For years, a site called Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana was one of the largest e-waste processing sites in Africa, getting 15,000 tons of discarded phones, computers and other used electronics each year. Many Western media outlets depicted the site as a public health and environmental tragedy, rife with toxic chemicals that leach into the water and poison the air. While that’s undoubtedly true, it’s not the full story, according to a new collaborative photojournalism project. The project, called E-Waste in Ghana: Tracing Transboundary Flows, which won this year’s Fondation Carmignac photojournalism award, aims to capture both the positive and negative aspects of e-waste.

“The world cannot throw all its garbage here, it has truly negative consequences on the people,” says Anas Aremeyaw Anas, an investigative journalist in Ghana who co-led the project. “But there are positive aspects of sending us e-waste,” he says, as it’s sparked a dynamic, informal recycling economy in the country that, while often dangerous, can also help lift people out of poverty.

Globally, e-waste is an enormous problem. In 2022, humans discarded about 62 million tons of used electronics, enough to fill a line of trucks that spans the equator. But there’s opportunity too, as those trucks contain over $91 billion of valuable metals, the U.N. estimates….E-waste falls into two broad buckets: functional and non-functional. The line between them can be fuzzy, as what’s still usable or repairable to one person may not be to another, but the distinction is important. International laws prohibit trafficking of non-functional e-waste containing toxic substances, but the United Nations sees trading functional e-waste as beneficial, as it can lengthen the lifespan of a product…The project found that exporters often fail to separate functional from non-functional e-waste. “If you have a container full of TV screens, how on earth are you going to verify each and every one of them to make sure that they are functioning,” says photojournalist Bénédicte Kurzen, a co-author of the project. As a result, both kinds of e-waste get stuffed into container ships that make their way to low- and middle-income countries like Ghana.

Formally, Ghana prohibits the import of many forms of hazardous e-waste material. But the team found that a well-placed bribe can get port officials to look the other way. As a result, informal e-waste sites are growing across Ghana’s coast. There, both functional and non-functional e-waste get dumped into vast piles that are encroaching on residential areas. Thousands of “pickers” come to these sites, picking through the rubbish to separate items that might be repaired from waste that could contain valuable minerals.

It’s fraught, precarious work. To separate valuable minerals, like copper wire or iron, from useless plastic, pickers often burn the trash, producing noxious fumes. Burns, cuts and other injuries are common. E-waste workers — many of whom are children, the team found — are at risk of exposure to over 1,000 harmful chemicals, according to the World Health Organization, including lead, mercury and brominated flame retardants, which are linked to higher rates of diseases like cancer and diabetes.

A burgeoning recycling and repair industry has risen up alongside those harms. The team documented informal marketplaces, where vendors sell scores of busted cell phones to buyers looking to repair circuit boards or extract their precious metals. On Zongo Lane in Accra, the reporters say, hundreds of small, independent shops sell used or repaired equipment, ranging from televisions to computers….The most valuable minerals extracted from Ghana’s e-waste often don’t stay in Ghana. Many of the most valuable items get cherry picked and sent to more advanced smelters in Europe or Asia, the team found. “People are dismantling these items in toxic environments, and then the few piles that contain incredibly valuable minerals are going to be re-exported,” says Kurzen.

Excerpts from Jonathan Lambert, Stunning photos of a vast e-waste dumping ground — and those who make a living off it, NPR, Oct. 5, 2024