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It's Not All Waste: The Complicated Life of Surplus Electronics In Africa
retroworks writes "Today's Science Daily reports on 5 new UN studies of used computer and electronics management in Africa. The studies find that about 85% of surplus electronics imports are reused, not discarded. Most of the goods pictured in 'primitive e-waste' articles were domestically generated and have been in use, or reused, for years. Africa's technology lifecycle for displays is 2-3 times the productive use cycle in OECD nations. Still, EU bans the trade of used technology to Africa, Interpol has describes 'most' African computer importers as 'criminals,' and U.S. bill HR2284 would do the same. Can Africa 'leapfrog' to newer and better tech? Or are geeks and fixers the appropriate technology for 83% of the world (non-OECD's population)? "
Obsessive Electronic Compulsive Disorder? You mean Mac users?
...only outlaws will have surplus electronics.
It seems like electronics are used for a shorter time in US than in developing countries
As an example, cell phone(smartphone) lifecycles seem to be 1-2 years for US customers but 2-5 years for the Indian markets
Similarly, you wont find people having an issue with using a 3-4 year old PC built out of reused components as long as it does the work it is intended for
As an example, many cybercafes and print shops still run p4 based desktops, they simply dont need more power
Used hardware is excellent value when you are on a shoestring budget. I think a lot of school kids and students in Africa would find it attractive. Yes, there are new tablets and notebooks available today starting near $100. But even that is a lot of money to some, and used tech can often be had for free, or the cost of shipping. Also, arguably you can often get much better used hardware for the same money. And tinkering with it also trains people to be hackers and know their hardware well. So, overall I think such reuse is good.
A huge disadvantage is the environment damage when that hardware finally gets thrown away. Normal western schemes like including recycling in the price and handling it through dealers and agencies is hardly applicable here. There has to be direct financial incentive for both the old hardware owner and the recycling center to handle this properly. So maybe if EU really wants to help, they should try to organize a network of recycling shops. But this is probably more difficult than simply banning the export officially and ignoring the black market.
I've seen Cambodia's IT infrastructure improve over the last several years, but they still rely on much older, used equipment as their primary source of hardware. The most basic factor is cost. For someone earning about $100 a month (generally considered middle-class and able to reasonably sustain a small family), the prospect of a brand new computer, phone, or other device is unthinkable. Even a PC setup with monitor, UPS, keyboard, and mouse will run you $250. It'll be about 4 years old, but it runs Windows XP or Vista quite well because of lack of service packs. Plus, it's fully loaded with software since the concept of copyright hasn't been fully embraced.
I guess if you could bring low cost, reasonable electronics to the developing world they would embrace it instead of used equipment. I'll let you know when I see it for sale on the streets of Phnom Penh or Siem Reap. For now, it's all used PCs (mostly Dell and HP) and Nokia phones.
As evidenced by Republican Eric Holder's "Fast & Furious" program. Thanks for the change!
That 15% can still do a huge amount of damage. We should be focusing on making all electronics easily recyclable, setting up clean recycling facilities in Africa or wherever, and creating long-term storage for the rest. Oh yes, and write better software so upgrades are minimal.
That 15% is still a huge problem, IMO.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
The big manufacturers like Dell have been trumping up the 'eWaste' issue for years now. They do it to make sure they yank all the old hardware out of the secondary (used) market where it inteferes with new equipment sales.
My local situation is typical. We don't (yet) have to pay a 'disposal fee' to get rid of the 'untouchable' evil-awful old computer equipment, but the local Goodwill is the place-of-choice to donate them to. And Dell has a 'bounty' deal going with Goodwill, to pull all PeeCees out of the donation stream and never, EVER put them out for resale.
A lot of us got our start playing around with Linux on multiple PCs (networking) using castoff PCs that there are agents now actively making sure are not 'just lying around' for us to fool with. It's quite possible that a lot of that wouldn't happen in today's environment.
