Everyone knows that phones and the electronic devices might be made in some sweatshop in China (if you don’t google Foxconn for some really shocking stories)…what you mignt not know is your mobile and other devices share more than you think with blood diamonds – that blood has probably been shed in relation to the very minerals that make up the electronics.
Via the ever excellent Bicyclemark aka CitizenReporter, and then the ‘Blood in the Mobile’ documentary above that the Congo is one of the largest exporters of such minerals such as coltan which is used in capacitors…but such trade has been helping to fund the conflict there since 1998, with an estimated 5 million people had died as a result of that war…with forced mining, environmental damage, destruction of the Mountain Gorilla, illegal and hazardous mining and the use of children to mine for these minerals, it’s literally blood in your hands. So is your mobile produced fairly and ethically? Sadly it’s very hard to tell where minerals come from, especially after they are processed, but groups such as Fairphone are trying to make a greener more ethical phone.
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