
Agbogbloshie, the world's largest e-waste dump - jpatokal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agbogbloshie
======
kwiens
I've spent some time there and I can share a first-hand perspective.

It looks like a dump in the pictures, but it's not. It's an active scrapyard.
No material stays in Agbogbloshie for very long. Electronics show up, are
mined for raw materials in crude fashion, and then the raw material is sold.
Unprofitable material like copper cable jackets are burned.

Some of the footage I shot is in this video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMwLUnd_ydI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMwLUnd_ydI)

The other thing about Agbogbloshie nobody talks about: encircling the
scrapyard is a huge repair yard where people fix everything they possibly can.
It's only the stuff that can't get fixed and resold that goes to the urban
mine.

------
jpatokal
I've seen a fair bit of poverty in my travels around Africa and elsewhere, but
I'm still rather astonished by how utterly and totally low-tech and
unorganized this is: it's _literally_ just a bunch of people scrabbling about
heaps of garbage on an open field, only that garbage has been carted in from
the other side of the world!

For example, you'd think it would be worth it for somebody to set up some sort
of smelter where you could bring your cables to get the plastic melted off,
but when labor is essentially free and the competition is Darwinian, it's
unlikely any scavenger would pay for such a service when they could just sit
around an open flame instead.

And for an even more Dantean version of this, Glawegger's _Workingman 's
Death_ covers a Nigerian slaughterfield in Port Harcourt. (And yes, the
footage is pretty damn disturbing.)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukSAfBulphU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukSAfBulphU)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workingman%27s_Death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workingman%27s_Death)

~~~
zhte415
Given the low tech nature, a lot of the 'value' could have already been
extracted via any widespread method, and this is the byproduct of already
processed recyclables being sold on.

I highly recommend the book Junkyard Planet by Adam Minter, who follows the
global scrap trade.

Link to his site: [http://shanghaiscrap.com/books/junkyard-
planet/](http://shanghaiscrap.com/books/junkyard-planet/) Link to the book on
Amazon: [http://www.amazon.com/Junkyard-Planet-Travels-Billion-
Dollar...](http://www.amazon.com/Junkyard-Planet-Travels-Billion-Dollar-
Trash/dp/1480592870)

------
francoisf
This is something I can't get out of my head: as a tech user (and as an IT
worker), I am an active part of the e-waste problem.

I always find it hard to relate to some tech enthusiasts that often appear to
me like compulsive, irresponsible buyers.

I can't help but ask myself: can a culture shift within the IT community lead
to raise awareness among the larger public?

~~~
Infinitesimus
When I saw the post on the fp of HN, my first reaction was "hey wait I know
that name... ohh..ooohhh". (Disclaimer: Ghanaian here. Currently an SE in the
US )

I think a culture shift in the IT community will definitely make the message
loud, but the truth is that this dump comes from businesses who deal primarily
with the average consumer, not the tech-savvy minority. And until the majority
cares, nothing is going to change unfortunately. Every step in that direction
helps though, by all means, we as a community need to be much more vocal about
this (well, be concerned first of all)

~~~
davedx
"Early adopters" are a much smaller segment of the market, true, but they also
buy a ton _more stuff_ than regular people by definition. :)

~~~
67726e
Without seeing numbers, I would highly doubt that premise. Sure, the maybe a
couple hundred thousand geeks will buy a few more laptops and phones, but the
couple hundred million consumers will surely win by volume, no? (Strictly
speaking US here)

------
sveme
Some impressive pictures from Kevin McElvaney:

[http://www.derkevin.com/Agbogbloshie.html](http://www.derkevin.com/Agbogbloshie.html)

~~~
jpatokal
Video too:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSbPjtY2YPg&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSbPjtY2YPg&feature=youtu.be)

------
TeMPOraL
Ok, so how can we make cleaning this mess up profitable?

~~~
virmundi
First, it is already profitable depending on which mess you're talking about.
I'm defining the mess as the glut of used electronics in the world. The scrape
yards aren't burning things and employing people to simply burn things and
spend money. They get money from the scrap.

Second, if we define the mess as the act of burning things to mine the
valuable minerals within, we have those already too. Recycling in US is about
a 5 Billion dollar industry[1]. Sure some of that gets exported, but much of
it doesn't. We refine the materials here in a regulated, probably safe way.

Third, the issue is more around developing countries pushing their garbage to
Africa. That is a complex solution. The producing country has to see it as a
problem (their problem). They have to be willing to create infrastructure to
process the e-waste. They also have to adjust their present manufacturing
capabilities to use recycled goods rather than transform raw materials.

There might be a market solution for the third point. Maybe? A lot of that
comes with time and maturity. The US polluted a lot. We didn't really start to
care until the '70s. It then took twenty years to get cleaner air, ground and
water. That's from an already advanced economy. Developing markets will not
likely put the money into that while they try to get their people out of the
muck (literally).

[1] [http://inhabitat.com/study-finds-that-the-us-electronics-
rec...](http://inhabitat.com/study-finds-that-the-us-electronics-recycling-
industry-is-booming-with-billions-in-profits/)

~~~
ForHackernews
> The scrape yards aren't burning things and employing people to simply burn
> things and spend money. They get money from the scrap.

It sounds to me like they aren't employing anyone. They have a big scrap heap,
and desperately poor individuals pick through it on their own accord hoping to
scavenge some valuable metal they can sell.

To put it in terms startup types can relate to: The trash-pickers are
independent entrepreneurs and the scrap yard is like Uber, facilitating their
trade.