I'm having a hard time understanding why the EU would want to forbid the export of used electronics to Africa. Are they afraid they are just going to get dumped there? It would seem to me that it would be beneficial to send any type of used electronics there (given that they aren't more that a few years old and in working order). Not only would it provide affordable and useable technology, it would assist in education,as well as provide jobs in that locals would need to learn how to maintain them. As more and more people become familiar with and use these electronics on a daily basis, they may start producing their own designs, products, or services that are intended for local use, bolstering the economy. Better economy=more stable state. More stable states=more stable region. More stable region=fewer immigrants (a big concern for the EU) and a reduced need for military interventions. A win-win for everyone.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Ban the sale of reusable goods to countries fully capable of using them and force them to buy new stuff they cannot afford. This whole planet's gone mad, I tells ya', MAD.
I'm beginning to regret knowing my grandparents. They taught me to fix what could be fixed and only replace what you finally cannot fix. I'm writing this on an old CRT monitor that a friend gave me because the image was getting too dark. I did a little research, found that changing out a single resistor would brighten up the image for another ten years or so and it's still working. Meanwhile, he's using a "new" LCD monitor that's starting to suffer pixel dropouts as it ages. When the power supply fan bearings get noisy, I replace the fan in the power supply. I've even replaced capacitors on motherboards and in power supplies rather than replace the whole unit.
God, I hate using this term but if that isn't being green I don't know what is. In the old days it wasn't called being green. It was called being frugal (or, if you weren't Scottish in background, being cheap. :-)
(I'm in Canada, btw, not Africa.)
I spent 2 months in Swaziland, Africa in 2005 with some missionaries there. It was shocking how expensive new tech was there (3-10x more than USA). Internet in the entire country was 28.8 dialup to a geosync satellite backhaul to Johannesburg. My missionary friend's internet + cell phone bill was in the neighborhood of $500.
I knew it was bad before I left so I downloaded as many security/OS/application updates and free applications and took them with me. I spent a good bit of time just going around to missionary, pastor, and college computers installing service packs, Windows updates, antivirus, etc because they were YEARS out of date.
The best PC I saw was about 1/2 the spec of the $1200 laptop I took with me, and once when we needed to burn a dual layer DVD, I found only one vendor with one model that was incompatible with my laptop's burner. They had so many computers that were 1-2 generations old that I was in shock. And they were desperate for more. One Swazi came up to me begging to get a 286 laptop working. I tried but there was nothing I could do. The college had some spare parts and wanted me to build a PC from them. In the process I discovered old Dells (dunno about new ones) required proprietary power supplies, and so I had a perfectly good Pentium 4 that was unusable other than a dead p/s I couldn't replace in Africa. So instead, I was able to get a 386 or 486 running with a 3GB hard drive but it wouldn't fit in the Dell case. They were so desperate for it to run that they had a missionary build a case out of wood so I could install the motherboard into it and have another computer for the students.
The whole time all I could think was that I had thrown away computer stuff that was so much better than this that it was embarrassing. If only I was back in the US, a $50-100 PC would blow away pretty much any tech I saw in the hands of a regular African. I'm shocked at the subject of this article... African people do realize the huge educational/connectivity/jobs divide that is only growing and want desperately to catch up. What is needed is a way to make it easier/cheaper to send old tech to Africa... not harder! They have to start somewhere, and this also keeps it out of the landfill that much longer.
Hey these are environmentalists wanting these sorts of laws. They could care less about the needs of the Third World poor. They want the rest of us to sit in the dark and cold while they jet-set to exotic locales.
JCPM: criminals? what crime did they commit? (in the ancient history, some israelites did prohibit to canaanites to sell certain things that were built, so that, some israelites are out of the divine authority when did forbid to anothers to do things except israeilites, obviously, much racist and zionist were)
some systems from that time have bad caps even more so the P4 systems.
Why doesn't Linux own the desktop in Africa - Or does it? I would figure a FreeAsInBeer OS would be ideal for developing nations? Why don't we hear about millions of Linux desktops in Africa?
compared to the Pacific Garbage Patch
I can not believe that, i do not see why ratio of people with IQ>100 and IQ100 should be any different in Africa VS Asia/Europe, are you sure it is not just lack of education? as for stealing, it is NOT stealing if we give it to them willingly
Supposedly, there's a similar issue with used medical equipment and supplies. I've heard of charitable donations getting into trouble because it was considered to be illegal export of medical waste.
...will also tell you that the day the Portuguese left the infrastructure started to crumble, and hasn't been the same since.
