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A daily article on global humanities and geography
WeChat public account: Earth Knowledge Bureau
NO.2199 - City of Foreign Garbage
Author: Leopard Sister
Draft: Tuna / Proofreader: ChaoQian / Editor: Tuna
In recent years, wasteland wind has become an emerging aesthetic orientation with the help of ACG culture. The high-tech that distorts the technology tree is in stark contrast to the low-level people living in a cramped, dirty, and e-waste environment. The ambitious protagonist sidesteps himself in a cruel environment, uses technology to tenaciously survive, and even challenges the entire system to form a different kind of romance.
The Iron City in the science fiction film Alita
It is the garbage distribution center of the space station "Salem"
Salem City "left" the Steel City through a large hollow in the middle
In fact, this does not need to be taken as a bizarre fantasy of excitement, because for those who live in the Agbogbloshie region of Ghana, the West African country, such a life is a daily reality. The town is built on a garbage dump in which tens of thousands of highly mobile people live.
Abo brosi is de facto part of the capital Accra
It is located southwest of Accra▼
Near the Abbo Brosi slum in Accra, Ghana
The little boy is dismantling computers and other electronic devices to recycle metal
(Photo: One Map Network)▼
Each of them regards themselves as the protagonists of life, believing that picking up garbage is only temporary, and changing their lives against the sky is the end. But many people know that they are so caught up in it that they may die early before the age of 30.
They are only a microcosm of the problem of African electronic foreign garbage, which is only a concrete manifestation of Africa's development dilemma.
Since Africa has vigorously imported second-hand goods from abroad
Second-hand commodities that exceed their digestibility are gradually becoming a serious burden on this part of Africa
(Photo: shutterstock)▼
Foreign garbage that steals beams for columns
The world's first assembly-line mass-produced personal computer was the IBM 5150 introduced in 1981, and the world's first relatively lightweight mobile phone was invented in 1987.
The "founding father" of the information age
He was also on the cover of Time magazine and was named "Person of the Year"
(Photo: Flickr)▼
Nowadays, the replacement cycle of computers is about 5 years, while the replacement cycle of mobile phones is about 2 years. After so many years, the popularity of electronic products is almost one piece and the high frequency of replacement, which will theoretically create a huge amount of garbage, and it is true.
The iPhone4S has been with fruit fans for 10 years
Do you have smartphones and PCs that change in a few years?
(Photo: Wikipedia)▼
The weight of e-waste discarded worldwide every year has increased by about 3% per year in recent years. In 2021, around 57.4 million tonnes of e-waste were discarded worldwide. The waste is theoretically worth about $63.3 million, but e-waste recycling is actually a job that requires capital, technology and manpower, and it is not easy to do well. As a result, only 17.4% of e-waste is recycled, most of which is buried in landfills or incinerated.
For materials that require complex dismantling processes and chemical reactions to be recycled
Local treatment is the most cost-effective means for locals
(Photo: shutterstock)▼
Moreover, the big countries that abandon e-waste are often not the big countries that landfill e-waste. The purchasing power of large consumers of electronic products is strong, and there is a growing emphasis on environmental protection issues. The electronic waste often contains lead, mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals, the cost of recycling is high, once the combustion seriously pollutes the atmospheric environment, landfill is easy to pollute the soil and groundwater.
E-waste contains a variety of substances that have a high level of environmental pollution
(Source: UNU; UNI)▼
Just as the raw materials, parts, assemblies and consumers of electronics are often not distributed in the same country, landfills are also globalized in the era of globalization. E-waste is shipped to countries willing to make money by importing foreign garbage at the expense of long-term interests. After all, for these countries, environmental problems are not a problem compared to other problems.
Before the comprehensive upgrading of the industry, China also had the era of exchanging foreign garbage for industrialization
It was not until January 1, 2021 that the import of foreign garbage was completely banned under the law
(Photo: One Map Network)▼
Theoretically, under the Basel Convention signed in 1989, the export of hazardous goods from developed countries to developing countries requires the written consent of the latter, and the 1995 amendment explicitly prohibits the export of e-waste. Although the United States did not sign the Basel Convention, the relevant investigation did not prove that the United States exported garbage to Africa.
The full name of the Basel Convention is the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. It aims to protect the environmentally sound management of hazardous and other wastes generated by developing countries
(Photo: shutterstock)▼
But the reality is that e-waste doesn't automatically grow on the land, and Africa has long had no capacity to produce a lot of electronic devices, but there have been multiple giant e-waste dumps. Because the business of dumping garbage on the territory of poor countries is not glorious after all, and it is likely to be illegal, everything is carried out in secret.