~~~
dragontamer
> The trash-pickers are independent entrepreneurs and the scrap yard is like
> Uber, facilitating their trade.

[http://globalrec.org/2013/07/31/philippines-waste-pickers-
fr...](http://globalrec.org/2013/07/31/philippines-waste-pickers-frame-common-
agenda-fight-for-right-to-socio-legal-recognition/)

Don't joke. Scrap pickers really do believe themselves to be independent
entrepreneurs with an important job to do. You push on them, they push back.
Its their way of life.

~~~
ForHackernews
They should unionize and demand safer working conditions as a group.

------
WR3A
These western descriptions of Agbogloshie are really becoming a farce. It's
the scrap dump where African generate cars and old appliances go. It is not
the repair hub. There are ZERO sea containers of Western e-junk showing up.
NONE. The place handles less per day than the average e-waste processor in
Indiana. The World Bank stats show that Accra has 4.5M residents, and the
majority of households have had TV and computers for a decade. They buy used
working electronics because the average income is under $3K. But it's obscene
that environmentalists go to a dump and take pictures of kids and raise money
and don't tell the truth about the waste origins and don't share any money
with the kids. I'm going back at the end of the month. Just stop it people.
(With all due respect, You too, Kyle). Your video says you saw no evidence of
repair, it's the scrapyard it isn't where the repair is done and it isn't
where the sea containers arrive.

And this has all been painstakingly documented in major reports!

[http://www.basel.int/Portals/4/Basel%20Convention/docs/eWast...](http://www.basel.int/Portals/4/Basel%20Convention/docs/eWaste/E-wasteAssessmentGhana.pdf)

[http://www.basel.int/Portals/4/Basel%20Convention/docs/eWast...](http://www.basel.int/Portals/4/Basel%20Convention/docs/eWaste/EwasteAfrica_Nigeria-
Assessment.pdf)

And the original source of the statistic that it's the biggest e-waste dump in
the world, junking 80%, made it up. Look!

[http://retroworks.blogspot.com/2013/05/basel-action-
network-...](http://retroworks.blogspot.com/2013/05/basel-action-network-
explains-80-or.html)

This is environmental malpractice.

------
cellularmitosis
I have a cardboard box with a decade's worth of personal e waste. I see
articles like this and wonder if I would better serve the world by simply
putting it in the dumpster. It would likely pollute our ground water locally,
but perhaps that's better than being burned in Ghana? What do HNers do with
their e waste?

------
seunosewa
Yes, this is a terrible problem, but: what's the solution?

~~~
acomjean
Government regulation and laws.

Really with pollution the incentive in capitalism is to just pollute, and not
deal with waste properly. It is cheaper almost always and following
regulations if they even exist usually eats into profit.

I used to work for an environmental engineering firm that had to do some site
clean-ups in a previous career. Companies hate being forced to pay to clean up
their messes, its one of the big incentives not to pollute, as that certainly
eats into profits.

creating less waste is a good goal too (shaving weight from a phone your going
to sell millions of saves a lot of resources) or as a consumer buying less
means you'll throw away less (swap in an ssd for your hard drive to keep that
computer another year..).

Computers and phones keep getting better and better (more energy efficient
too), so there is a strong motivation to upgrade (although this is less stong
then it used to be).

~~~
ptaipale
Yep, government regulation and laws. The question is: which government?

Normally one would expect that in the areas were this work is done, the local
governments take care of environmental and work safety regulations and laws.
But they don't - due to greed, corruption and whatever.

So should, for example, OECD countries forbid export of electric waste to non-
OECD countries, to enforce proper disposal of hazardous materials and
recycling? I don't have very clear answers to this, because there are obvious
reasons both ways (do we want to exclude poor countries from the world
markets?). But I think it is a good question.

~~~
DanBC
There are existig laws to prevent e-waste dumping -- most of the e-waste from
the EU in Agbogbloshie was illegally exported.

[http://www.euractiv.com/sustainability/new-law-seeks-
limit-d...](http://www.euractiv.com/sustainability/new-law-seeks-limit-
dumping-wast-news-514282)

~~~
ptaipale
Yes, in addition to laws and regulations, there needs to be enforcement,
otherwise they do nothing.

------
WR3A
Four comprehensive studies have found that 85%, 87%, 91%, or 93% is reused.
The sea containers go to another part of town, where the geeks and technicians
are. Agbogbloshie is mostly managing used scrap (cars, appliances,
electronics) generated by the 4.5M inhabitants of Accra. Over half the
households in Accra had television in 2003.

Links to Ghana specific studies here
[http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/06/21/231250/uk-man-
senten...](http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/06/21/231250/uk-man-sentenced-
to-16-months-for-exporting-e-waste-despite-91-reuse)

------
henrykohl4
There are homegrown solutions in the pipeline, I worked with a couple of guys
on a project there:

[http://accrareport.com/feature/agbogbloshie-a-local-
solution...](http://accrareport.com/feature/agbogbloshie-a-local-solution-for-
a-global-tragedy/)

[http://accrareport.com/feature/e-waste-in-ghana-where-
death-...](http://accrareport.com/feature/e-waste-in-ghana-where-death-is-the-
price-of-living-another-day/)

------
izietto
Africa is the shame of western society

~~~
izietto
You can downvote me, but that's the point. Western countries go on exploiting
Africa for its space and its resources, and then can't handle their
inhabitants migrations. A shame, what else.