When the British left, the same happened to India. The British built some wonderful rail roads and now look at them.
The trouble is that the countries mentioned have identified themselves as victims of Western colonialism and like all who identify themselves as victims are unable to move on.
Although, India seems to be snapping out of it - in my humble Cowardly opinion ....
I am well aware of charities out there who like to package up used computers and sent them off to Africa, the truth is, the computers are old and mostly useless. It's not that people aren't appreciative, but realistically, setting up a refurbished CPU, monitor, keyboard, powersupply, stabilizer, ect... it takes a lot of work. It also takes maintenance and training. It takes a lot of money to do all this. Furthermore, once a computer lab has been set up, it must be made sustainable, it needs security, someone to look after it. All of this entails an infrastructure of some kind.
This is why, it is very easy to donate computers, or to even set up computer centers and labs, but it is much harder to make them a success within a community.
It's actually much cheaper just to source a brand new dell laptop from a local supplier than to ship in in from half way around the world. Many companies, even a few African one's have localized hardware and special low-cost versions that do not sacrifice much performance and still offer the latest technologies. A low cost laptop/netbook/smartphone uses several MAGNITUDES less electricity than a bigbox cpu. Electricity is the biggest problem, or lack of it. Anyway, the economies of most African nations are growing at 5-10%, there is a lot of money to be made in IT. There are African multimillionaire being made in every African country due to the IT boom
I'm rambling now, but back to the e-waste, it's a huge problem, but on the other hand, if someone were to set up a properly functioning e-waste recycling business and properly employ the young men, give them training, and safety equipment, they could do a lot better for themselves.
as soon as we can print out our own chips, none of this will matter.
you know the 'Arab Spring'? Well, most of it was in Africa. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya - all African countries. The guy who started Ubuntu? African. These folks are on the forefront of tech, they just have been barred from access to capital by corruption.
Ban the sale of reusable goods to countries fully capable of using them and force them to buy new stuff they cannot afford. This whole planet's gone mad, I tells ya', MAD.
I'm beginning to regret knowing my grandparents. They taught me to fix what could be fixed and only replace what you finally cannot fix. I'm writing this on an old CRT monitor that a friend gave me because the image was getting too dark. I did a little research, found that changing out a single resistor would brighten up the image for another ten years or so and it's still working. Meanwhile, he's using a "new" LCD monitor that's starting to suffer pixel dropouts as it ages. When the power supply fan bearings get noisy, I replace the fan in the power supply. I've even replaced capacitors on motherboards and in power supplies rather than replace the whole unit.
God, I hate using this term but if that isn't being green I don't know what is. In the old days it wasn't called being green. It was called being frugal (or, if you weren't Scottish in background, being cheap. :-)
(I'm in Canada, btw, not Africa.)
My guess is you have never seen how ewaste is 'recycled'; picture pre-teenage boys using the crudest tools (or their bare hands) to rip apart electronics, including monitors (that are chockful of cancer causing agents), pound the pieces into powder, then melt them down in makeshift smelters (no masks here, just breath in the fumes), then cook out the chemical elements. Most of these kids have brain damage from exposure. Most will get cancer and die painful deaths. Lets also not forget that while they surely get paid something for their labor, in all likelihood they are virtual child slaves. My guess is your sensibilities make you incapable of imagining the abject horror of their existence.
Some perspective on the reality of the situation would be advised.
The average IQ of African countries is around SEVENTY.
Any comments?
Yes: That makes it exactly TEN POINTS higher than the median Slashdot commenter. Now prove me wrong.
Ezekiel 23:20
Thus soiling our image of them as noble savages living in mud huts without electricity living in harmony with mother earth. Well, we will have to put a stop to that by banning the imports of used computers. If the want to buy a computer they need to buy one brand new which we know won't happen. Computers need electricity and we certainly don't want them having electricity. Think of all the fossil fuels they might use. The supply of computers will dry up and once again we will make sure the african people are free of technology and will be unable to develop their countries and better educate their population. Remember the continent of Africa is to remain desolate and impoverished to assuage the guilt us white westerners feel for developing our lands and having prosperous nations.
