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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.
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...
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.
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
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.