A dangerous environment for telecom waste workers in Ghana.
Because of the Basel Convention, an international treaty that forbids developed nations from carrying out the dumping of telecom waste in less developed countries, demand to purchase gold and copper from unwanted devices continues in Ghana. In Tema Port, 215,000 tonnes of old consumer electronics from mainly Europe and the US come through Ghana annually. These broken products then get dumped at waste sites like Agbogbloshie, generating up to 129,000 tons of telecom waste each year! The Ghanaian government in January 2013 banned the importation of old fridges because of the dangerous CFC gas inside of them, which has resulted in the seizing and disassembling of British imports. However, Agbogbloshie continues to serve 40,000 people, who earn $1 to $2.50 a day disposing of telecom waste. These workers are removing circuit boards from a pile of copy machines to salvage computer chips that contain valuable compounds. On a trip to the site, scrap workers at
, the world’s largest telecom waste site, were seen taking a break from extracting copper and other valuable metals from unwanted devices. Hungry after burning a mountain of abandoned electronics, photocopiers, phones, and televisions (subsequently putting the telecom waste into everyone’s air) they’ve just finished eating bananas brought by the women.The vast majority of those at Agbogbloshie are men from north Ghana, who work at the site for three to five months at a time before they bring their earnings back to their families. They live near the site and arrive as early as 5AM, in time for their Islamic morning prayers. Prayer spaces are built around the site, and prayer mats are kept away from water that has high concentrations of lead, mercury, thallium, hydrogen cyanide, dioxin, and brominated flame retardant generated from the fumes of burning telecom debris. Young teenage boys who normally would be starting secondary school can be found here instead of pursuing their education. Some of the workers bring their family members, including young daughters who hang around waiting for their father to finish his day. Agbogbloshie is also a point of interest for migrants across West Africa. With local and Chinese manufacturers buying the commodities, finding scraps offers them a larger income stream than what they can acquire back at home. To combat homelessness, the migrants build shacks on site from telecom waste items that have landed. They take the best materials for themselves before it ends up in a buyer’s hands. They also dress themselves in old clothing they have found in the telecom trash. As there are no facilities to do laundry, the same items are worn each and every day. The feeling is mutual, living and working in the Agbogbloshie telecom waste site “is not fair” and “Europe would be a better place” for them.