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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.
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.
Even when tilting the balance heavily in the favour of new technology, (say, Atom at idle vs a P4 at medium load), it takes atleast 2 years of 10-12 hours/day running to recover the costs
And my 2 year old N79 lasts 4-5 days on battery, not many Androids can (I know new ones have a lot more features,etc but both accomplish the basic requirement of a phone with the capability to browse the net, take pics, play games, watch videos,etc)
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 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 image of USA and Europe (or simply the developed world) that the rest of the world gets is that stuff like big TV's, big houses,big fridges,big AC's,etc are common and affordable at the lower middle class level as well.
Is that false?
Yes, this is false. The median income of a household member in the US in 2006 was $26,036. This doesn't leave a lot for luxuries. And that's median. If you considerer "lower middle class" to be around the 33th percentile, the income per household member drops to less than $14,000 per year.
So no, expensive plasma TVs are not common outside bars and the homes of the more affluent.
Yes, most people have TVs and even cable TV, because they'd sacrifice a lot to have that. Even if it was bought at a thrift store. They're conditioned to having them. But the majority of TVs in the US are 4:3 CRTs. For those who can't afford cable, with a converter for digital->analog broadcast.
If you want to see a 3rd world country, come to the US, and visit the 80% of it that still doesn't have cell phone coverage, or the east side towns where people live from hand to mouth. It's a quite different picture frow what Hollywood and Fox shows.