Africa E-Waste Dump Continues Hyperbole War 78
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?
Local recycling is dependent on a local market (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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Re:Local recycling is dependent on a local market (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Local recycling is dependent on a local market (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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But transporting it is expensive, so much so that it can be cheaper to produce new glass from sand.
Producing glass from sand isn't much more difficult than producing glass from glass. That's the main reason glass recycling isn't that useful.
Aluminium is much easier to produce from aluminium than from bauxite.
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What you said is very true. Local demand is a great motivator but like anything you start by sorting it and eventually demand arises. There are many construction material companies that have designed products based on recycled materials. The companies usually come to life because of the low cost for the primary materials they require. The processes are expensive but with time they become more affordable as proper techniques and the right expertise becomes available.
I know where I live that a % of recycled m
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Classico pasta sauce comes in jars with Mason-type lids. However, they're made of cheaper glass than "real" Ball/Kerr Mason jars and are unsuitable for canning due to breakage risk, so Classico apparently wasn't very happy that they were getting saved and reused.
Classico recently tried to switch to lug lids, but their customers (including me) complained, so they switched back. (In my letter, I pointed out that the reusable jar was the main differentiating factor that caused me to prefer their sauce over any
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Liability, maybe? I think Classico was irrationally worried about getting sued by somebody whose jar exploded while being used for canning (either during the process, due to the heat, or afterwards from bacteria growth due to an improper seal).
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Here in the old world (.fi) we have different bins for stuff like glass and metal.
Here in LA, homeless people go through our trash, extract the actually valuable recyclables, then take them to the recycling centers and make cash.
Covering sensitive, emotional topics is hard. (Score:4, Insightful)
Responsible Journalism = Oxymoron (Score:4, Insightful)
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"
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Good thing we learned so much about the obligations of ethical reporting from the Rolling Stone debacle.
Both rape & pollution are bad enough without fabricating stories, but it's not about the truth. It's about building the narrative for the "truth" you want people to believe.
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Good thing we learned so much about the obligations of ethical reporting from the Rolling Stone debacle.
"It's the seriousness of the charge that really counts here, not how valid the story is."
That's how we got the Rolling Stone made up allegations of rape and the Duke Lacrosse made up rape story. Oh and let's not forget the "Romney didn't pay his taxes for the last 10 years!" fabrication that got reported as fact, even though the source of the allegation has since admitted to just "making it up" to score political points for his team.
Journalism and ethics are a thing of the past. Or, more to the point, ho
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The question is, then, why would any one care the Romney paid no taxes, assuming that what he did was legal?
We pass laws for tax breaks for specific reasons, like encouraging this, or discouraging that. If Romney reduced is tax due to zero, then didn't those programs simply do what they were supposed to? If not, shouldn't we attack the programs and not the person who is just doing those things that the law was crafted to encourage him to do?
If some rich guy paid no tax in return for opening ten orphanages
recycling is good (Score:1)
...and the African continent needs jobs. Keeps them from joining the Jihad.
Re:A scrap of truth (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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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.
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It is just plain FUN to play around in a salvage yard. And you occasionally come across odd and unique parts.
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Actually, they are most likely to be exported after the crushing stage, to places like China where the steel is recycled.
economics (Score:3)
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Who to believe (Score:4, Interesting)
Who are you? Why should I believe the "Good Point Ideas Blog" over Wired and The Daily Mail? What is your motive here?
Re:Who to believe (Score:4, Insightful)
You can pretty much believe anything over The Daily Mail...
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Why should I believe the "Good Point Ideas Blog" over Wired and The Daily Mail?
I think the point is that you shouldn't automatically believe any of them.
When deciding what to believe, you should look at several criteria:
1. How credible is the publication?
2. Do they provide photos, give specific locations, and name specific names?
3. Are the facts in the story credible?
For #1, they are all low.
For #2, the blog wins.
For #3, the whole world generates only a few "millions of tonnes" of e-waste annually, and much of it is recycled locally, or sent to China or India. It is not very likel
Re:Who to believe (Score:5, Informative)
Any sources for the stats in Wired or Daily Mail? No? Because the original source has vanished.
Here is a link to research of peer reviewed articles which traces the claims made in Wired (actually repeating what a photographer said, Wired did not make the claim) and Mail scalar.usc.edu/works/reassembling-rubbish/mapping-e-waste-as-a-controversy-from-statements-to-debates-1?path=e-waste-mapping-a-controversy
And here is the UN funded 2012 study of the imports to Ghana which found 91% reuse. http://www.basel.int/Portals/4... [basel.int] This was the study that caused BAN.org (the NGO) to backtrack on their claims.
