www.bestspecific.info Open in urlscan Pro
172.67.150.182  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

GET https://www.bestspecific.info

<form role="search" method="get" class="search-form" action="https://www.bestspecific.info" aria-haspopup="listbox" data-live-results="thumbs">
  <input type="search" class="modal-field" placeholder="Search" value="" name="s" autocomplete="off" title="Search for..." aria-label="Search for...">
  <button type="submit" class="search-submit" aria-label="Search button">
    <svg class="ct-icon" aria-hidden="true" width="15" height="15" viewBox="0 0 15 15">
      <path
        d="M14.8,13.7L12,11c0.9-1.2,1.5-2.6,1.5-4.2c0-3.7-3-6.8-6.8-6.8S0,3,0,6.8s3,6.8,6.8,6.8c1.6,0,3.1-0.6,4.2-1.5l2.8,2.8c0.1,0.1,0.3,0.2,0.5,0.2s0.4-0.1,0.5-0.2C15.1,14.5,15.1,14,14.8,13.7z M1.5,6.8c0-2.9,2.4-5.2,5.2-5.2S12,3.9,12,6.8S9.6,12,6.8,12S1.5,9.6,1.5,6.8z">
      </path>
    </svg>
    <span data-loader="circles"><span></span><span></span><span></span></span>
  </button>
  <input type="hidden" name="ct_post_type" value="post:page">
  <div class="screen-reader-text" aria-live="polite" role="status"> No results </div>
</form>

Text Content

Skip to content
No results
 * Gutenberg Blocks
 * Pages

Physical Address

304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124

Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest YouTube
 * Partners
 * Press
 * About
 * Useful

Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest YouTube
Search
 * Gutenberg Blocks
 * Pages

