The Mercury News has a feature story on the life cycle of the American computer: built of parts born in China, it gets shipped to the US, and when it's lost it's usefulness here, it's shipped back as e-waste to third world nations. Only they aren't practicing environmentally safe recycling in Guiyu, China, and other Asian countries. Even worse, the old electronics they are receiving are often often obtained from so-called computer recycling companies here in the US, ones which Americans pay to have their computers recycled.

While you might think, "Well, it's not me," the evidence suggest that it's from such a wide-range of sources that it's difficult for any of us not to assume culpability:

HP, IBM and Kmart were among the brand names on the tags and labels fastened to the scrapped electronics products videotaped by the investigators. Former owners identified on the tags included San Francisco State University, the Los Angeles Unified School District and Xerox Corp. A 16-inch Sony color monitor previously owned by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency found its way to Guiyu.