JCPM: it maybe be an ancient african myth: The faith moves mountains. And a new generation of africans had born: the african developers dedicated to the e-waste of reused PCs for plantations on their lands for another interesting purposes profitable for themselves! (for making more difficult the tasks of the foreign treasurehunters before of being overexploited their natural resources).
Blaming an entire nation or people for using technology is blatant and disgusting RACISM.
Can't have all those "niggers" learning how to use computers and benefitting THEMSELVES, can we?
The US, OECD, and Interpol SICKEN me with such statements and "legislation". They'd get LYNCHED if they tried to apply such blanket statements in their homelands.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
IQ of a chimpanzee is between 70 and 90. IQ of a gorilla is between 80 and 100. IQ of an elephant is around 122. Makes you wonder whether some slashdot readers should be in a cage at zoo, "Now darling, do you want to feed the geeks? OK, here's a can of Jolt Cola and a bag of Doritos. Now give him the can and put the crisp in a disk. Now put them on his desk slowly...."
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Not the whole world is obsessed with throwing away something perfectly usable just because Lord Jobs has come out with something of a lighter shade color.
Nor is the rest of the world lacking in expertise and willingness to fix things that are broken. Not like you, who have to throw away something and buy new just because a screw is lost and finding another one that will fit will take more time and money than buying a new one.
Pity, eh?
Obama 2012! Vote out the Republicans who've been holding up this nation's progress for the past 12 years.
Wait. What? I'm so confused....
I thought Obama was a Democrat.
Shit. I'm going to have to go back to watching TV again. Out of the loop!
Thanks, AC!
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
He said big, not plasma. Plasma is not the only way to go big. A projector and a bare wall and some paint will get you a bigger TV than any plasma made, and at a relatively low cost as well. A projector capable of delivering a 300" 1080p display is about $860 right now.
Um.... no. You're a little out of touch, there. Do you realize a 17" LCD with HDMI, etc., is about $100? And that all the old CRT TV's can no longer receive on-air broadcasts without an external converter system? I haven't even seen a CRT TV in some years now -- outside of the local landfill.
Also changing. Cable doesn't hold a candle to streaming -- both in convenience and WRT content -- and again, everyone I know streams. Computers, Roku, AppleTV, Bluray players with built in apps, iPads, Fires, phones, etc... Satellite systems and cable connections are being let go when the contracts expire. Most dishes around here (Rural Montana, so you'd think we'd use em if we needed em) are disconnected, wires hanging at the dish. The cable company gave up last year, so it's no longer even an option.
Oh, come now. Again, I live in an extremely rural area. We're 300 miles from the nearest city worthy of the name. There's cell coverage all along the highways, in every town, and over a surprising amount of adjacent area, including the entire lake (Fort Peck lake, the thing is blinkin' huge.) Most of the US that doesn't have cell coverage... doesn't really *need* cell coverage. There's a distinct difference between "3rd world lack of needed infrastructure" and "no one goes out there into the boonies because there's nothing of interest." And even out there, we have ham radio repeaters, sheriff's department coverage, ranchers have radios and wired telephones... nah, sorry, that whole third world thing... that only applies to our government's current abandonment of the constitution in favor of fiat rule. Our infrastructure is outstanding, if a little frayed around the edges here and there.
So... your thesis is, if the country allows poor people to exist, it's a 3rd-world country? I dunno about that. What about a country -- like this one -- that allows one to get out of that situation by virtue of paying attention in school, learning well, applying a quality work ethic, and not adopting fringe cultural variations such as your pants hanging below your butt, tattoos all over your face and neck, and a mangled form of English only understood by fans of rap videos? Personally, I think we're pretty advanced in that we allow such cultural choices to be made. If you want to be a fringe element, you can do that. If you want to get out, as it were, your odds are excellent if you simply observe the successful strategies that lead to your goal and emulate them.
Personally, I think the worst cultural negative we apply is school sports; young people often follow, usually at the behest of their schools, a sports-centric approach in the hopes that this will bring them the cultural status, position and wealth they would like to have, not realizing that the odds are hugely stacked against them and that following an academic path instead would serve them far better. This is something I see locally -- trying to hire young people with adequate reading and writing and even basic math skills is quite a task; on the other hand, if throwing a ball a
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
You have *zero* comprehension of what IQ is, lol.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
So with all these comments, how many people actually clicked thru to read the link? The article cited says absolutely nothing about 85% of surplus import electronics being recycled/reused. The link is about how most of the materials are from domestically generated e-waste. Perhaps the original submission was to a different article? It is interesting how /.ters can flame on without checking any sources.
