Despite new European regulations to prevent electronic waste from being dumped in Africa and Asia, a hidden flow of end-of-life electronics are flowing steadily into West Africa, reports the new watchdog “DanWatch” Monday.
Every month, hundreds of tons of obsolete (forældede) computers, televisions and other household consumer electronics are arriving at ports in Ghana and Nigeria. From here, the second hand electronics are distributed via local networks of dealers throughout the country.
According to local sources, only 25 per cent of the imports are working (kan bruges), while the remaining electronic waste, also known as e-waste, often ends up on dumpsite fires.
– Ghana is increasingly becoming a dumping ground for waste from Europe and the US. We are talking about several tons of obsolete discarded computers, monitors etc., said Mike Anane, Director of the league of Environmental journalists in Ghana.
– We do not have the mechanism or the system in place in this country to recycle these wastes. Some of these items come in under the guise of donations, but when you examine the items they do not work, noted he.
The arrival of flat-screen televisions and TFT-monitors on consumer markets in the USA and in Europe has set off a flood of old crt-television sets spilling into Africa.
In Accra and in Lagos, the capitals of Ghana and Nigeria, the change in European consumer habits is clearly visible as old-fashioned CRT-television sets are lined up along the streets by their thousands.
Each year, European consumers are producing 8,7 million tons of e-waste. Despite the Basel Ban Amendment under the Basel Convention, which forbids the export of toxic waste – including e-waste – from OECD-countries, only 25 per cent of the waste is recycled.
6,6 million tons is unaccounted for – and a significant part of this is dumped in countries outside the OECD.
Although there is a fast growing need for computers and other information technologies in Africa – especially affordable ones – local experts, politicians and environmental campaigners fear the enormous influx of obsolete electronics is posing a serious long term threat to the environment and to human health.
In West Africa, refuse (affald) is often disposed of in fires. It is not unusual that waste collectors will destroy the cathode ray tubes, and burn the wires and circuit boards inside, to get to the copper wires and other metals, which can be resold.
However, the costs to the environment and to human health are too high, says Professor Oladele Osibanjo, director at the Basel Convention Regional Co-ordinating centre for Africa.
– We have about half a million computers, used computers, coming into the Lagos port every month, and only 25 percent of these are working. 75 per cent is junk. The volume is so large, that the people who trade it, just burn it like ordinary refuse. Our studies have shown that the levels of metals in this waste are far beyond the threshold limits set by Europe, stressed he.
Bjerge af computere
On a recent trip to West Africa, DanWatch researchers visited dumpsites, where computers from institutions such as Stockholm Schools, The World Bank and United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) were piled up together with computers from numerous European, American and Asian companies in literally mountains of e-waste.
On one site, clouds of black smoke rose from several fires, as boys, some as young as ten years old, ignored the toxic fumes to get to the precious metal scraps beneath the melting e-waste:
– The lead (bly), the mercury (kviksølv) and all the other toxins bio-accumulate. That is to say, they stay in the food chain, explained Mike Anane, adding:
– The people that break open these CRT-monitors tell me that they suffer from nausea (kvalme), headaches and chest- and respiratory problems. As a result of breaking these things and burning the wires they inhale a lot of fumes. Sometimes you even find children breaking these cathode ray tubes apart just to get the wires and other metals to sell.
Exporters are able to ship e-waste by exploiting a loophole in European legislation which allows “end-of-life” electronic goods to be exported as working products.
Even NGOs are sometimes unwillingly involved in the trade, when large quantities of mobile phones and computers are donated to help schools and institutions.
In one case, a UK-based organization offered to donate 10.000 computers to a Nigerian NGO. However, only 2.000 of the computers proved to be functioning:
– This is why we believe there is a need for tighter regulation in the EU and USA, said Professor Oladele Osibanjo of the Basel regional center.
– The adverse effects override the potential gain. We are being made a dumping ground for electronic waste under the guise of bridging the divide and trying to make the poor have access to ICT, he said.
The director at the Basel Convention Regional Co-ordinating centre for Africa calls for urgent measures to stem the tide of obsolete electronics flowing into Africa:
– I think that countries within the EU and other developed countries have to put in place a mechanism whereby only tested and certified computers that can actually offer some useful life are allowed to come in here, said Professor Osibanjo.
The hidden flow of waste from Europe to Africa mounts by the day. Unless EU countries enforce regulations that are set aside in the Basel Convention the environmental pollution from toxic dump sites in Ghana and Nigeria will spill out to become a global problem.
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