Research Confirms Microsoft and Dell Electronic Waste in Africa
The latest place where we have discovered high tech toxic trash causing horrendous pollution is in Ghana. Our analysis of samples taken from two electronic waste (e-waste) scrap yards in Ghana has revealed severe contamination with hazardous chemicals.
The ever-growing demand for the latest fashionable cell phone, flat screen TV or super-fast computer creates ever larger amounts of obsolete electronics that are often laden with toxic chemicals like lead, mercury and brominated flame retardants. Rather than being safely recycled, much of this e-waste gets dumped in developing countries.
Previously, we have exposed pollution from e-waste scrap yards in China and India. Nigeria has also been identified as a dumping ground for old electronics.During our investigation into the shady e-waste trade, we uncovered evidence that e-waste is being exported, often illegally, to Ghana from Europe and the US. We visited Ghana to investigate workplace contamination from e-waste recycling and disposal in the country.
In the yards, unprotected workers, many of them children, dismantle computers and TVs with little more then stones in search of metals that can be sold. The remaining plastic, cables and casing is either burnt or simply dumped:
Some of the samples contained toxic metals including lead in quantities as much as one hundred times above background levels. Other chemicals such as phthalates, some of which are known to interfere with sexual reproduction, were found in most of the samples tested. One sample also contained a high level of chlorinated dioxins, known to promote cancer.
Dr. Kevin Bridgen, from our science unit, has visited scrap yards in China, India and Ghana: “Many of the chemicals released are highly toxic, some may affect children’s developing reproductive systems, while others can affect brain development and the nervous system. In Ghana, China and India, workers, many of them children, may be substantially exposed to these hazardous chemicals."
How does it get to Ghana?
Containers filled with old and often broken computers, monitors and TVs — from brands including Philips, Sony, Microsoft, Nokia, Dell, Canon and Siemens — arrive in Ghana from Europe and the United States under the false label of "second-hand goods" or are simply dumped. The majority of the containers' contents end up in Ghana's scrap yards to be crushed and burned by workers, often children, sometimes using only their bare hands. This method not only pollutes the environment but also exposes workers to potentially toxic dust and fumes. This crude "recycling" is done in search of metal parts, mostly aluminum and copper, which sells for approximately 2 US Dollars per eleven pounds. Although not a Tech company, Greenpeace also identified parts on site marked as property of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Some traders report that to get a shipping container with a few working computers they must accept broken junk like old screens in the same container from exporters in developed countries.
What's the solution?
While working computers and mobile phones can have a new lease of life in some African countries, they create pollution when thrown away due to the high levels of toxic chemicals they contain. This is why we are pressuring the biggest electronic companies to phase out toxic chemicals and introduce global recycling schemes. Both of these steps are vital to tackle the growing tide of toxic e-waste.
Some companies are making progress towards taking responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products. However, Philips and Sharp stand out for refusing to accept that they are responsible for recycling their old products. The stance of these powerful multinationals is ensuring there will always be a digital divide that they prefer remains hidden, a dangerous divide with unprotected workers in developing countries left with the toxic legacy.
Behind the story
Mid-2008 a Greenpeace team including campaigner Kim Schoppink and photographer Kate Davison went to Ghana to document and gather evidence of what really happens to our electronic waste.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/photosvideos/photo-stories/e-waste-in-ghana-kim-schoppi
From the Associated Press:
Greenpeace called on the world’s electronics companies Tuesday to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their products, saying toxic waste from wealthy nations’ gadgets ends up being dumped in poor countries despite laws prohibiting it.
The environmental watchdog made the appeal in a new report on the electronic waste trade, which it said was spreading from Asia to West Africa _ particularly Ghana, where discarded TVs and computers that contain toxic materials are being dismantled by children as young as 5.
The environmental watchdog made the appeal in a new report on the electronic waste trade, which it said was spreading from Asia to West Africa _ particularly Ghana, where discarded TVs and computers that contain toxic materials are being dismantled by children as young as 5.
Download the report:
“Unless companies eliminate all hazardous chemicals from their electronic products and take responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products, this poisonous dumping will continue,” said Martin Hojsik, a Greenpeace campaigner. “Electronics companies must not allow their products to end up poisoning the poor around the world.”
Many of the old computers, monitors and television sets that end up in Ghana come from the European Union, despite laws there prohibiting the export of such hazardous materials, Greenpeace said. In particular, the report cited shipments from Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands _ as well as Korea.
The materials are exported as “second hand goods” and purportedly meant to be reusable. But the report, citing a EU official, said most of these goods imported into Africa are broken and cannot be used again.
In Ghana, the discarded waste is dismantled at scrap yards, where it is crushed or burned to separate plastics from more valuable metals like aluminum or copper, a process that pollutes the environment and exposes workers to toxic fumes.
A Greenpeace team visited two main waste sites in Ghana _ one in the capital and another in the smaller city of Korforidua. Soil samples analyzed at Britain’s University of Exeter contained phthalates, which are suspected of causing reproductive problems, and lead.
The report noted that while the EU officially prohibits such exports, the United States does not.
Leading computer makers, including Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Apple Inc., have launched or expanded recycling programs in recent years. But overall, environmental groups and government regulators have said that a small percentage of electronics are actually being submitted for recycling.
By Todd Pitman, AP Writer, © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.instablogs.com/entry/greenpeace-cites-rising-e-waste-in-africa/
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