Old habits die hard in Agbogbloshie

For over 10 years, we used the area of Agbogbloshie on the edge of the Ghanaian capital city of Accra as a case study.

There was a video on Vimeo called e-Wasteland. It is still available to view. It has no narration, but some text captions and the sounds of the activity in this area. It was made by David Fedele in 2012 - which was when we started using it. You will possibly need to login (a free account can be created) to view it.

I thought that the activity had ended due to new methods and efforts to educate the workforce into the risks they were taking - particuarly the accumulation of mercury and other toxic heavy metals into their bloodstreams which shortened their life expectancy.

This article from this weekend suggests that actually the practice is still taking place, so we will perhaps revisit the place, and see what we can see - the area of burning used to be very visible on Google Earth.

Agbogbloshie: e-wasteland

Agbogbloshie is a suburb of the city of Accra on the Atlantic coast of Ghana in West Africa.

It is a well known example of a community which receives illegal shipments of e-waste, which provides employment for young men, often migrants from the north of Ghana. Cables are burned to melt the plastic revealing the copper wire.


Attempts are being made to stop the burning.

Pure Earth blog has more details on this.

In the most recent Geographical Journal from the RGS-IBG, there was an article on the places in the world where this activity takes place - it is not only Ghana, and in most cases there is a hierarchy of jobs which sustains other employment.

Source of image: https://www.voanews.com/a/wire-strippers-bring-some-relief-from-toxic-smokein-ghana/2498347.html 

e-waste Video from Greenpeace

e-Waste

Third video from Matt Podbury - this is excellent on e-Waste in Agbogbloshie




The Electronic Afterlife from Gizmogul on Vimeo.


Interesting discussions on the relationship between this and the people in Ghana. This film publicises a company that recycles electronic gadgets...

e-Wasteland

We're back to Agbogbloshie again, and exploring our e-waste. This time, we have a new hexagon sheet created by Miss Kyndt, a Guardian article on the impact of the reclamation of e-waste, a video of Liam: the Apple robot, and the Slavery Footprint website.

e-wasteland from David Fedele on Vimeo.

e-Wasteland Workers Training Manual

For use with the e-Wasteland video.

Students create a training guide a little like an official guide someone might get on their first day at work, except of course the conditions are very different...

Agbogbloshie Workers’ Training Manual by GeoBlogs

e-Wasteland

We're preparing to explore the problem of e-Waste again with Year 8 students, who have been exploring the issues of globalisation, and will now be exploring the consequence of our demands for new products...

Last year, 41.8m tonnes of so-called e-waste – mostly fridges, washing machines and other domestic appliances at the end of their life – was dumped, a UN report said.
That’s the equivalent of 1.15m heavy trucks, forming a line 23,000km (14,300 miles) long

We'll be using David Fedele's Vimeo video...


e-wasteland from David Fedele on Vimeo.

There's also this Al Jazeera report... This waste produces harmful lead and mercury, but also holds tonnes of gold and silver....
China, India, Nigeria and Ghana receive the most e-Waste. EU has banned its shipment...



There has been quite a bit in the news over the last few days about this:

Guardian article on which EU countries create the most waste.

A BBC article suggests that the majority of this waste is microwaves and dishwashers rather than mobile phones and computers as some might imagine

Some ideas for how to cut down on eWaste in this BBC article too - including swapping your own mobile phone for a slice of pizza....

Does the term e-Waste hide the reality of what this is... a pile of toxic chemicals that threatens ecosystems and human health? How can we reduce our own contributions to this problem?

And here's a nice quote from one of the comments on the Guardian article:

We live in a throw-away society the trouble is nobody seems to have worked out what to do with it when it's thrown away.

What's on the TV ? A fire....

To accompany our viewing of the e-Wasteland of Agbogbloshie...

Where does your TV go when you've finished with it.... particularly the thousands of old CRT models...

TV Agbogbloshie

Agbogbloshie Workers' Training Manual

While watching e-Wasteland, fill in the details on this workers' training manual.

Imagine that this is like the 'official' manual that new employees get when starting work, but with a dark twist... 
A chance for focussed, but creative writing. Try to think yourself into the workers' shoes....

Agbogbloshie Workers’ Training Manual

Questions for Naasra - working in a graveyard for computers

We have introduced you to a place called Agbogbloshie
It is near the city of Accra on the coast of Ghana.
Naasra is one of the people who are making a living there... just.

Her picture is included in a photo story which was published in the New York Times.
The picture can't be reproduced here for copyright reasons, but you should take a look at the sequence to get an idea.

Re-watch the BBC CLICK sequence (it's only 4 minutes long) to see the impact of illegal e-waste imports on the soil, the atmosphere and the people of this place.



Also check out this Andrew McConnell photo essay and further links, many of which tell a similar (and in many ways familiar) story.

Is any of your family's old electronic waste here?
Can you be sure that it isn't?