Video from group n° 069

Welcome to the webpage of group 69

The topic we have decided to explore is the following :
The stakes of e-waste in Ghana. A majority of developed countries sends their e-waste in African countries like Ghana, and these countries now have huge amount of open landfill threatening the environment and the health of the local population. How is it possible to improve the sorting out of e-waste?

Our paper

We have asked to about twenty people if they know where their electronic waste go when they throw it to the dump; the answer is the same for all: they don’t know where their e-waste go. We conducted an inquiry in order to find the answer to this thorny question. We began interviewing workers on the Antibes dump, but they also didn’t know the answer, so we decided to make deepest researches on the Internet, particularly calling some experts in Switzerland and Ghana.

Let’s begin with a contextualization: Since many years, humans buy and collect electronic devices. These devices are used daily. They have a life cycle and when they become obsolete, they find themselves abandoned in landfills. Much of electronic items are recyclable but much is still difficult to work and thus pollute the environment. 
Few northern countries have adopted effective techniques to sort electronic wastes but most of OECD countries still export their e-wastes towards Southern Countries, in particular in Africa. Despite the International Treaty of Basel, signed in 1992 in order to forbid these hazardous behaviours, this is happening because developed countries export their e-wastes as “second-handed goods”. 
Ghana seems to be the most impacted African countries because in Agbogbloshie, near to the capital city Accra stands the biggest open landfill of electronic wastes in the world. Indeed, Agbogbloshie receive such a tremendous amount of electronic goods that it will represent in 2017 a mountain of 65,4 million tons of e-wastes, making this place one of the ten most polluted worldwide (according to Swiss and American NGO).

The major problem is the fact that there is no right process for electronic waste and that may cause serious health and pollution problems. The problem is that a majority of countries have a limited control on e-waste processing. Moreover, some components may contain dangerous product for the earth and this is one of the first sources of pollution in the world, indeed, some pictures of Aglobloshie show children living in the middle of toxic smoke and dangerous liquid. It’s the reason why this problem represents a health and ecological stakes.

A solution may be an incitement to fix electronic devices in order to limit the number of e-waste; it’s the reason why a political solution has to be found to protect people in developing countries. Moreover, a technological solution has to be thought because in a near future the actual dump won’t be enough and there will have no place on earth for e-waste.