Young Sanjay and his friends have abandoned their fertile northern India farm fields and taken up a more dangerous line of work: collecting copper powder by submerging discarded circuit boards in nitric acid, and selling the usable leftover materials to factories. In many ways, their process is similar to farm work, requiring them to cut, clean, and sort through the circuit boards. Their harvest, however, is anything but sustainable: it poisons their lungs and the land that used to provide for them.
In a changing economy, Indian farmers turn to a different crop: copper
Director: Mike Paterson
Website: 94 Elements
8 December 2014
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