The dumping of electronic waste in Ghana has been getting a lot of media attention, and it's clear that urgent action is desperately needed to stop the immense damage it's causing to the environment and to human health. But despite the glare of the global spotlight, the dumping continues. Why? Who is involved, who is responsible, and why does it seem like nothing is being done, locally or internationally, to stop it?
Environmental experts monitoring Ghana’s largest and most toxic e-waste site at Agbogbloshie, in Accra, are convinced that elements of organised crime are involved. The dumping is consistent, it follows a certain pattern, and it's clear that there are people behind the movement of this e-waste who are constantly finding new ways in which to transport it from developed countries, and evade authorities, in order to dump it in Ghana. In other words, it is deliberate and it is criminal.
Direct evidence points to shipments from the UK, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, USA, Canada and Australia. Except for the USA, all of these countries are signatories to the 1989 Basel Convention, which aims to stop hazardous waste (of which e-waste is a part) from crossing borders. Considering their commitment to this agreement, and with compliance being monitoring by intergovernmental organisations, why is it that e-waste shipments continue to be exported?
Part of the answer lies in the safety measures governing the disposal and processing of e-waste within developed countries: because the rules are very strict, recycling e-waste is very expensive. As a low-cost option, many illegal e-waste traders pose as legitimate recycling outfits offering affordable, quick-fix collection services for businesses and households. But rather than recycle or dispose of the items within the country, the fraudsters pack the waste into shipping containers, label it as 'reusable household items', 'secondhand functioning equipment' or 'donated electronic items' ... and then ship it off to e-waste dumps in the developing world.
For many of those who've paid for the service, it's simply a matter of 'out of sight, out of mind': once your old computer, broken microwave or unfashionable TV has been picked up, why should you care what happens to it, right? But if you do care, and if you have witnessed the horrifying consequences of e-waste dumping as I have, the question becomes: how does this e-waste get into Ghana?
The responsibility for monitoring shipments that enter the ports lies with Ghana's Department of Trade and Industry – it should presumably be scrutinising any cargo that comes ashore and instituting far stricter controls to prevent e-waste from entering the country. The department was contacted some time ago for their side of the story and promised to respond ... but it's yet to release a statement on the matter.
One thing is clear when observing containers of e-waste being transported from Ghana's Tema Port to Agbogbloshie: syndicates have local contacts that receive and dump the shipments. Are the contacts using bribery to encourage port officials to turn a blind eye? It's probable. Of course, the truck drivers and assistants, and many other workers along this murky supply chain, are probably simply doing their jobs – unaware of the bigger picture. The syndicates' kingpins, however, are clearly willing to go to any lengths to hide their toxic cargo.
With illegal shipments rolling in, the Agbogbloshie e-waste site has become an environmental disaster zone. Its toxic reach is also spreading over the rest of Accra, often in unforeseen ways. Large quantities of fresh produce sold at Agbogbloshie market, for instance, are contaminated by high levels of toxins originating from air pollution or the poisoned water from the nearby Donsu River. This tainted produce is making its way to smaller fruit and vegetable stands all across Accra.
So what is the solution? Ghana's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims it's made all possible efforts to discourage the dumping and burning of e-waste here. Significantly, it also says it's fighting a losing battle against a loophole in the Basel Convention.
The loophole makes allowances for the exportation of e-waste on provision of what's called an offer and acceptance agreement. It goes something like this: if a company in the UK makes a formal offer to donate 'usable secondhand' computers to an NGO in Ghana and that NGO accepts the offer (and all supporting export/import documentation backs up the agreement) then port authorities and the EPA cannot intervene. With no complaints from the supposed NGO regarding the state of the items imported, the importation continues unexamined and unabated.
Of course, in a some cases, this may actually be a legitimate transaction ... which makes it all that much harder to clamp down on the illegal cases without depriving genuine schools and NGOs of much-needed electronic equipment. To stem the flow of e-waste, the loophole needs to be recognised by the signatories to the Convention as well as the Ghanaian government, and remedied through tighter legislation and prosecution.
And what about those of us who sit at the source of the e-waste trail? We all need to start demanding accountability from our governments and major IT and electronics producers. More importantly, we need to consider the life cycle of our electronic gadgets, and remember that what we throw away today is still around tomorrow. It might not be in your dustbin, but it will be polluting the environment somewhere else in the world.
Read the first part of the Agbogbloshie story here.