Lmfao! I'd mod you up if I had points...
Koko has a tested IQ of between 70 and 95 on a human scale, where 100 is considered "normal."
Elephant outwits human on IQ test
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
And the same thing happened when the Romans left England. It was 1000 years before anyone built roads again, for example.
I don't trust the Gorilla Foundation anymore. Especially after they got sued by two of their female caretakers who were ordered to take off their tops, with the alleged justification that Koko wanted to see their nipples.
Given that Koko's signed conversations are worse than Eliza,
HaloMyBaby: MInyKitty asks Koko are you going to have a baby in the future?
LiveKOKO: Pink
DrPPatrsn: We've had earlier discussion about colors today
LiveKOKO: Listen, Koko loves eat
HaloMyBaby: Me too!
DrPPatrsn: What about a baby? She's thinking...
LiveKOKO: Unattention
DrPPatrsn: She covered her face with her hands....which means it's not happening, basically, or it hasn't happened yet.
LiveKOKO: I don't see it.
HaloMyBaby: That's sad!
DrPPatrsn: In other words, she hasn't had one yet, and she doesn't see it happening. She needs several females and one male to have a family. In our setting it really isn't possible for her to have a baby.
Question: Do you like to chat with other people?
LiveKOKO: fine nipple
DrPPatrsn: Nipple rhymes with people, she doesn't sign people per se, she was trying to do a "sounds like..."
It doesn't seem that difficult to believe that most of the 'high level comprehension' Koko displays is a combination of wishful thinking and outright lying.
Even if we assume the best of intentions, Patterson has admitted that the research is difficult to support empirically (see Conversations with a Gorilla, National Geographic 1978).
Now let's deal with the elephants link.
Elephant outwits human on IQ test [discovery.com]
First off, I don't know why exactly you renamed 'intelligence test' to 'IQ test'. That's clearly deceptive. There is no 'IQ test' in TFA.
Second, there was no competition between humans and elephants in the test. The 'outwitting humans' is a bit of sensationalist headline anyway, but that's Discovery's fault, not yours. The two instances referred to are:
"We were pleasantly surprised to see the youngest elephant, Neua Un, use her foot to hold the rope so that her partner had to do all the work," Plotnik said. "I hadn't thought about this beforehand, and Neua Un seemed to figure it out by chance, but it speaks volumes to the flexibility of elephant behavior that she was able to figure this out and stick to it."
and
The other "cheater," JoJo, didn't even bother to walk up to the volleyball net unless his partner, Wanalee, was released.
"Perhaps he had learned that if he approached the rope without her, he'd fail," Plotnik said, adding that such advanced learning, problem-solving, and cooperation are rare in the animal kingdom
Neither of which I'd really consider 'outwitting'.
First of all, IQ is only relevant to a particular population. Even among humans, an IQ test issued in one region won't accurately reflect the IQ of those in another because of built-in language, cultural and technological bias issues that are integral to the testing process. Secondly, measuring the IQ of an animal with a human IQ test is going to get results that are WAY off, probably far underestimating the animal's capacity for induction and reasoning because there's an entirely different sensorium involved, but even that isn't certain. Please don't quote psychobabble without a background in it. It does no one, including the animals here, any good. It just looks uninformed and clueless -- because it is.
I know of no one who is more pro-animal than I am, or who would more like to see them achieve a level of rights in our society far, far beyond where they are now, but it still tweaks the living heck out of me to see nonsense promoted as fact.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Many posts and articles point out that current and used hardware is extremely expensive in Africa, i.e. significantly more expensive than comparable stuff in the US/Europe. If that is actually true, can anyone explain what the reasons are? Is it due to import taxes, expensive logistics, sales taxes, lack of infrastructure? Isn't Africa an interesting market for multinationals / companies like Dell for selling low-end hardware (apparently asian companies are entering Africa aggressively, but with very low quality offers)? Also, what prevents Africans from mail-ordering hardware from the US/Europe (other than fear of scams :-P)?
