Tokyo 2020 medals

As you can see from the diagram above, a project which was launched a few years ago in Japan is close to finishing.
All the medals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 will be made from metals recovered from e-Waste.
I am putting together a presentation on this for Year 8 students, and it will be shared when completed.

e-waste Video from Greenpeace

Where does your e-Waste go?

This Greenpeace article provides information on a project to trace e-Waste using GPS trackers.

As you can see, it's been around for a while.
Lucy Siegle on the WEEE man.

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.

The WEEE man

Who is the WEEE man and how is he connected to our 'Geography of my Stuff' unit?
More to come!!

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.

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?

There is no 'away'...

One of my jobs for the Christmas break is to work on a unit on the Geography of my Stuff...

We will be adapting the RGS-IBG units with some newer stuff...

There's plenty of geography in the items that we buy: we'll probably look at the story of t-shirts along with other manufactured goods.
We will also be making use of the Follow the Things resources that I created in association with Exeter University and Professor Ian Cook.

When you've got a gadget, it's unlikely to last for ever... What do you do with it ?
Do you keep it / recycle it or take it to the tip ?
There is currently an EU regulation: WEEE, on the disposal of electronic waste, but that doesn't prevent a great deal of 'redundant' devices needing disposal.

A few years ago, I went to the Eden Project.
They had a huge sculpture made from old electrical equipment, called the 'WEEE man', to represent the amount of e-waste that was being disposed of.

Image: Alan Parkinson

Students could do an audit of items which they have, which are not currently being used. This might provide an idea of the scale of the problem on a school level...

A useful OBSERVER article on e-Waste... at the weekend provided further food for thought in this area.

And remember when you go to throw something away, that there is no such place as 'away'....