E-Waste Hell - Ghana

UN Toxic Waste Ban Moves Forward

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This compelling report investigates the dirty secret our governments would like to keep hidden from us: their insidious use of developing countries as a dumping ground for our toxic e-waste.

Environmental journalist Mike Anane has been investigating the effects of electronic waste in Ghana and to him the result is unequivocal: "total devastation", from stunted growth of children to cancer and chronic conditions. 500 container-loads of electronic waste arrive every month, often falsely declared as second-hand goods to overcome the problem of it being illegal to ship toxic e-waste without a permit. "They have no moral right to allow their waste to come in here", the director of Ghana's Environmental Agency says. The UN is moving slowly closer to banning toxic waste exports, yet for the local Ghanaians the nightmare will take generations to overcome.

A Film By SBS
Distributed By Journeyman Pictures
October 2011

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• E-Waste
• Hell
• Journeyman
• Pictures
• Documentary
• Ghana
• Australia
• technology
• computer
• refuse
• ecology
• conservation
• environment

[stigmaweb]

The first world countries destroy the poor ones by war or by sending them trash

[mahballzrhari]

@maximummask i think recycling laptops, desktops is much more complicated than recycling plastic, metal, paper, light bulbs because it's not easy. you can't just break a laptop, you must dissamble it and sort ot the 100s of different materials. take for example macbooks which require special screwdrivers to open them.

[maximummask]

I can't believe dumping all this and allowing dirt poor people to pilfer through it is cheaper than recycling. This probably has something to do with never taking into account environmental and health related costs, and that's the main problem here.

[MrPrinceOFpa]

@linamar123456 if the native black man would take a stand against the white intruder then they would have no hole to squirm into in the motherland. if it wasnt for evil black men then the white man would not rule the black mans world

[linamar123456]

white mans world-tupac shakur

[Inediblehulk]

At least these new junk LCD sets don't explode the way older sets do. But still, it's sad to see such a waste. Especially considering the mines these electronics originally come from. I have a few of these devices, but I appreciate the sacrifice that went in to them by replacing them when they are truly broken, not just "outdated".