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
If we could remove all the computers from Nigeria, the world would be a better place.
Heavy is the head that wears the tinfoil hat.
The truth hurts, doesn't it?
The US has made it an official policy to offshore the racism, slavery, environmental abuse, and a host of other issues that are illegal in the U S of A, all the while preaching "freedom" and "rights" to the rest of the world while they shove their own hatred down the gullets of foreign nations.
Not that Canada is any better -- we bitch at China about human rights issues while we treat our First Nations people worse than animals.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
In both the US and Canada, we "outsource" manufacturing to foreign nations with contracts that pay so little the foreign employees get less than an hour's minimum wage in terms of our own dollars for a 12 hour or longer day. It's offshored slavery.
We dump our used electronics and other garbage on third world nations to "clean up" and "recycle", while using environmentally hazardous manufacturing processes in the foreign nations where we've contracted outsource manufacturing to be done. It's offshored environmental damage.
Now they've taken it a step further, and are using policy to offshore racism by blaming all of Africa.
The truth hurts, bub -- suck it up.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I'll agree with the Koko the Gorilla bit. Though sounds a bit like the conversation I get from some of my relatives when they're watching TV and want to talk at the same time.
Elephant part - those are the two bits I though were interesting.
It's similar to game level design. You think you get the player to walk through the map, cross the trip wire, through the cycling laser beams, grab the key, battle the enemies, enter the reactor room, and escape through a pipe before the reactor blows up. Then the player figures out they just have to cross the trip wire, enter through the pipe and grab the key, and allow the laser beams to wipe out the enemies.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Any electronics sent to Africa or Asia are toxic, and 99% will
eventually be dumped or burned in countries that have almost no
enforcement and few laws.
E-waste researchers made 2 movies,
and I created a 10 minute cut of both.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnqvfNstr_4
credit to http://www.ban.org
The movies are "Exporting Harm" and "Digital Dump" 2002 & 2005
I'm a teacher and I'd like to share some great free teaching lessons on
e-waste
http://www.teachchange.org/ewaste
A simple and great lesson for classrooms is to have students take apart
dead computers and haul off the metal. Then show the e-waste
movies or short version. Leave the other parts in the classroom
for a few weeks and say you are having trouble finding a safe way to
get rid of all the toxic stuff. There is even homework with
a prize for students who inventory the most toxic e-waste in their own
basements and closets.
I've traveled to Latin America to haul back e-waste others have
donated. To use old technology the recipient need lots of
electricity, and to safely
process e-waste you need money and gasoline to haul it.
This report
is flawed in thinking that 30% is ewaste and 70% of used computers are
"used".
peace out!
I'm a teacher and I'd like to share some great free teaching lessons on e-waste
http://www.teachchange.org/ewaste
I very much doubt the claim in this report that 70% of our old electronics are "used". Any electronics sent to Africa or Asia are toxic, and 99% will eventually be dumped or burned in countries that have almost no enforcement and few laws.
E-waste researchers made 2 movies, and I created a 10 minute cut of both.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnqvfNstr_4
credit to http://www.ban.org
The movies are "Exporting Harm" and "Digital Dump" 2002 & 2005
A simple and great lesson for classrooms is to have students take apart dead computers and haul off the metal. Then show the e-waste movies or short version. Leave the other parts in the classroom for a few weeks and say you are having trouble finding a safe way to get rid of all the toxic stuff. There is even homework with a prize for students who inventory the most toxic e-waste in their own basements and closets.
I've traveled to Latin America to haul back e-waste others have donated. To use old technology the recipient need lots of electricity, and to safely process e-waste you need money and gasoline to haul it. This report is flawed in thinking that 30% is ewaste and 70% of used computers are "used".
peace out! . . sorry for posting this as anonymous in error.
> Still, EU bans the trade of used technology to Africa, Interpol has describes 'most' African computer importers as 'criminals,'
This is a load of horse shit. It really is a fucking load of horse shit and it makes me fucking angry.
