E-waste and the electronic dumping grounds of Ghana by Andrew McConnell
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| The West's digital junkyard |
Feb 01, 2010 at 10:19 |
When you think that the life of the average piece of computer equipment
is between 3-5 years before it becomes obsolete, have you ever wandered
where this equipment goes once we move on? Unfortunately of the almost
50 million tons of electronic equipment turfed each year up to 70% of
it will end up in the hands of a poor nation to deal with. E-waste in
its many forms (mostly broken and obsolete) is finding its way over to
the countries of West Africa, like Ghana where the locals (mostly
children), scrounge through enormous dump yards in order to salvage
what they can of componentry and materials. It's actually quite
disgusting. While we're aquiring our shiny new iPads and cordless mice,
the children of Ghana, among other things are toxically burning
disposed of computer cables in order to retrieve the copper, exposing
themselves and the environment to all kinds of nasty shit.
British photographer Andrew McConnell took these striking images (to
the right of this post) from the Agbogbloshie dumpyards in Ghana. A bit
of an eye opener for us all. For more of Andrew's work please visit AndrewMcConnell.com
Posted By: Luke Lucas
Tags: The Lounge, Gadgets, Technology, Documentary, Environment, Photos
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