Shocking Pollutants II – Not In My Backyard Please!

Hello fellow readers, did you know that today (14 October 2020) is International E-Waste Day? It was first developed by the Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum in 2018 to heighten the public profile of e-waste recycling and encourage consumers to recycle their e-waste, ultimately increasing the recycling rates in the future (WEEE, 2020).

In (a coincidental) alignment with International E-Waste Day, we shall be exploring the environmental and health implications of E-waste exportation and informal recycling in this post 😀

Why Export?

As aptly posited by Fowler (2017), the global patterns of E-waste recycling involve both developed countries such as the United States (US) and developing countries which includes Nigeria, Pakistan, and India, amongst many others. However, there has been a trend towards the exportation of E-waste, particularly from the developed to developing nations. A publication by researchers from the University of Ghana revealed that the treatment of E-waste in developed countries are often costly due to the presence of stringent environmental laws (Ottaviani, n.d.). Consequently, in an attempt to evade the expense incurred from treating hazardous devices, highly polluting procedures will tend to be exported to developing countries, where such environmental regulations are relatively lax.

According to the Basel Convention which monitors and controls the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, E-waste is categorised as hazardous due to the presence of toxic materials such as mercury, lead and brominated flame retardants (Basel Convention, n.d.). The impacts of these toxic substances are often exacerbated in developing countries as they fail to be managed in an environmentally sound manner (Basel Convention, n.d.), and it is precisely due to this lack of regulation that attracts waste disposal by developed countries.

To better illustrate the issue of transboundary E-waste, let us set our sights to Agbogbloshie in Ghana.

Case Study: Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana

Agbogbloshie is a small town located in Accra, Ghana, and it has since achieved an infamous reputation as one of the most polluted slums in the world through the housing of the world’s largest informal E-waste recycling operations (Petricca et al., 2020). It has been estimated that 215,000 tonnes of consumer electronics – mainly from Western Europe and the US – come through Ghana’s Tema Port annually (Shibata, 2015). These obsolete devices are then transported to various towns, with 129,000 tonnes being delivered to Agbogbloshie’s landfills each year, to a population of 40,000 people (Shibata, 2015).

Scrap workers in Agbogbloshie extracting circuit boards to salvage computer chips. (Shibata, 2015).

Being obsolete in nature when these components arrive in Ghana, it violates the Basel Convention, which bans the transportation of hazardous waste, and non-operational electronic devices, between countries (Ottaviani, n.d.). Yet the town is currently undergoing intense economic growth, by supporting the processes of receiving, reusing, recovering and disposing of such e-waste (Ottaviani, n.d.). It hosts a thriving network of repair shops and second-hand markets which attempt to tap into the full potential of e-waste (Ottaviani, n.d.). Take a look at the infographic below for an insight on the intricate transportation processes that take place to salvage the e-waste.

Processes involved in the transportation and treatment of waste in Agbogbloshie. (Ottaviani, 2015).

Impacts on local communities

However, despite the economic prosperity, the informal and unmanaged recycling methods pose significant threats to the health of the scrap workers. The inadequate protective gear and measures alongside the pervasive nature of heavy metals has heightened the risk and exposure to toxins in the local atmosphere. Air samples taken from the Agbogbloshie Market revealed the presence of polychlorinated naphthalene (PCN) congeners (Petricca et al., 2020), which are commercially used in a variety of appliances due to their dielectric, water-repellent, flame-retardant, and fungus-resistant properties (Jakobsson & Asplund, 2008).

Additionally, blood samples of workers have exhibited elevated concentrations of lead (Ottaviani, n.d.) and flame retardants (Petricca et al., 2020). Evidently, the cocktail of these chemical compounds present in electronic devices have been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders and/or fetal perturbations (Petricca et al., 2020).

Moreover, according to a report published by the United Kingdom Environmental Investigation Agency, the e-waste houses numerous toxic chemicals, neurotoxins, and carcinogens. Subsequently, scrap workers could potentially develop respiratory illness, behavioral disorders, damaged immune, nervous and blood systems, impaired brain development from lead poisoning, and cancer. Acute or chronic exposure to toxic e-waste can also prove to be fatal.

Digging Deeper

However, restricting imports from Western Europe and the US is insufficient in combating the economic and environmental problems faced by the local communities. A significant contributor to the issue comes from Agbogbloshie itself.

Many consumer electronics repair and refurbishment businesses often purchase second-hand devices from Ghanaian importers who in turn purchase these machines from ‘recycling’ plants in Western Europe and the US (Minter ,2016). These second-hand machines are then dismantled to salvage circuit boards and memory chips, which are subsequently fitted into other devices to refurbish them for sale to the local community (Minter, 2016). The refurbishment businesses cater to consumers who are unable to afford new machines, and play a crucial role in bridging the economic and technological divide that exists between wealthy consumers in developed countries and developing countries such as Ghana.

Therefore, although the ‘not in my backyard’ mindset contributes to the exportation of e-waste to developing countries, the demand for these products in such nations are also drivers in the unequal trades. This in turn stems from the disparities in economic status between the Global North and South, ultimately shedding light on the interdisciplinary aspect of environmental pollution – in that environmental problems can be underscored by socioeconomic and political plights.

References:

Basel Convention. (n.d.). Enhancing Parties capacities for the environmentally sound management of e-wastes through the enhanced regional delivery: e-waste activities in Africa. Available from: http://www.basel.int/Implementation/Ewaste/EwasteinNigerandSwaziland/tabid/7610/Default.aspx [Accessed 11 October 2020]

Fowler, B. A. (2017). Chapter 1 – Magnitude of the Global E-waste Problem. In Fowler, B. A. (ed.). Electronic Waste. Toxicology and Public Health Issues. 1-15. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803083-7.00001-9

Jakobsson, E., & Asplund, L. (2008). Polychlorinated Naphthalenes. In Paasivirta, J. (ed.). The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry Vol 3. Springer, Berlin. Available from: 10.1007/3-540-48915-0_5

Shibata, M. (2015). Inside the World’s Biggest E-Waste Dump. Motherboard. Available from: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x3emg/inside-the-worlds-biggest-e-waste-dump [Accessed 11 October 2020]

Minter, A. (2016). The Burning Truth Behind an E-Waste Dump in Africa. Smithsonian. Available from: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/burning-truth-behind-e-waste-dump-africa-180957597/ [Accessed 11 October 2020]

Ottaviani, J. (n.d.). E-waste Republic. Aljazeera. Available from: https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2015/ewaste/index.html [Accessed 11 October 2020]

Petricca, C., Moloo, Z., & Stoisser, M. (2020). Hazardous e-waste recycling in Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana. Environmental Justice Atlas. Available from: https://ejatlas.org/conflict/agbogbloshie-e-waste-landfill-ghana [Accessed 11 October 2020]

WEEE Forum. (2020). International E-Waste Day – 14 October 2020. Available from: https://weee-forum.org/iewd-about/ [Accessed 11 October 2020]

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