JOHN VIDAL: Millions of mobile phones, laptops, tablets, toys, digital cameras and other electronic devices bought this Christmas are destined to create a flood of dangerous "e-waste" that is being dumped illegally in developing countries, the UN has warned. The global volume of electronic waste is expected to grow by 33% in the next four years, when it will weigh the … [Read more...] about DUMPED IN AFRICA!
Archives for February 2015
THE ABC OF E-WASTE
SHAUN SWINGLER: Ours is an age of obsolescence. Computers, cellphones and televisions seen as cutting-edge today will be, in a very short time, out of date and thrown away as trash. People generate about 40m tons of digital detritus every year and this figure is increasing 4% annually, according to a 2012 International Labor Organization study. E-waste, comprising all … [Read more...] about THE ABC OF E-WASTE
WASTE DUMPERS TURNING TO AFRICA
JAMES BROOKE: In Koko in this African delta port, where children run barefoot through oil palm plantations and men pilot dugout canoes through mangrove swamps, the arrival of a ship from Europe has often meant disruption. Two local place names recall the first contacts with Europe. Escravos and Forcados are the Portuguese words for slaves and indentured. Today, a … [Read more...] about WASTE DUMPERS TURNING TO AFRICA
A DEATH SHIP CALLED PROBO KOALA
SEBASTIAN KNAUER, THILO THIELKE AND GERALD TRAUFETTER: Europe wouldn't take the ship's stinking, poisonous cargo. So it sailed to Africa and dumped the toxic mess into an Ivory Coast lagoon. This is just the most recent example of western nations using Africa as a toxic waste dump. The worst is when it rains. The water flows through the streets of Abidjan, the capital … [Read more...] about A DEATH SHIP CALLED PROBO KOALA
WHEN WEEE REGULATIONS GO WRONG!
MARGARET BATES: The disposal of computers and other electronic and electrical goods, e-waste, is a growing global problem. In 2011, the world threw away 41.5m tons of electrical equipmentand this is expected to rise to 93.5m tons by 2016. This is a concern because dumped electronic consumer goods are, essentially, toxic waste. Old-style televisions and CRT monitors contain … [Read more...] about WHEN WEEE REGULATIONS GO WRONG!
NO COUNTRY FOR BOYS
YEPOKA YEEBO: Agbogbloshie is a vast, scorched field, right in the middle of Accra, Ghana, dotted with rusting hulks and heaps of scrap. Hundreds of people work here in what looks like hell: smashing, burning, hawking, eating, and joking. This is the place where thousands of tons of the world’s electronics go to die. On the banks of the dead Odaw River at the very edge of … [Read more...] about NO COUNTRY FOR BOYS