chip chop shops

Hiroshi pointed me to this BusinessWeek investigation on microchip counterfeiting, which explains how electronic waste recycling is profitable: used circuit boards are baked over coal fires to loosen precious microchips. These are rinsed in the local river and sorted according to manufacturer. The chips can be re-sold as is, or their markings can be sanded off to apply newer – and in some cases, completely different – logos and product names. This story focuses on how all of this is worth the trouble, because some of the chips can be re-marked as military-grade and sold for substantially higher prices. While this may be troubling for technologically advanced military superpowers, it also points to an encouraging side story about the fact that some of the precious materials encased in microchips are able to receive extended use through painstaking labor (some might call it ‘up-cycling‘).

Watch the video here.