India, China and Bangaldesh are becoming the electronic dustbins of the world - and concern is growing over the environmental impact.

The United States throws away 30 million computers every year. But instead of dealing with its own waste, the US dumps the computers in China and India.

Developing nations have welcomed electronic waste in the past because good money can be made from stripping down computers and recycling and reselling the parts.

But concern is now growing over the environmental impact upon these nations.

One problem is that recycling computers releases toxic heavy metals.

"They have things like mercury, lead, flame retardants, and PVC-coated copper wire," Ravi Agraval, leader of campaign group Toxic Links, told BBC World Service's One Planet programme.

The extraction process also uses a range of chemicals, including acids, which are dumped in the soil and find their way into the groundwater.

A third fear is that the unregulated recycling industry is a health hazard to its employees, who are exposed to dangerous chemicals on a daily basis.

"The people actually doing the brunt of the recycling are people on less than half a dollar a day - women and children working in very shanty-like, disastrous, inhuman conditions," Mr Agraval said.

"For them, it's the difference between poison and a livelihood."
www.toxicslink.org