My neighbor when I lived in Saunderstown RI, Alexander Randall, created the Boston Computer Exchange and was the founder of the East-West Education Development Foundation. The former was a brokerage for people who wanted to sell used computers which was revolutionary at the time, and the latter was an application of that concept for the donation of computers to the Eastern Bloc after the fall of the Berlin Wall, because he believes that information technology is a tool for democracy.
For fucks sake. This policy of the EU banning the export of used computers to Africa is idiotic and self defeating. The only reason I can gather that this is being done is that used tech cuts into the market of new technology. But if you can't fucking afford new tech and used tech is banned, you're not getting any tech.
The EU and Interpol can fuck themselves.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/alexander-randall-5th
--
BMO
I'm junk here anyways. Becoming a tech loving criminal just seems the next obvious step in my evolution.
But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, viniculture, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for England?
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
I've worked and lived in several African countries for almost ten years now.
Africa is a big place. I live in Uganda and our situation is quite different from what you describe.
There is no shortage of old computer parts, they are shipped in by the cargo container.
Not here. We have no import duty on complete units while parts and accessories are heavily taxed. Furthermore, nobody is sneaking in containers filled with useless garbage. Pro-ban advocates in Uganda (and other places) commonly use emotional rallying cries like "We refuse to be the dumping ground for the rest of the world!" International dumping may be an issue for coastal countries, but nobody in their right mind is going to /pay/ to ship something (especially valuable materials) to Mombasa then /pay more/ to truck it overland through Kenya just to dump it on an inland country like Uganda.
I am well aware of charities out there who like to package up used computers and sent them off to Africa, the truth is, the computers are old and mostly useless.
Hardly. Prior to the Finance Amendment Bill of 2009 which banned /all/ second-hand imports, the most commonly imported units were Pentium 4s with 512MB RAM, a 40GB HD, keyboard, monitor, and mouse. That's more than enough power to run a modern OS, Photoshop/Gimp, AutoCAD, office software, and a web browser.
It's actually much cheaper just to source a brand new dell laptop from a local supplier than to ship in in from half way around the world.
Prior to the ban, a working second-hand computer (as described above) cost $100 from retailers selling /at a profit/. It's now two years since the ban took effect and the cheapest new computer (desktop/laptop/netbook) costs $300. Essentially, computers are now far less affordable than they already were.
but realistically, setting up a refurbished CPU, monitor, keyboard, powersupply, stabilizer, ect... it takes a lot of work. It also takes maintenance and training. It takes a lot of money to do all this.
So we should increase costs further by by eliminating a source of inexpensive computers? Just so you know, many organizations which were building school labs and training thousands of teachers in Uganda (like Camara) were funded by profits from second-hand sales. Since the ban, they've halted these operations and/or left the country.
I'm rambling now, but back to the e-waste, it's a huge problem, but on the other hand, if someone were to set up a properly functioning e-waste recycling business and properly employ the young men, give them training, and safety equipment, they could do a lot better for themselves.
Here's a fun story: An organization in Uganda (Second Life) had been promised land by the government to set up a commercial e-waste recycling facility. When the Finance ministry decided to ban second-hand imports (see above) they also wrongly assumed they had solved the e-waste problem and took the recycling facility land back. Here's a quote by Dr. Aryamanya, Director of Uganda's National Environment Management Authority, on why the government decided to pull out of the project (source):
it would encourage the continuous importation of second hand computers and other electronic waste and would therefore negate the objectives of the ban.
Who the hell gave this guy a PHD? Tell me, doc, what are we going to do with all of our new and used electronic devices when they reach end-of-life? Have witch-doctors banish them to another dimension?
That's nothing. When Christopher Johnson returns, he's gonna kick some ass.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
Hilarious! Guns are also "on the streets" (++ for open carry laws) of many State whose crime rates are quite low.
Obammy is vigorously continuing the War On Some Drugs, with AG Holder attacking medicinal cannabis vigourously!
The "brown man" is capable of getting his shit together. In the US he often chooses otherwise due to the SAME sort of "culture" which keeps male White Trash, "trash".
That's why "brown women" are, despite even greater challenges, moving upward faster than their male counterparts. Take my word for none of this and look it up yourself.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
... for bootleggers.
