The Ipad, Made By The Company Apple Inc.

Sweatshops have been around for centuries, beginning around the late 1880’s. Sweatshops are classified by three main components, long work hours, very low pay and unsafe and unhealthy working environments. Sweatshops are usually found in manufacturing industries and the most highlighted production is clothing corporations, who take full advantage of the low production costs of their products. Many may think sweatshops are a thing of the past but they are still affecting many lives across the nations. There are many ways sweatshops affect lives, but a recent article titled “New study finds ‘more sweatshops than Starbucks’ in Chicago” explains that there are many low wage industry jobs that are violating labor laws in the United States alone. The article also reports how employees who are working in such conditions won’t speak up in fear of the retaliation employers will implement. Analyzing Sweatshops through the lens of the Sociological perspectives will help us better understand the illegal conditions of workplaces that still exist today.

Electronics Recycling. Electronic recycling is one consideration the company can do better with. Recycling in general lowers greenhouse gas emissions that are caused by manufacturing items for the first time. Recycling electronics conserves natural resources making cleaner air and water. The valuable resources computers and electronic components carry are metals, plastics, and glass. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recycling a million laptops would give back enough energy for 3500 American homes’ electricity. A million cell phones would could yield 35,000 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium. Instead of throwing out the old computers and blackberry’s, the company could simply upgrade the hardware or software and then recycle the parts necessary.

E-waste or electronic waste is the number 1 fastest growing trash in the united states since 2004. E-waste is made up of lead, mercury, , and caldium. All of these Acids are deadly to the human body. Alex lin and many other teen activists work with these acids every day. Also, These activists are trying to stop these deadly acid from seeking into the ground and killing natural resources. These acids can also get into the water systems and harm people. When you get a new electronic you would most likely through it out in the TRASH, but you should recycle old electronics. According to the Electronic recycling 101 article, 3 million tons of electronic are trough out and only 13.6 of them are recycled. This shows that many people are unaware of

They often use child labor, lack workers’ benefits, and use intimidation as means of controlling workers (Boal, Mark). Typically, sweatshops are found in developing countries, however, they are also a prevalent problem in many first world countries including the United States. Many manufacturers claim that sweatshops exist in order to keep prices down for consumers, while allowing profit. On the contrary, there is also substantial evidence that goes against these beliefs. For instance, a study showed that while doubling the wage of sweatshop workers would increase consumer price by 1.8%, consumers are willing to pay 15% more with the assurance that the product was made with fair labor (11 Facts About). This, however, is a hard argument seeing as the circumstance was hypothetical and if prices were actually raised, there is no way to assure that consumers would react the same way. Either way, both sides of the argument can agree that the conditions are not good, it is just a matter of analysing the cost vs. the benefit to determine their necessity. This leads to several questions: Are sweatshops a necessary evil, how could they be abolished, and what realistic goals regarding the bettering of worker conditions can be met? Through the answering of these questions, it is easy to see that despite claims of sweatshops bringing opportunities to

It has become the new “norm” with people to replace their electronics because their devices become out of date or they feel like they have to have the latest thing. In the article “Our E-Waste Problem Is Ridiculous, And Gadget Makers Aren’t Helping,” by Christina Bonnington, the author discusses how people buy new electronics every year when they come out and the old ones get abandoned. She also talks about how many people aren’t properly recycling their old devices and how some electronics can be impossible to recycle the right way. She also talks

This factory collapsed and killed over 1,000 workers (Abrams, Rachel). In addition US companies use child labor that never would be ok in the domestic market. GAP has been accused of using 8 year old workers and Apple 15 year olds (Lamarque,Hannah). Other companies work minors over 19 hours per day (Lamarque,Hannah ). Can you imagine the backlash if a US company tried these practices? Overall, if they guarantee these rights in their home markets, they should treat their employees and customers abroad with equal human rights protection.

It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance." Many people in the Western world either do not know or choose to ignore the fact that a massive amount of products that come into North America from faraway lands are produced in sweatshops, including shoes, clothing, and toys. This ignorance over the inhumane and unjust labour conditions happening in factories on other sides of the globe is precisely what keeps these horrifying practices alive. China is home to one of the most enormous and concentrated sweatshop systems in the world. There are approximately 150 million people in China working in ghastly conditions, having to live off nearly unsustainable pay, and being refused benefits

Many Americans have the luxury of purchasing new electronics almost every year. Something that is ignored, since it has become so natural, is exactly how their little devices had come to their lives and what happens when it is thrown away. In a more perfect world, the production of electronics would that of an ethical process, but it is unfortunately not that case. It all starts with the harvesting of raw materials.

If you where to ask a small child in Nigeria—"what do you do everyday?" They will most likely answer, "burning e-waste and selling the minerals inside in in." Not an answer you would receive from an American children living in the Untied States. Slowly this kids are being sicken by all the dangerous substances that e-waste contains. Soon this will lead for their bodies to stop growing properly. They will eventually die. Old electronics should not be thrown away, instead recycled. Because it is not healthy for the people in the countries that try to take out the material inside of the e-waste. And because we need tougher laws. Also because you can recycle.

