Dead floppy drive: Kenya recycles global e-waste

By Corinne Chin

Published August 22, 2014 3:57pm ET

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Dead floppy drive: Kenya recycles global e-waste — In this photo taken Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, a worker uses an electric screwdriver to dismantle a printer for recycling, at the East African Compliant Recycling facility in Machakos, near Nairobi, in Kenya. The amount of electronic waste generated globally last year is enough to fill 100 Empire State Buildings and represents more than 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) for every living person, according to the U.N. Environmental Program, with much of that e-waste exported to developing countries like India and Kenya in the form of used goods. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) | Ben Curtis

MACHAKOS, Kenya (AP) — In an industrial area outside Kenya’s capital city, workers in hard hats and white masks take shiny new power drills to computer parts. This assembly line is not assembling, though. It is dismantling some of the estimated 50 million metric tons of hazardous electronic-waste the world generated last year.

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