According to Greenpeace, hundreds of children work in Agbogbloshie trying to get valuable components out of the dumped e-waste

Photo: Zafrilla

 

“Rivers are not running water, are running electric waste there. The water is black with the oils and chemicals and is thick with components as wires and plastic”, Raphael Rowe –investigative journalist for the BBC- explains the situation of the dumpsite Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana.

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Second-hand products or e-waste

 

For ages, photos of kids in Agbogbloshie standing between electronic waste have been seen all over the world. But the explanation of those photos is a particularly complex issue.

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70 per cent of the electronic devices that arrive to Ghana are still usable and another 20 per cent can still be repaired, according to the report “Ghana e-waste Country Assesment”. In this paper it is also stated that many Ghanaians cannot afford brand new products, but old fashioned products discarded mainly in Europe or North America. Despite of it, most of this second hand products end up as waste in a year or two of arrival. The Basel Convention is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movement of hazardous waste between nations, specifically from developed to less developed countries and it entered into force in 1992. This convention explicitly mentions that the electrical and electronic assemblies can be send to be reused, including in reuse repair or upgrading.

 

But despite of the numbers, some people as Mike Anane -an environmentalist engaged with Agbogbloshie for 18 years- the allowance of the Basel Convention of sending devices that can be repaired is a “loop hole” that gives the opportunity to send e-waste under the label of second-hand products. “When I was younger, one day I was going to the port area when I saw a container with electronic waste and I wondered where it was going. It went straight to this dumpsite that used to be a beautiful wetland. My heart was broken. And now the place is full of waste. There is a lagoon and there is no life inside, only electronic waste,” states Mike.

 

“Against what is generally thought, the Basel convention doesn't prohibit anything yet. There is a ban  amendment that was adopted in 1995 that would prohibit generally the export of hazardous waste that could include e-waste. But it is not international law yet” explains Katharina Kummer Pierry ex-Executive Director of the Basel Convention Secretariat.

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The debate between numbers, opinions and witnesses is still open. For the ones that the electronic products are sell as second hand products and used by Ghanaians is also a problem when, after the use that they believe the second-hand products gets, they stop functioning and arrive to dumpsites as Agbogbloshie. “There are no recycling centers there, so when the electronic devices cannot be use longer, they are thrown to this dumpsites” explains Luis Alberto Henríquez Hernández, researcher in the department of Clinical Sciences at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

 

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Working in Agbogbloshie

 

“Where the electronic waste is dumped, children with 10 years or even younger split devices with sometimes only a stone to do it. With no equipment or protection” explains Kevin Bridgen, researcher of Greenpeace and co-writer of the report “Chemical contamination at e-waste recycling and disposal sites in Ghana”.

In Agbogbloshie around 100,000 people live and most of them are involved in this type of working that is based on ripping off electronic waste in order to extract the most valuable parts and sell them.

“In many cases, these containers are shipped by individuals or maybe small companies collecting these devices, putting on a container and selling it” explains Kevin Bridgen. As most of the Ghanaian people cannot afford to buy a brand new TV the second-handed market is really big and involves a high part of the population in Agbogbloshie and also in Ghana.

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According to the report Ghana e-waste Country Assessment, around 30 per cent of the shipped electronic devices do not respond to electricity. “But they could be fixed” adds Dagna “there are a lot of people in Ghana that are able to bring them to life or use them to fix other devices. So it is not waste” continues. 

“Despite selling the products as second hand devices. Is some money to be made: if the goods have to be treated in a correct way is a cost involving that. So the cost doesn´t have to be paid if it is shipped to another country, though is known not to be working for a long time” explains Kevin Bridgen. Back in the countries of the European Union millions of euros are spent by recycling companies in order to recycle that type of devices, but as Raphael Rowe explains, if these materials are sent to places where there are no recycle centers these companies don´t get the material that they need to fulfill their job.

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Working on Agbogbloshie's solution

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The ban of sending second hand products or products that could be fixed in a population where a high percent of them works repairing those electronic devices would mean “a drastic rise of unemployment and the impossibility for some of the Ghanaians to have these technologies, and that would put barriers to stop the

development of the country. Formalizing the sector would mean that the people will still have a job with improved conditions” explains Juan Solera.

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On the multiples photos of Agbogbloshie we are witnesses of the lack of protection that the workers in the dumpsite have. According to Ruediger Kuher –director of the United Nations University- the problem would be easily improved by giving the workers gloves, protection, tables… “but it is very problematic when it comes to Agbogbloshie, because if you do so, you are supporting the business and nobody want to be involved in that”. “The fact that everything is illegal there also makes the place and the people susceptible to be controlled by mafias, there is a mafia in Agbogbloshie and nobody does anything without them to know what is happening. Nobody lives there without them to know” explains Juan Solera. 

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According to Greenpeace. these electronic devices are supposed to be sent in order to decrease the digital gap between developed and not developed countries, but in some cases is a way to carry that type of devices in countries as Ghana. Two recycling companies in Ghana informed Greenpeace that some of the electronic devices came from the Netherlands by the port in Antwerp. So for the ecological organization, there is a “lack of control in the customs of the ports where that kinds of shipping came from”.

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Other option that has been supported by Greenpeace is the reduction or avoidance of including poisoning chemicals in the electronic devices in order to make less hurtful the process of recycling. The NGO has made an info-graphic that shows a ranking of the greener electronics in 2017.

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When the e-waste arrives to Agbogbloshie, there are some components as cables that contain elements as cooper that can be sold. So people in Agbogbloshie sometimes burn this cables in order to get rid of the PVC that covers the copper, pour water in the fire and get the metal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Burning off this plastic that covers the metal released a lot of hazards chemicals to the environment. According to Greenpeace, these chemicals being releases during years generate an accumulation in the environment that is getting higher levels. “When we talked with people there they were really aware of the threats to their health that that supposed. And they even noticed for example the effect on their respiratory system. They would prefer a job without health repercussions, but for them was the only option to take” explains Kevin.

 

“And just next to the dumpsite there is a market where food is sold, under the atmosphere that comes from Agbogbloshie” explains Mike Anane. As explained by Luis Alberto Henríquez Hernández, some of these hazards inorganic elements get in the soil and with the rain they get further to lakes or rivers and then get into a fish. When you eat the fish, you get that chemicals despite you haven't been physically in the place where they were released.“Once, between all this waste piled high and the black smoke, I saw a guy right in the middle of this dumpsite cutting another guys hair, like if a little barber was going on there. It was a bizarre thing to see, but life goes on all around the edges of this dumpsite” Raphael adds.

 

Containers arrive in Accra with 70 % reusable material, 20 % that could be repaired and 10 % of waste. Containers full both with opportunities to close the digital gap and with chances to enlarge Agbogbloshie.

And while people keeps discussing if the devices are being used before hand or directly dumped as e-waste into Agbogbloshie, a little guy keeps smashing electronic devices poisoning himself in the process due to the lack of recycling procedures in Accra.