Slashdot Mirror
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?
Who are you? Why should I believe the "Good Point Ideas Blog" over Wired and The Daily Mail? What is your motive here?
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...
Bottle glass is one of the most recyclable things we commonly use: You just sort it by color (which can be automated), put it into the kiln with the other glass, and wind up with a product that is just as good as virgin material.
But transporting it is expensive, so much so that it can be cheaper to produce new glass from sand.
If it doesn't get landfilled, it typically just piles up waiting for a use. As I understand it, very little post-consumer recycled glass ever turns into anything useful.
Knowing this, I still recycle glass...but only because it keeps the bags that my actual garbage goes into from being cut up by broken glass, making it easier and cleaner for me to handle.
Kid-proof tablet..
People are missing the point my friend.
The reason we are seeing these beatups is because the manufacturers of such consumer items see India, Africa, and China as growth markets as they
develop an increasing middle class, however the norm there is to buy our (usually perfectly functional and/or easy to repair) discarded items, and use those
at a fraction of the cost.
This REDUCES CORPORATE GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES, hence must be squashed at any cost, including outright lies (and I suspect much much more).
E-Waste is a huge lie, what we are seeing here is active recycling. Exactly what we want, but of course the purveyors of new goods hate..
Seriously, the efforts being made by computer equipment manufacturers to block the export of perfectly functional second hand equipment to such countries,
where they will be used and cared for for a long time, is just disgusting (Cisco is a very good example of this.. their older 100mbit equipment is throwaway
in the west, and sells very well in the 3rd world..)
So we are just seeing the usual easily swallowed lies being picked up by the idiocracy of the general populous/media, who it seems cannot critically think
their way out of a paper bag.
Same thing happens all the time with second hand cars (often by a moving target of 'safety standards').
Reuse is by FAR the best form of recycling, and yet our governments are fighting it tooth and nail. Sad.