Except in cases where international conventions may be violated
In some cases, it may also be recycled by local recyclers
The personal information stolen therein is used for fraud
(Photo: shutterstock)▼
In the beginning, exports to Ghana were often some over-depleted second-hand electronics. After all, newer, better-used second-hand products are often directly in the domestic high-price cycle, too old-fashioned, transitional loss will be sold to Africa at ultra-low prices. These products have indeed boosted the penetration of electronics in Africa and bridged the digital divide. However, they are often not durable, and some are even damaged when they are shipped to Africa and need to be dismantled and repaired.
The exporter quickly seized the hole
Africa has also quickly become the largest e-waste receiving hub after Asia
(Photo: shutterstock)▼
E-waste recycling is actually a highly technical work, and the relative lack of technical talents in Africa determines that even if the local people cherish these resources that are regarded as garbage by developed countries, there is no way to achieve environmentally friendly and efficient recycling, and a large amount of e-waste will inevitably be produced in the process.
If you can use it, use it
However, most of them cannot be effectively recycled, so they have to be disposed of in situ
(Source: Global E-waste Monitor)▼
Survival wars in the junkyard
As the e-waste trade becomes an industry, all kinds of e-waste exported in the name of second-hand goods have gradually increased. After all, there is no clear line between whether exported goods are garbage or second-hand. If a container of second-hand goods is mixed with e-waste, the boundaries will be more blurred. There is also some e-waste that has come to Africa in the name of donation.
Donations from formal channels usually have higher quality requirements for the donated products
But even so, it may also be shoddy "watering" in the downstream industry.
(Some of the obsolete products are also doped in it, Picture: shutterstock)▼
This gray area industry meets the needs of industrialized countries to reduce garbage pollution and africa's backward countries to get electronic products at low prices, but the cost is undoubtedly very high.
When the world takes note of these problems, the foreign dumps of poor countries have often developed to heinous proportions. Ghana's Abo brosi is the most exaggerated example of this. No one knows when it started importing foreign garbage, or why it was chosen.
Rely on disposing of endless imported garbage
It has developed into a considerable gathering place for the poor
People only know that they come here to work and have money to earn
(Photo: One Map Network)▼
In the 1980s, some ghanaians fleeing the war came to accra, the capital of Ghana, on the southern coast to make a living. Poor people could not afford to live in urban areas, and gradually set up shacks in a wetland with a good environment in the southwest of the city. Gradually, a slum called Abobrosi was gathered here.
No one knows when Abo brossi appeared
When the capital of the Gold Coast was moved from Cape Coast to Accra
Slum cities in southern Ghana do not exist
(Photo: One Map Network)▼
It is close to Ghana's largest consumer market, with a large seashore, vast open space, sufficient labor, serious unemployment problems, and the government's governance capacity is relatively low, and it does have the basis for the development of foreign garbage recycling industry.
Maybe it's just some fortuitous opportunity for the unemployed poor here to discover that there's copper in e-waste. Through violent dismantling and burning, they simply and rudely cleared the copper wire and earned a few dollars a day, and this way of survival attracted more poor people to join. The result is the world's largest illegal e-waste dump.
Despite the huge risks to life and health
The income from a day's work may not be enough to support a family's meals
(Photo: One Map Network)▼
By 2011, Ghana imported about 150,000 tonnes of e-waste annually, according to a Basel Convention survey report, and Abo brosi was the ultimate destination for most e-waste.
There is also a gradual division of labor in the garbage industry here, with some people violently dismantling electronic products, some people responsible for assembling equipment that can be used, some responsible for incineration, women and children responsible for separating the trace amount of gold in the motherboard and chip, and even the "chiefs" who maintain order and allocate incineration sites.
A motherboard with a precise structure
In the eyes of teenagers, it is a precious treasure that can be exchanged for a lot of money
(Photo: One Map Network)▼
Today, the wetlands are no longer what they were, leaving only black ashes, debris, and layers of e-waste piled up over the years after the burning of electronic products. Black smoke billowed from the clearing, and people with sticks rolled over burning e-waste, extinguished fires with water in large plastic bags, removed the remaining embers, and cleaned out the precious metals inside.
When it rains, the floating soil will turn into a muddy area, and the nearby rivers will be covered with thick black oil, becoming the last mark of the wetlands.
