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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.
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.
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.
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?
So, just change the capacitors as they blow
...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.
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?
Which is why the government handed out rebates to people who needed to buy one. Of course, lots of people (outside Montana) are on cable (58.3 million households or 151.5 million people), satellite or IP and won't need one.
I haven't even seen a CRT TV in some years now -- outside of the local landfill.
My TV is a CRT. A 1080p widescreen 120 Hz TV, but still a CRT. I have no desire to replace it with an LCD with staircasing effects for non-native resolutions, greys with purple and green tones and reduced contrast.
But I don't claim to be representative. The family who looks at the $100 Wal-Mart TV and can't afford it, and instead get a $25 TV from Goodwill or hand-me-down from neighbors or family are more representative than either of us.
That you only see LCDs could, perhaps, have something to do with you only seeing a tiny part of America, and likely the part that is most similar to your demographics, and not representative of the whole?
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.