Ghana - Digital Dumping Ground

[Chiefcrowe]

I recently saw this short doc on the E-waste problem going on there and in other countries.
The magnitude is just immense, I think it is definitely worth watching.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804/video/video_index.html

 

[lxskllr]

Brown people don't matter. We need to buy iPhones to stimulate the economy. Americans shouldn't be expected to suffer through obsolete, year old technology.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Brown people don't matter. We need to buy iPhones to stimulate the economy. Americans shouldn't be expected to suffer through obsolete, year old technology.

an excellent response.

 

[MaxPayne63]

I recently saw this short doc on the E-waste problem going on there and in other countries.
The magnitude is just immense, I think it is definitely worth watching.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804/video/video_index.html

You think things are bad now? Just wait until their oil starts yearning for democracy.

 

[ultimatebob]

Brown people don't matter. We need to buy iPhones to stimulate the economy. Americans shouldn't be expected to suffer through obsolete, year old technology.

Sounds like Spidey07 doesn't need to post. Lxskllr has his response covered

 

[GTaudiophile]

Perhaps the government should enforce a new type of warning label at the port?

Perhaps this would be real change?

 

[Red Storm]

Perhaps the government should enforce a new type of warning label at the port?

Perhaps this would be real change?

Wouldn't stop people. You could say "Buying this product will kill an African baby" and people would still buy.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Wouldn't stop people. You could say "Buying this product will kill an African baby" and people would still buy.

Have such labels contributed to the decline of smoking?

 

[Red Storm]

Have such labels contributed to the decline of smoking?

That's personal gain, big difference to consumer sheep.

 

[lxskllr]

Have such labels contributed to the decline of smoking?

I don't think so. The labels are meaningless. Pervasive education has done more to reduce smoking.

 

[Vic Vega]

Brown people don't matter. We need to buy iPhones to stimulate the economy. Americans shouldn't be expected to suffer through obsolete, year old technology.

They don't matter to each other either it seems. You don't see the people in Nantucket allowing dumping on their island, do you?

Their landscape is their own doing.

 

[The_Dude8]

i remember 60 minutes did a story on e waste as well, but the dump sites were in China.

here's the 60 minutes

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/06/60minutes/main4579229.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Vice did a little thing on it. Look into it, it was worth the 20 minutes.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It is truly sad how bad ewaste is. Part of the issue is nothing is made modular or repairable and it's done so on purpose to force people to buy a new everything. The industry is based on making people always throw stuff out to buy new. It's not just like that with tech but with pretty much everything. Computers are semi modular, but not modular enough. Slot types, cpu sockets etc... keep changing, so you can't really put the latest processor in a 5 year old machine because the socket will differ. And even if you could there's still the issue of what to do with the old one.

There really needs to be better recycling options for electronics.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Brown people don't matter. We need to buy iPhones to stimulate the economy. Americans shouldn't be expected to suffer through obsolete, year old technology.

:biggrin:

OP

How is this even news? We have been dumping our technology in Africa for MANY MANY years.

How do you think Nigerian scammers came about? They get their PC's out of these scrap yards....

It is truly sad how bad ewaste is. Part of the issue is nothing is made modular or repairable and it's done so on purpose to force people to buy a new everything. The industry is based on making people always throw stuff out to buy new. It's not just like that with tech but with pretty much everything. Computers are semi modular, but not modular enough. Slot types, cpu sockets etc... keep changing, so you can't really put the latest processor in a 5 year old machine because the socket will differ. And even if you could there's still the issue of what to do with the old one.

There really needs to be better recycling options for electronics.

I agree with the 1st paragraph

I don't agree with what's in bold letters.

Wall street is unsustainable in the long run and continues to force companies to provide bigger profits. Then there is the owners that simply want more money.

Companies don't WANT to make things that last lifetime and want to keep you coming back every few years (sooner the better). Then there is some that simply FORCE you into new products (one of the MANY reasons I hate Apple). I've also been in companies that specifically engineer things to last certain amount of time......usually go boom right after warranty expires (cars are notorious for this). One of the reason my love for cars have been dying.....

Personally, this drives me insane because I'm a keeper and like to keep the things I buy for VERY long periods of time. Longer I live, the more I fix things and see how they are made (ps I'm a big DIYer)....the more I realize that almost EVERYTHING is "temporary". It really pisses me off because not only it is wasteful but I simply can't afford to replace just about everything in my house every few years. This would also apply if I had millions sitting in the bank (again I like to stick to my decisions and keep the items I buy for long periods of time). This might have a lot to do with the fact that we didn't have much when I was younger......not sure.

THe entire "disposable"/I need everything new every few years society makes me sick. Again cars are a big example of American consumerism.

The worse part is that "you get what you pay for" theory is BS as well. Truth is, more you pay, more complex it gets and more it usually breaks and costs to maintain/fix.

"You get what you pay for" = company makes higher profit margins.

Mind you, there is few things that are exempt from that....for example, our Kitchen Aid mixer.

 

[Jeff7]

It is truly sad how bad ewaste is. Part of the issue is nothing is made modular or repairable and it's done so on purpose to force people to buy a new everything. The industry is based on making people always throw stuff out to buy new. It's not just like that with tech but with pretty much everything. Computers are semi modular, but not modular enough. Slot types, cpu sockets etc... keep changing, so you can't really put the latest processor in a 5 year old machine because the socket will differ. And even if you could there's still the issue of what to do with the old one.

