturing facility without non-domestic investment. The mining process is relatively simple and environmentally friendly. The top layer of salt evaporite is removed and a pit is dug into which lithium in solution gathers. Evaporation of water leaves a concentrated solution of lithium carbonate behind in the pit which can then be syphoned off and transported. The problem is that there is no infrastructure at the Salar de Uyuni. Infrastructure that could have been funded by foreign investment. In these times of economic hardship Bolivia hardly has the excess to spend on developing industrial scale manufacturing and mining at 3,500m above sea level. However, if the government does not invest or allow investment in its own future now then in 10 to 20 years when battery technology has moved on, the proverbial gold rush will be over. 

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannia, USGS, Image curtsy of Landsat

  

Soil Contamination and the Problems Facing Wenling Province

So continuing on from last weeks media review on the Wenling Province of China I found a paper in the Journal of Hazardous Materials on a similar subject. The focus of the paper is on soil contamination within the province and relating this data to density of both household workshops and large scale recycling facilities.

The study investigated the levels of heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds found within paddy soil compared to a reference site. The paper shows that levels of Hg and Zn as well as PCB's exceeded the Grade 2 “safe” level as set out by the State Environmental Protection Administration of China by up to 300%. Probably the most disturbing aspect of this discovery is that the contamination is greatest within the water logged soil of paddy farms. The products of which are being eaten by individuals throughout the province. The effects are only likely to be seen within the next decade.

Another interesting observation of the report is that comparatively, small household recycling facilities produce far more toxic and harmful waste than larger more regulated factories. This is, in part, due to the lack environmental regulations and laws of Wenling which encouraged people to start e-waste businesses in the first place.

From what I have read and watched, the problem facing Wenling as a centre for electronic waste disposal is one of regulation. The province must first work to educate those in homespun industries in order to reduce the amount of pollution before regulating the sector. To initiate this change in policy it is down to the consumer, namely the USA, Japan and Australia, to take responsibility for where it chooses to off load its e-waste. There is, after all, money to be made from the responsible recycling of electronics and this could be Wenling's golden ticket for the future. But lets hope it is not at the expense of the people of the environment.  

E-waste in the Media – China’s Dirty Secret, a Report by Al Jazeera English (Feb, 2011)

Worth spending 20 minutes to watch the whole clip but skip to 9.50 min for reviewed segment.

Last week I reviewed a paper on the environmental impact of mobile phone waste in China. This week I found a short journalistic report by Al Jazeera English on the environmental and social impacts of both the production and recycling of electronic goods in China. With the Chinese economy the envy of the world over, at what cost to its people and the environment is this economic growth causing? Between poor working conditions within manufacturing plants and almost zero regulation on the disposal of industrial waste it would seem that both the people and the environment are suffering heavily.

The majority of e-waste coming into china is from Australia, USA and Japan. The report presents the case study of Wenling in Zhejiang Province, a coastal county-level city with a population of 5.7 million. The report mainly focuses on the negative social impacts of e-waste and only briefly touches upon the issues of soil and ground water contamination. This appears to be systematic of the media’s response to e-waste. If it isn’t directly causing harm to people right here in the present then it is not worth reporting on. Whereas, in reality, the problems of soil contamination with toxic heavy metals could cause health issues for the people of Wenling for generations to come. More on this subject soon!