European WEEE Polluting Ghana and Damaging Health

05 December 2011

European e-waste is damaging human health and the environment in Ghana, according to a new report and accompanying video published by a European environmental group.

makeITfair is Europe wide project aimed at raising awareness among both consumers and industry players about the human and environmental impact of electronics goods across their entire life cycle.

According to the report, each month, around 600 containers of mostly obsolete second-hand electronics arrive in Ghana. The report claims that most of this ends up being burned at dump-sites.

The key findings of the report are:

• The UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and Spain are the top seven European countries that export used computers to Ghana
• Thousands of people are working in the informal waste industry in Ghana. Children constitute around 40% of the scrap workers at Agbogbloshie dumpsite
• Health-damaging exposure to e-waste can result in long term, often irreversible, effects such as infertility, miscarriage, tumors, endocrine diseases and birth defects
• Currently there is not any legislation in Ghana, and the country has only one recycling facility with three workers that cannot possibly manage all the incoming shipments of electronic waste as well as the domestically generated e-waste.

According to the report, whether the computers are functioning or obsolete is uncertain. The authors go on to claim that due to the lack of recycling facilities the will, no matter what, end up at dumpsites.

However, some have argued that without proper recycling facilities, ultimately this is the same situation for all electrical and electronic equipment imported into the developing world, even new products.

The report's authors are calling for tougher restrictions on exports from the WEEE directive which is currently being revised by the Environmental Council of the European Union.

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