In Italy there was, during the last few years, a massive (legal) ado about suspicious e-waste traffics to Africa. Apart obviously illicit traffic of broken parts made of dangerous materials, which were eventually found, the justice even caught and blocked, in the middle of their investigations, some legitimate traders selling away to Africa just used, well-working technology: former, end-of-life company assets, the same kind also frequently used by our tech students in their home labs. I know one of those traders, here in the North of Italy, who was struggling to look, not just be, innocent, while having his business crippled because of someone else's crimes. One year of hell, perhaps more, for nothing. Who's going to pay for this?
--your friendly neighborhood R.Damon
You say : "This report is flawed in thinking that 30% is ewaste and 70% of used computers are "used". "
I'm a former teacher (in Africa). It sounds like you are having trouble believing 5 independent international studies showing 70-90% reuse. There is no study showing 70% waste, at all. However, if you do want a study done in Africa (Nairobi), commissioned and reviewed by BAN.org, I have one. It was published in 2006. It showed 80-90% reuse (it does complain, bitterly, about the remainng 20%). So my question is, why is a teacher in the USA dismissing a study sponsored by the Basel Convention Secretariat in 2011,, a study which was commissioned to investigate the claims by the organization you produce films for?
As for your experience in Latin America, here is a link to a study of used electronics imported into Peru http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/08/07/developing-nations-may-reuse-more-electronics-thought. What the Reports in this article say is that most of the goods imported are used for years and eventually scrapped, and that well-intentioned NGOs (and teachers, apparently) mistake those for recent imports. But if you can find another study of any kind saying 70% is junk, please share it. BAN.org admitted to making up the statistic out of whole cloth at a meeting with EPA and MIT in 2011, by the way, so don't ask them for it.
....bury it than reuse it.... On the other hand there is more value extracted in recycling old electronics than in mining.
Hi Anonymous. You bring up some good points. I don't think anyone has all the answers here. The questions that remain are important. Yes, please share your Nairobi report showing 80-90% re-use. How did the report define "re-use" in 2006? Where are those devices now six years later? What data would we have If tracking devices were put on a random sample of those re-used units in 2006?
I read the GreenBiz URL regarding Peru. Peru can only track imported equipment that is reported. A lot of imported tech stuff is not reported. Greenbiz cites an article quote "The Environmental Protection Agency estimates roughly 400,000 tons of e-waste goes to recyclers every year, and that up to 80 percent of the materials sorted for recycling end up in operations in China, India, Southeast Asia and West Africa where it is disassembled and burned or dumped."
BAN and the EPA estimate that a majority of working and broken electronics sent to Africa and China are disposed of in ways that harm the environment. There is very little documentation to show that Africa and China have safe facilities to capture the toxins. Electronics arrive new and used, working and not.
http://www.cuttherope.ie/
WallyDallas - I just watched your film. I admire you for caring, and clearly you are concerned about making the world better. But Guiyu is outside of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-HongKong mega-city, which has a larger population than Japan, and the waste there is primarily from office buildings in China. www.shanghaiscrap.com is another good source of information.
http://motherboard.vice.com/2011/3/31/why-we-should-ship-our-electronic-waste-to-china-and-africa
I have been to China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Egypt, Mexico, etc. following this story.
The statistics in the report in slashdot are true. The reports are not all in blue sky and roses, either, there are some real problems in the trade. The reports produced by the Basel Convention Secretariat. Try looking at it this way - It costs $10K to send a sea container from the USA to Africa. That's $19 just to ship a PC from USA to Lagos or Accra. The Africans typically pay $20 to the Americans before they ship it. That's $39, and BAN says that 80% are burned for $4 worth of copper? 83% of the world is in "non-OECD" (about 6 billion), there are really poor people there, but there are also people earning $3-4K per year who are getting online at 10X the rate of growth of USA.
When you teach your students about the Prohibition and War on Drugs, do bans and prohibition work? In my experience, these ewaste bans force down the quality as Africans have doors slammed in their faces by "no export" pledger, and they are forced into back alleys to buy CRT monitors, which practically all work. The African revolution 2.0 isn't happening on Iphones and tablets.
http://www.ecoethics-kenya.org/publications/E-waste_report_Nairobi_fair_2.pdf is the Nairobi report by the way. I'm visiting Ramzy in Peru, the report author.