Contribute
Menu


STUNNING PHOTOS OF A VAST E-WASTE DUMPING GROUND — AND THOSE WHO MAKE A LIVING
OFF IT

 * admin
 * October 7, 2024
 * Health

When he was just 18 years old, Emmanuel Akatire traveled about 500 miles from
his home in Zorko, Ghana, to Accra, the nation’s capital, to find the only work
he could — sifting through vast piles of discarded electronics to find valuable
scrap metal. A week’s worth of painstaking, often dangerous work, earns him the
equivalent of about 60 U.S. dollars.
“I started doing scrap work around 2021 — after I lost both my parents — to
provide for the rest of my family,” he told Muntaka Chasant, a photojournalist
in Ghana. “There’s no electricity in my community, no development there,” he
said. So he came to Accra, which has become a major dumping ground for the
globe’s used electronics.
For years, a site called Agbogbloshie in Accra was one of the largest e-waste
processing sites in Africa, getting 15,000 tons of discarded phones, computers
and other used electronics each year. Many Western media outlets depicted the
site as a public health and environmental tragedy, rife with toxic chemicals
that leach into the water and poison the air. While that’s undoubtedly true,
it’s not the full story, according to a new collaborative photojournalism
project.
The project, called
, which won this year’s
photojournalism award, aims to capture both the positive and negative aspects of
e-waste.
“The world cannot throw all its garbage here, it has truly negative consequences
on the people,” says Anas Aremeyaw Anas, an investigative journalist in Ghana
who co-led the project. “But there are positive aspects of sending us e-waste,”
he says, as it’s sparked a dynamic, informal recycling economy in the country
that, while often dangerous, can also help lift people like Emmanuel Akatire out
of poverty.
Globally, e-waste is an enormous problem. In 2022, humans discarded about
of used electronics, enough to fill a line of trucks that spans the equator. But
there’s opportunity too, as those trucks contain over
, the U.N. estimates, though people like Akatire who do the dangerous recycling
work reap the smallest share of those potential profits.
E-waste falls into two broad buckets: functional and non-functional. The line
between them can be fuzzy, as what’s still usable or repairable to one person
may not be to another, but the distinction is important. International laws
prohibit trafficking of non-functional e-waste containing toxic substances, but
the United Nations sees trading functional e-waste as beneficial, as it can
lengthen the lifespan of a product.
The project found that exporters often fail to separate functional from
non-functional e-waste. “If you have a container full of TV screens, how on
earth are you going to verify each and every one of them to make sure that they
are functioning,” says photojournalist Bénédicte Kurzen, a co-author of the
project. As a result, both kinds of e-waste get stuffed into container ships
that make their way to low- and middle-income countries like Ghana.
Formally, Ghana prohibits the import of many forms of hazardous e-waste
material. But the team found that a well-placed bribe can get port officials to
look the other way. As a result, informal e-waste sites are growing across
Ghana’s coast. There, both functional and non-functional e-waste get dumped into
vast piles that are encroaching on residential areas. Thousands of “pickers”
come to these sites, picking through the rubbish to separate items that might be
repaired from waste that could contain valuable minerals.
Many of the pickers are climate migrants from an area of Ghana known as the
“Upper East,” says project co-author Chasant, where warming temperatures are
upending traditional farming practices. “This area has the highest unemployment
rate among young people,” he says. They come to e-waste sites to earn money
during the dry season, Chasant says, which they bring back to the Upper East.
“There’s a whole generation of young people that are building their society from
e-waste work.”
It’s fraught, precarious work. To separate valuable minerals, like copper wire
or iron, from useless plastic, pickers often burn the trash, producing noxious
fumes. Burns, cuts and other injuries are common. E-waste workers — many of whom
are children, the team found — are at risk of exposure to over
, according to the World Health Organization, including lead, mercury and
brominated flame retardants, which are linked to higher rates of diseases like
.
Bernard Akanwee Atubawuna, a 21-year-old picker from Upper East, died while
doing scrap work, says Chasant. His cause of death is unknown, but “Akanwee was
a sickle-cell carrier and should never have been anywhere near fires/picking.
But his parents said it was the only way he supported them. He sent his sister
to learn a trade. He was also helping the parents to build a house back in the
Upper East — all from picking.”
The harms extend beyond the dumps themselves. “There are many communities that
have run to a halt as a result of the devastating effects of the poisonous gases
that are inhaled,” says Anas. Heavy metals seep into the soil and water too,
which can have profound health effects on local communities. “When people start
burning, the poisonous fumes lead to people relocating.”
A burgeoning recycling and repair industry has risen up alongside those harms.
The team documented informal marketplaces, where vendors sell scores of busted
cell phones to buyers looking to repair circuit boards or extract their precious
metals. On Zongo Lane in Accra, the reporters say, hundreds of small,
independent shops sell used or repaired equipment, ranging from televisions to
computers.
“In Africa, people still have this thing of repairing is important. Don’t throw
it away. You can still do things about it,” says Kurzen. In Western countries,
people view these objects as much more disposable, she says, which is helping
fuel the growth of e-waste worldwide.
The most valuable minerals extracted from Ghana’s e-waste often don’t stay in
Ghana. Many of the most valuable items get cherry picked and sent to more
advanced smelters in Europe or Asia, the team found. “People are dismantling
these items in toxic environments, and then the few piles that contain
incredibly valuable minerals are going to be re-exported,” says Kurzen.
She and her colleagues hope that the project prompts people to re-examine their
relationship to the electronics in their lives. The few years we spend with a
new phone represents just a blip in the story of the materials that power it,
Kurzen says. “Those materials are traveling worldwide,” she says, “These
[devices] we hold in our hands come at the expense of somebody, somewhere in the
world. Nothing comes for free.”


TRENDING NOW

Irving woman charged with murder for man’s stabbing deathWhat happens to your
body on a plane – and how to stay healthyHow did Donald Trump end up posting
Taylor Swift deepfakes?The UK’s partial arms ban on Israel is not enough
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest YouTube
 * Partners
 * Press
 * About
 * Useful


POPULAR POSTS

 * Irving woman charged with murder for man’s stabbing death
   October 20, 2024
 * Discussion | Role GBV shelters play in supporting survivors
   October 17, 2024
 * Need to declutter your mind and feel better? Spend some time alone
   October 13, 2024


ABOUT US

 * About Organization
 * Our Clients
 * Our Partners


USEFUL INFORMATION

Vim in meis verterem menandri, ea iuvaret delectus verterem qui, nec ad ferri
corpora.

Euismod nisi porta lorem mollis. Interdum velit euismod in pellentesque.


CONTACT INFO

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ea has ignota putent. Ridens aliquid indoctum an
est, his ad movet graece, vim ut omnes mentitum appetere.
 * Address: 2788 Elk Rd Little Tucson, AZ 85716
 * Phone: 520-321-5919
 * Website: bestspecific.info

Copyright © 2024 -
English
English