As for who I am, former Peace Corps volunteer, degree in intl relations, former head of recycling for Massachusetts DEP, consultant to EPA, and founder of WR3A.org which has part of a 3 university $469K research grant on used electronics imports, managed by Memorial University (USC Long Beach and Pontifica UCP Peru also part of the research).
The press release also refers to reporters who attended, including Author of NYT Bestseller (Junkyard Planet) Adam Minter of Bloomberg. I was most impressed however with the Dagbani geeks and nerds who gave us the tour of the site and the import containers with the reused equipment. But finding a news journal like Wired or Mail which actually interviews actual African businesspeople, I'm afraid I can't find quickly. But here is an essay from one of the Technicians who came with us (not Dagbani speaker, he's from Volta region) http://www.isri.org/news-publi... [isri.org]
You can also try doing math on an envelope to see which source to follow. The cost of shipping 700 televisions (what can fit in a sea container) is $10k (purchase of TVs, shippping and customs) or $14 per TV. They contain about $2 in copper. Oh, and Joe Benson, the guy in UK jail? His cost of disposing the bad ones, the ones he was supposedly avoiding recycling costs for? $0, he showed regular trips to recycle the ones he didn't want to pay $14 to ship.
Here is another source, Heather Agyepong (of UK but parents were from Ghana), who visited last summer and reported the same thing, that the "dystopia" and "dumping" was basically not to be found. http://www.okayafrica.com/phot... [okayafrica.com]
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And here is the UN funded 2012 study of the imports to Ghana which found 91% reuse. http://www.basel.int/Portals/4 [basel.int]... [basel.int] This was the study that caused BAN.org (the NGO) to backtrack on their claims.
They didn't want the reuse numbers to get out because their campaign was really about one important American family value: black people shouldn't be allowed near computers. They'll dirty the Internet up.
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You should believe it because it makes a whole lot more sense than the shite is refuting.
If you have been to any 3rd world county, you would know that the surplus market, where used goods from richer countries are highly sought after.
That includes bikes, furniture , other household items, electronics, etc.
People happily pay higher price for a second hand european or US made product than the equivalent new product manufactured in china, which often breaks after a few uses.
Ans yes, people in poor countries r
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This is true, but that is only relative.
An LCD TV still has many repair options.
Blown capacitors
Bad soldering.
Blown chips etc.
TV repair becomes unfeasible only if it is the same part that always breaks, and this part is very expensive.
False Accusation not a victimless crime (Score:4, Interesting)
If you actually look on the map.. (Score:4, Informative)
It's really not that big: google earth picture of the location from sat [google.ca].
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.
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Even without looking at it from the air.... there really doesn't seem to be much e-waste. Yeah it the ground in areas does appear to be burnt but other than that there appear to be like three or four monitors that they are passing around for people to stand on to generate outrage. I've seen more "e-waste" at a local 2nd hand electronics store.
Now it it had shown people standing on a small mountain of monitors I might feel differently. Instead what we see is someone standing on what appears to be a single PC
Why can't old equipment have a second life... (Score:1)
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 transportati
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Hyperbole war? (Score:2)
Our hyperbole must defeat their hyperbole, because freedoms!
Stupid title is stupid.
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Stupid title is stupid.
It's also hyperbole, ironically.
Please spell checlk (Score:2)
> worlds "largest ewaste dump site"
world's* "largest ewaste dump site".
worlds = more than one world
Come on, people. This is third grade English.
It is par for the course, unfortunately (Score:2)
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.
All journalism today exists to push agendas (Score:1)
Time for the west to quit exporting 'waste' (Score:2)
Australia has the right attitude of using Robotics to part out items.
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TFS and TFA refutes the idea that we are, in fact, exporting this kind of waste in volume. I don't live in a huge metropolitan area, and even *my* garbage goes through single-stream recycling.
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And Yes, I called multiple companies, include WM, to find out how this works.
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A Dutch documentary recently showed Africans are now getting rich by recycling discarded mobile phones or "urban mining". Loads of rare metals in those things.
http://tegenlicht.vpro.nl/afle... [tegenlicht.vpro.nl]
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Fast forward to 7:00 to actually see Agbogbloshie (and hear in English).
Stupid premise (Score:2)
" 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
so it has come down to this (Score:2)
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"
World Bank metadata (Score:2)
It's big companies, not consumers!!! (Score:1)
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