The Korleb River, covered with tar and all kinds of plastic waste
It has almost become one with the surrounding land
(Photo: Flickr)▼
The Basel Action Network analysed eggs from Abobrosi and found that their dioxin chloride exceeded the EFT standard by more than 220 times. Such a harsh environment seriously affects the health of local people, and toxic substances such as PCBs, flame retardant compounds, dioxins and so on can affect the nervous system and reproductive system, which is particularly detrimental to children's development. Many locals die of cancer in their 20s.
Dioxins have the strongest carcinogenicity among known compounds
But the substance is abundant in burning plastics
（图：TCO Certified）▼
A loop without a solution
Journalists have come to Abo Brosi in different generations, and groups of locals have shown unrealistic optimism about the future, believing that such a life is only a short episode and that they will eventually leave the garbage heap. However, being able to leave with dignity is more often just a fantasy, and the days of endless recycling of garbage burning are the reality, and the number of people trapped in this garbage heap has grown from 30,000 to 80,000 today.
Faster than the number of people growing
It's the rate at which we produce garbage
(Source: E-waste Monitor)▼
There is no running water here, and the suspicious bagged water used for fire extinguishing is drinking water; there is no sewer, and the outdoor puddle is the toilet; most of the buildings are shacks made of wooden planks and tin sheets, and the fire hazard is serious, but there are neither fire fighting facilities nor fire brigades. The absence of public services meant a lack of government regulation, and bandits, thieves, prostitutes, and drug dealers were increasingly using it as a place to trade. I don't know when it was described as the biblical symbol of sin in sin cities "Sodom and Gomorrah."
A bridge made of thin wooden planks carries all the livelihoods of the people in this area
(Photo: One Map Network)▼
The legendary Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire, and the real-life Abo brosi suffered a serious fire in 2013, in which many people died. However, the area quickly recovered, and the days were business as usual, and the number of people was even greater.
With the disorderly development of Accra, the capital of Ghana, Abobrosi, which was originally located in the far suburbs, has been surrounded and absorbed by the capital. Even on the map, it is close to the city center, but poverty and chaos continue.
【MAP】Accra satellite image
Agbogbloshie is just a few streets away from the absolute city center
(Photo: Google Map)▼
In recent years, the Basel Action Network has tracked some European e-waste, many of which end up in Ghana. In other words, although the problem of Ghana's e-waste imports has been exposed for two or three decades, the problem has not been solved.
Ghana tried to demolish part of the slums, which the locals did not agree to at the time. The efforts of European and American countries to build clinics, technical schools, and football stadiums are only a drop in the bucket. Efforts to establish regular recycling bins have only slowly paid off.
People living in Accra Abobusi look forward to a better tomorrow
Although locals also expressed dissatisfaction with the work of sorting garbage, many children hope to become football players in the future
(Photo: METI.gov)▼
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that each metric ton of e-waste contains 100 times more gold than gold ore, not to mention zinc, copper, lead and precious minerals extracted from rare earths. However, when these materials are mixed together, it becomes difficult to extract, and the cost of harmless recycling is even more expensive. However, once there is no other way to recycle, technological advances and economies of scale will naturally reduce costs.
As a precursor to garbage recycling, garbage classification
Once done, it can save a lot of unnecessary consumption for the disposal of garbage
(Photo: One Map Network)▼
However, it is still feasible to dump e-waste in Africa, and it is naturally difficult for large countries that produce e-waste to completely replace beggar-thy-neighbor solutions with higher-cost environmental protection methods.
In developed countries, the cost of properly disposing of an old computer monitor
It costs much more than shipping by container ship to Ghana
（来源: Global E-waste Statistics Partnership）▼
In the era of globalization, behind any regional problem is often a global problem that affects the whole body. How to solve the problem of completeness is a challenge for all countries, especially for weak countries.
bibliography:
1.https://cn.weforum.org/agenda/2021/10/jin-nian-ren-men-diu-qi-de-dian-zi-la-ji-de-zhong-liang-bi-chang-cheng-hai-zhong/
2.https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/apr/29/agbogbloshie-accra-ghana-largest-ewaste-dump
3.https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-53443864
4.https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=188950
5.https://mesti.gov.gh/ghanas-biggest-e-waste-yard-receives-face-lift/
*The content of this article is provided by the author and does not represent the position of the Earth Knowledge Bureau
Cover: One Picture Network
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