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Africa E-Waste Dump Continues Hyperbole War
retroworks writes: Two stories appear today which feature close up photos of young African men surrounded by scrap metal in the city of Accra. The headlines state that this is where our computers go to die (Wired). The Daily Mail puts it in even starker terms, alleging "millions of tons" are dumped in Agbogbloshie.
The stories appear the same day as a press release by investigators who returned this week from 3 weeks at the site. The release claims that Agbogbloshie's depiction as the worlds "largest ewaste dump site" to be a hoax. It is a scrap automobile yard which accounts for nothing more than local scrap from Accra. Three Dagbani language speaking electronics technicians, three reporters, Ghana customs officials and yours truly visited the site, interviewed workers about the origins of the material, and assessed volumes. About 27 young men burn wire, mostly from automobile scrap harnesses. The electronics — 20 to 50 items per day — are collected from Accra businesses and households. The majority of Accra (population 5M) have had televisions since the 1990s, according to World Bank metadata (over 80% by 2003).
The investigation did confirm that most of the scrap was originally imported used, and that work conditions were poor. However, the equipment being recycled had been repaired and maintained, typically for a decade (longer than the original OECD owner). It is a fact that used goods will, one day, eventually become e-waste. Does that support a ban on the trade in used goods to Africa? Or, as the World Bank reports, is the affordable used product essential to establish a critical mass of users so that investment in highways, phone towers, and internet cable can find necessary consumers?
The stories appear the same day as a press release by investigators who returned this week from 3 weeks at the site. The release claims that Agbogbloshie's depiction as the worlds "largest ewaste dump site" to be a hoax. It is a scrap automobile yard which accounts for nothing more than local scrap from Accra. Three Dagbani language speaking electronics technicians, three reporters, Ghana customs officials and yours truly visited the site, interviewed workers about the origins of the material, and assessed volumes. About 27 young men burn wire, mostly from automobile scrap harnesses. The electronics — 20 to 50 items per day — are collected from Accra businesses and households. The majority of Accra (population 5M) have had televisions since the 1990s, according to World Bank metadata (over 80% by 2003).
The investigation did confirm that most of the scrap was originally imported used, and that work conditions were poor. However, the equipment being recycled had been repaired and maintained, typically for a decade (longer than the original OECD owner). It is a fact that used goods will, one day, eventually become e-waste. Does that support a ban on the trade in used goods to Africa? Or, as the World Bank reports, is the affordable used product essential to establish a critical mass of users so that investment in highways, phone towers, and internet cable can find necessary consumers?
If people want local recycling, there needs to be a local market for the recycled product. As an example, in my area, even though households are encouraged to put glass into their recycle bins, at the sorting centers the glass is extracted and sent to the landfill, as there's no local demand for used glass. A friend of ours used to manage one of the local landfills, and this came straight from the horses' mouth.
This African site might not be what was hyped, but all kinds of things are sent away or dumped into a landfill if there's no demand. If you want recycling, there has to be a use for the material being recycled.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Good thing we learned so much about the obligations of ethical reporting from the Rolling Stone debacle.
...and the African continent needs jobs. Keeps them from joining the Jihad.
Three movies everyone should see to understand Journalism
Absence of Malice
The Front Page
His Girl Friday.
Their only flaws are being too kind to the "Profession"
My suspicion with these so-called African landfills, or anywhere, is where is the economics of transporting heavy waste ten thousand miles just to dump it. yes, the US and European laws make dumping it a home expensive, but just to dump it elsewhere for the kid to play in? Does not seem to add up. Transporting it to be used for a few years and them dumping it, that makes sense. That still has the problem of concentrating toxic waste in places where there are not good regulations to protect the populous, but that is a different issue.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Who are you? Why should I believe the "Good Point Ideas Blog" over Wired and The Daily Mail? What is your motive here?
Damaged cars, at least where I've lived, go to a local wrecking yard where they are parted out and crushed for scrap metal. It's not cost effective to send them elsewhere.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
As seen on /. a few months ago, an African born TV repairman is in UK prison based on this malarky. http://news.slashdot.org/story...
The story is true, even if the information it's based on is false.
It's really not that big: google earth picture of the location from sat.
The pictures make it look like it's an entire city, but really it's just a small area. Of course, they don't show you aerial views because that would stop any sort or rational opinion from forming on the subject.
Computers I "recycle", especially from work, can still run Windows just fine, browse and do general computing tasks decently.