While being too focused on new, bright and shiny technological innovations, a lot of people don’t think about where their old obsolete technology goes or how it affects the environment. Electronic waste (E-waste) “...comprises electrical appliances such as fridges, air conditioners, washing machines, microwave ovens, and fluorescent light bulbs; and electronic products such as computers and accessories, mobile phones, television sets and stereo equipment” (Lundgren). Recycling electronic waste is expensive, so many developing countries receive E-waste from other countries (often times illegally) to extract valuable materials from the electronics to be used for the country’s benefit. Although the country recycling this waste benefits from an economical standpoint, the environmental and health standpoint isn’t so lucky. “...rudimentary recycling techniques coupled with the amounts of e-waste processed have already resulted in adverse environmental and human health impacts, including contaminated soil and surface water” (Lundgren). With an extreme lack in any sort of safety regulations, poor workers are taken advantage of and suffer the most because “...workers and communities are exposed to many highly toxic chemicals" (Marko) and it’s all because Americans don’t want to spend the money or take the time to properly recycle these products. The

As a sophomore in high school, I taught myself how to repair smart phones, which lead me to start a smart phone repair business to save for college. I quickly realized that we are a “throw-away” society, in which 1% of cell phones are sustainably recycled. Now, three years later and thousands of sustainable repairs completed, I look back and see that by repairing smart phones I have helped in a small way to reduce the amount of e-waste in my community. Through my repair business, I am only able to play a limited role in responsibly reducing, repairing and recycling e-waste by extending the life of smart phones. However, I know there continues to be a tremendous global need for progress beyond my smart phone repair business. I have developed a genuine passion for globally sustainable and responsible practices and programs to reduce e-waste.

Techno trash (or e-waste) is one of the negative impacts of new technology. It is the rubbish created by discarded electronics. Developed countries such as the U.S export 50% to 80% of their techno trash to poorer Asian countries. The discarded technology is processed by workers who do not have the right equipment to handle and safely recycle these tech materials. This puts the workers and community to high levels of toxic materials, which could turn towns and the surrounding area into contaminated dumps. The e-waste that isn’t transported to Asia ends up in local landfills and poses risks to the surrounding environment and communities. Technology is made up of a mixture of dangerous chemicals. The toxic chemicals can cause serious damage to the environment. Some of these chemicals include beryllium, cadmium, lead and

When you go shopping to Walmart or Apple ask yourself where your product is coming from. China has numerous sweatshop factories assembling USA's products from stores as Apple and Walmart. China’s Sweatshop tends to violate human labor’s rights by forcing overtime and going under the mandatory minimum wage and other violations as long hour without pay, sexual, and physical harassment. China's sweatshop factory tends to be quite popular because is cheap labor, free trade zone, or low fee rates in taxes. The reason store as Apple and Walmart has their product to be assembled in China's factory is to avoid high export fees. Since Walmart and Apple factory's locations was identified and it came public in the media it shocked the world of its employee’s cruel working's condition. Factors in China are located in Guangdong Province Songang or in Shenzhen. For example Foxconn is a factory located in Shenzhen where Apple send their electronic to be assembled and made. In China the majority workers in factories is occupy by women and children. The percentage of women in China's Sweatshops is ninety percents. In China, the majority working in sweatshop are women which are young and not educated; in addition, forcing them to be ignorant of their own legal rights. Young women in China are attached to numeral discrimination and unfair pay. China's sweatshop is popular on violating labor rights, especially against women and underage minor women and men. It is unfortunate

Researching whether ‘sweatshops’ are morally permissible has been an eye opening experience. One has to fully understand what a sweatshop actually is before developing an opinion whether it is morally right or wrong. The definition of a sweatshop is broad, it describes any type factory with dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, all while low pay and long hours are notorious. After digging deeper into this, it turns out that most if not all of the workers employed there would rather work in these type of factories than the alternative. Understanding what actually consists of an unhealthy work environment, and low wages are not as cut and dry as you may think. You have to keep in mind, most of these factories are located in foreign countries where the normal everyday conditions would be appalling to some Americans.

America has come a long way in regards to labor laws and doing away with sweatshops but they still exist. Most of the stories we hear about now are in 3rd world countries and something that we do not have to deal with or have to worried about her in the USA. However, that is all very untrue. “The 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh, which killed more than 1,100 people, reignited worldwide calls for new labor laws and increased government regulation in poorer countries that produce garments in so-called sweatshops (Powell, 2014).” Right here in the USA we had “the infamous sweatshop in El Monte, California, uncovered by authorities in 1995, where seventy-two Thai immigrant workers were held in virtual slavery in a compound surrounded with a high fence ( ).”