There really needs to be better recycling options for electronics.

I think that making things modular would make them larger, more prone to failure due to removable connections, and considerably more expensive.
"Future-proofing" connectors or socket types is going to be quite difficult too.

"I want more functionality."

"Ok, we need more I/O pins."

"No."

"Then functionality needs to be limited."


And in the future, some new devices might come about that were not anticipated. An old Nokia 2115i phone could have been given an expansion slot, but what would it need to do? HD video from a camera module? GPS? An accelerometer? If you go with HD video, now the rest of the phone can't support that level of technology. Pretty soon, you've completely gutted the case, replacing nearly everything anyway.

Heck, many manufacturers are even doing away with simple screws, because they take up too much space, they cost too much, and they take too long to install. Adhesives are being used far more extensively, especially on things like phones and tablets. And integration of electronics makes the assembly cheaper and smaller. (If you've ever seen an oscilloscope from the 60s, versus a digital one made now...the old one is a workout with a carrying handle attached. A new one can fit in a small laptop bag.

It's just another case of conflicting design goals.
- It needs to be upgradable, and support things that haven't been developed yet.
- It needs to be extremely compact.
- It needs to be only as expensive as the market will tolerate. (Which it turns out is quite a lot of money for a small device.)
- It needs to have long battery life.
- It needs to be lightweight.
- It needs to be durable.

Good luck meeting all of those at the same time.

 

[Mixolydian]

So which is worse: Throwing this stuff out with the trash, or having these toxic e-waste dumping grounds? I tend to think the latter, yet the former is becoming increasingly illegal...

 

[gorcorps]

When my printer runs out of ink I just throw it out and get a new one because there's always one that's cheaper than buying more ink.

 

[bononos]

Have such labels contributed to the decline of smoking?

Probably. That and plain packaging laws help to reduce the coolness factor to discourage the young from starting the habit.

 

[Charlie98]

I would have thought someone would have found a better way to recycle the base materials in that stuff...

Their landscape is their own doing.

I guess my thought is, someone is shipping it there, and someone is letting it in... follow the money trail on both ends.

Have such labels contributed to the decline of smoking?

I always laugh at labels on products... I envision some old guy looking at a pack of smokes or his 6-pack of beer at the checkout counter at 7-Eleven...

"HOLY SHIT!!! The label says this is bad for me... man, I'm glad I saw this. Let me put this back and get a quart of milk instead."

Pervasive education has done more to reduce smoking.

True enough, but I think our culture (TV, Hollywood, music industry) has done an exemplary job in defeating any realistic educational efforts.

 

[PottedMeat]

hey ghana's just putting minerals back into the ground it came from. then they can charge us later to get it out again later when we need it.

 

[Exterous]

i remember 60 minutes did a story on e waste as well, but the dump sites were in China.

Guiyu is the biggest one I believe

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1870162,00.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Guiyu&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=-CpcUba6EtKy0QG61YHAAQ&biw=1578&bih=493&sei=VStcUdnoCtHy0QHKgoGwCA

Its crazy what goes on there. Nigeria has similar problems.

E-waste is a huge issue. The US does not have a federal e-waste recycling mandate. This leaves it up to the states to define it. This works all well and fine for centers located within the state. However - states can't regulate international commerce so all the companies overseas need to do is say
"We'll "recycle" *wink wink* for this $xx which is orders of magnitude cheaper than your US based (and therefore regulated) options."

So - people here feel all warm and fuzzy dropping their stuff off at green painted buildings with recyling emblems plastered all over the place while their stuff is shipped off to be 'recycled' by a 7 year old melting down the PCB for the heavy metals

Very good NPR piece on this:
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/21/132204954/after-dump-what-happens-to-electronic-waste

 

[Vdubchaos]

Guiyu is the biggest one I believe

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1870162,00.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...Q&biw=1578&bih=493&sei=VStcUdnoCtHy0QHKgoGwCA

Its crazy what goes on there. Nigeria has similar problems.

E-waste is a huge issue. The US does not have a federal e-waste recycling mandate. This leaves it up to the states to define it. This works all well and fine for centers located within the state. However - states can't regulate international commerce so all the companies overseas need to do is say
"We'll "recycle" *wink wink* for this $xx which is orders of magnitude cheaper than your US based (and therefore regulated) options."

So - people here feel all warm and fuzzy dropping their stuff off at green painted buildings with recyling emblems plastered all over the place while their stuff is shipped off to be 'recycled' by a 7 year old melting down the PCB for the heavy metals

Very good NPR piece on this:
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/21/132204954/after-dump-what-happens-to-electronic-waste

I see your view here and here is mine.

Government doesn't care and has been paid off to not interfere as companies have a quick/cheap way to get rid of their waste and shit on the rest of the world.

Think of it as "turning a blind eye" to a serious issue.

And now my friend you realize why I don't buy ANY of this "green" BS or movement and why I think most people/companies AND government really don't give a SHIT.

George Carlin explains it LOT better than me....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjmtSkl53h4

 

[IronWing]

To demonstrate our collective concern I'm providing a map of Africa and I invite folks to point to Ghana.

Just kidding, here it is.

Here's a country map if that helps.

 

[lupi]

Unless companies are illegally dumping crap in the middle of the night I don't see any problem. It would be real easy for these locations to make laws to prevent that type of stuff.