You cannot play the latest and greatest games, or run the latest version of Illustrator or Photoshop. We get rid of them mostly due to reliability and the fact that it gets harder and harder to purchase replacement parts (such as CPU, mobo).
I do not see why they cannot have a second life for somebody living in a 3rd world country. The machines work well enough.
I guess the transportation cost could make them prohibitively expensive...and the electrical requirements might put it out of the range of somebody who survives on $2US/day.
Our hyperbole must defeat their hyperbole, because freedoms!
Stupid title is stupid.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
> worlds "largest ewaste dump site"
world's* "largest ewaste dump site".
worlds = more than one world
Come on, people. This is third grade English.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Agenda Journalism, mixed with sensationalist journalism is doing this kind of shite all the time.
And the lazy journalism does not end there.
The stories and pictures is often translated and copied to other media outlets without proper source attribution.
Teh original articles often lack permission from photo subject, and are ripe with exaggerations, short on facts, and fabrications are common.
The media outlets perpetrating this shite are rarely held accountable.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
The Light Bulb Conspiracy
You think wired will fire the journalist and editor? Rolling stone didn't.
I see a lot of damaged cars sitting in farms rusting. Stupid sod-kickers destroying the environment.
Seriously, most of the 'waste' that is sent out are great sources of resources. Gold, Iron, Plastic, Copper, etc. Yes, there is Mercury and Lead in those, but that can be dealt with easily. We have various deep mines, well below water tables, in which the pure mercury and lead can be easily contained.
Australia has the right attitude of using Robotics to part out items.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Old vehicles are great for recycling as you point out. They get picked clean of anything useable and then what ever is left is crushed, ground up, separated, and melted into new raw materials. I make regular use of the local salvage yard along with a number of my friends. It is a cheap way to keep our vehicles out of the salvage yard. $16 for a door window, $12 bucks for a window motor, $5 for the switches, and what ever else is needed to fix all that annoying crap that goes wrong all there for the picking.
Time to offend someone
" as the World Bank reports, is the affordable used product essential to establish a critical mass of users so that investment in highways, phone towers, and internet cable can find necessary consumers?"
We went from zero cars to millions without phone towers and internet. We had roads before the concept of the highway or the interstate. It was pressure from too many cars that justified the paving over of roads. Maybe what we should be doing is not continually siphoning off their best and brightest for our own use. The "brain drain" is real, and it means those communities have lost the time, effort, and funds they've put into their education system to other countries rather than seeing the benefits at home. Ditto the skills drain. And so the cycle of poverty is repeated.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Even with a few trucks in the yard, they probably made better use of those trucks than the people in the city made of the disposable crap that they use and throw away every day. Those specific trucks, going on what I used to see on farms, can be anywhere from 10 to 50 years old, depending on the farmer's ability to repair them enough so that they keep running.
it is reasonable to believe he could have paid all the taxes that would be said to be due by him, but that number be zero
It is also reasonable to believe the Romney paid millions in taxes.
But that doesn't matter, the question was whether Reid lied, and the answer is: Yes, he did.
highways, phone towers, and internet cable
and all this time I thought it was food, clothing, and shelter. Serves me right for growing up "off the grid"
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
A paradise of free components and connectors.
many of those were likely a project that they were going to get to someday when they had time....and that time has yet to arrive.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
The summary talks about World Bank metadata. why is this called metadata and not just data?
You missed the most important reason of all!
It is just plain FUN to play around in a salvage yard. And you occasionally come across odd and unique parts.
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
I'm a 'big' pc user, no less than 10 around the house. But the most of them being second hand or even older. Re-using my old hardware is a normal way of saving money. And stuff I don't use anymore is being sold again or given away to people with a need for it.
It's big companies who sell-off their old crappy hardware to wholesale buyers and then it end's up in Accra, Africa.
Instead of finding close range solutions like donating to schools, unemployed and poor they want a buck or more for it.
And I'm not even talking about companies who replace their entire fleet every 3 years.
That's just nasty to my point of view.
Bach says it all.
I remember as a kid it was great to to one. Go digging in vehicles to see what you could find for change and toys. You quickly figured out what were rich people cars as they tended to have most amount of change in them and if they were a family car they would have the best toys. BTW my family was government cheese poor at times when I was little.
Time to offend someone
Actually, they are most likely to be exported after the crushing stage, to places like China where the steel is recycled.