allAfrica.com: Ghana: Breeding Toxins From Dead PCs (Page 1 of 2)

Thousands of discarded computers from western Europe and the US arrive in the ports of west Africa every day, ending up in massive toxic dumps where children burn and pull them apart to extract metals for cash.

The dumping of the developed world's electronic trash, or e-waste, is in direct contravention of international legislation and is causing serious health problems for inhabitants of the shanty towns that have sprung up amid the smouldering dumps in Lagos and Accra.

Campaigners believe unscrupulous scrap merchants are illegally dumping millions of tonnes of dangerous waste on the developing world under the guise of exporting it for use in schools and hospitals. They are calling for better policing of the ban on exports of e-waste, which can release lead, mercury and other dangerous chemicals.

"Ghana is increasingly becoming a dumping ground for waste from Europe and the US," according to Mike Anane, director of the League of Environmental Journalists in Ghana. "The people that break open these monitors tell me that they suffer from nausea, headaches and respiratory problems."

More than half a million computers arrive in Lagos every month but only about one in four works. The rest are sold as scrap, smashed up and burned.

"Millions of tons of e-waste disappears from the developed world every year and continues to reappear in developing countries, despite international bans," according to Luke Upchurch from Consumers International, which represents more than 220 consumer groups in 115 countries.

Lucrative

The illegal trade in e-waste is highly lucrative. It is possible to extract more gold out of a tonne of electronic circuitry than from a tonne of gold-bearing rock. But illegal dumping is putting at risk charities and other organisations that donate second-hand equipment to the developing world.

Since the introduction of the Basle Ban outlawing the export of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries in 1992, computers have become an everyday item. Consumers and businesses are replacing their kit at an ever increasing rate, creating a new waste mountain.

Six years ago the EU produced the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive, which introduced new curbs and restrictions on the movement of e-waste. The directive, which came into effect in Britain in January last year, heavily regulates the movement of e-waste for recycling and bans its export for disposal. It also introduced a scheme under which the cost of properly disposing of electronic equipment put on the market after August 2005 must be picked up by the producers of the waste - manufacturers, retailers, branders and importers.

But DanWatch, a partner organisation of Consumers International, has evidence that computer equipment from British companies and even local authorities is being dumped in West Africa.

"We filmed children as young as six searching for metal scraps in the earth, which was littered with the toxic waste from thousands of shattered cathode ray tubes," said Benjamin Holst, co-founder of DanWatch. "A whole community is virtually living and working in this highly toxic environment, which is growing every day."

Properly functioning computer equipment is exempt from the WEEE rules about export. In fact the regulations encourage refurbishment and re-use of computer equipment. But there is no regime that checks computer equipment destined for re-use before it is shipped overseas.

Regulating waste in England and Wales falls under the remit of the Environment Agency. "Our position would be that genuine re-use of working equipment is generally a good thing," explained Adrian Harding, the agency's policy advisor.

The trouble lies in the phrase "genuine re-use". Harding admits that the agency simply does not have the resources to check every consignment destined for re-use in the developing world. Part of the problem is that the agency does not even have to be notified about the movement of goods for re-use so it would not know which containers to target.

One organisation that has already made a name for itself as a legitimate supplier of second-hand computers to the developing world is Computer Aid International, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary and has sent more than 119,000 computers to countries including Kenya and Chile.

The charity is registered with the Environment Agency as an official e-waste treatment company. Any machines it cannot use are sent to specialist recycling facilities within the EU. Founder Tony Roberts believes the problem with existing e-waste regulations is that outside the EU they do not make the producer of computer equipment pay for its proper disposal.

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