Dinwe is one of a handful of Ghanaians tackling a public health and environmental crisis brought on by the global consumer economy and a lack of legislation and infrastructure around the globe. Dinwe heads a team trained to properly handle e-waste and travels to repair shops, villages and churches to buy \u201cdead\u201d phones that would otherwise end up landfilled or burned. \u201cWe are careful not to pay too much, as we want the phones to be used right up to the end of their life,\u201d explains Closing the Loop CEO Joost de Kluijver.<\/p>\n
Closing the Loop has joined with phone makers in Germany and the Netherlands to fund the recycling effort. Offering a service called One for One, brands like Vodafone link the sale of their new phones to the retrieval of old ones. Purchasers fund the One for One service by paying a small premium for their new phones \u2014 a trend dubbed \u201cwaste compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n The exchange program is working: In the case of Vodafone Germany, more than 2.7 million<\/a> African phones otherwise headed for landfills have been collected since mid-2022.<\/p>\n The scrap phones are sent to Europe for recycling, as Africa doesn\u2019t have a single site, called a smelter, where electronic waste can be processed and metals extracted safely. Closing the Loop, its local partners and the Nigerian government hope to further \u201cclose this loop\u201d by opening a smelter near Lagos<\/a> within two years. That facility, once operational, will be financially sustainable, thanks to the compensation scheme.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, few e-device manufacturers follow Vodafone\u2019s example. Instead, they pursue a profitable linear economic model, taking on no liability for the ecological harm done by their products\u2019 improper disposal. Rather, they pass responsibility on to consumers, who pay trash haulers to cart e-trash away, who in turn often ship it to the developing world to be \u201crecycled.\u201d<\/p>\n A two-year investigation<\/a> by the Basel Action Network published in October found that a \u201chidden tsunami\u201d of e-waste is regularly heading from the United States to Asia and the Middle East. \u201cThis new, almost invisible tsunami of e-waste, is \u2026 padding already lucrative profit margins of the electronics recycling sector while allowing a major portion of the American public\u2019s [e-waste] and corporate IT equipment to be surreptitiously exported to and processed under harmful conditions in Southeast Asia,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n E-waste is the fastest growing domestic waste stream<\/a> on Earth and among the most toxic, with electronic equipment \u2014 phones, computers, gaming consoles<\/a>, modems, monitors and more \u2014 predominantly manufactured in the Global North and frequently ending life in the Global South.<\/p>\n Once exported to Africa, Asia and Latin America, this detritus of our everyday lives doesn\u2019t disappear. It\u2019s most often burned in open fires or landfilled, with the toxins it contains easily seeping into soils where crops are grown or chickens raised<\/a>, into aquifers that serve communities with drinking water, and into the air people breath.<\/p>\n But today, the global e-waste crisis<\/a> is spreading its invisible toxic fingers far more widely, as microchips (containing toxic metals, plastics and chemicals) are hidden inside a universe of once unimagined consumer products sold on Amazon.com and elsewhere.<\/p>\n Everything seems more exciting and saleable this holiday season if it\u2019s digital: A single mouse click can buy you a season\u2019s e-greeting card (boasting an LCD screen and 128 megabytes of video memory), a digital pet keychain, digital birthday candles, glowing-spinning e-bracelets and blinking e-shoes for children. One big hit this year: a flying LED-lit drone orbit ball with a smart AI chip<\/a> inside. And there\u2019s the world of children\u2019s e-toys, including AI robots and AI teddy bears<\/a> (though, consumer groups say, buyer beware!<\/a>).<\/p>\n Vapes are promoted year-round as less harmful to health than cigarettes but add vastly to e-waste. According to Material Focus<\/a>, an NGO seeking to transform the U.K.\u2019s e-waste system, 5 million single-use vapes are thrown away each week in the U.K. alone<\/a>. The average vape contains plastics, heavy metals, nicotine and 0.15 grams (less than 0.01 ounces) of lithium.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no lack of practical gizmos for adults, including digital pregnancy tests<\/a> enhanced by microprocessor displays more powerful than early home computers and water jars with carbon filters boasting electronic displays reminding us to change them. Some electronic cables, used to transmit power or telecommunication signals, hold entire chipsets inside. At the end of their life, such cables often end up dumped in an African or Asian country<\/a>, where children will burn them in huge toxic piles to get at whatever copper or other useful metal hides inside.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery year, unused cables, electronic toys, LED-decorated novelty clothes, power tools, vaping devices<\/a>, and countless other small consumer items often not recognized by consumers as e-waste amount to 9 billion kilograms [19.8 billion pounds] of e-waste, one-sixth of all e-waste worldwide,\u201d the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) Forum stated<\/a> in 2023. \u201cThis \u2018invisible\u2019 category of e-waste [if gathered] in one place would equal the weight of almost half a million 40-tonne trucks, enough to form a 5,640 km [3,504-mi] bumper-to-bumper line of trucks from Rome to Nairobi.\u201d<\/p>\n Most of the estimated $10 billion in essential raw materials contained in this \u201cinvisible\u201d e-waste<\/a> stream will never be recovered.<\/p>\n When Silicon Valley emerged in the 1950s, planners were keen to create a sparkling image for a new industry that would make a clean break with the smokestack polluting past. But even back then, it took hundreds of chemicals, some of them toxic, to make a semiconductor chip<\/a>. And the electronics industry soon turned California\u2019s Santa Clara Valley (once dubbed the \u201cValley of Heart\u2019s Delight\u201d) into a dumping ground<\/a>. Today, Santa Clara county has 23 federally designated Superfund sites<\/a>, the most of any U.S. county.<\/p>\n Over the decades, Big Tech worked its branding magic to convince the consuming public we had embarked upon a clean, green digital age. And as Silicon Valley marketeers likely hoped, today\u2019s exported e-waste stream remains largely invisible in the Global North, though mountain-high dumps of mixed waste sent to the Global South aren\u2019t only visible in poverty-stricken neighborhoods but can also be seen from space<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 1989 Basel Convention<\/a>, an international agreement ratified by 191 nations (not including the U.S., Haiti, South Sudan, Fiji or Timor-Leste) was created to control the transboundary movement of hazardous waste. But its lack of global enforcement mechanisms and its uneven implementation<\/a> by individual member states has greatly reduced its effectiveness.<\/p>\n Add to this the problem of rampant criminality<\/a> among transnational waste traffickers<\/a> \u2014 with the illegal e-waste trade often being less punishable but just as lucrative<\/a> for crime syndicates as the illicit drug trade. Organized crime\u2019s links to waste hauling also raise disturbing unanswered questions, including whether unknown quantities of shipped waste could be getting dumped at sea with serious marine impacts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some countries have severely restricted e-waste imports. But e-waste exporters find innovative ways to circumvent such rules. A classic approach is to label e-waste as secondhand donations for schools<\/a> or other institutions. Bribery of port officials has been so common that e-waste container ships traveling the world searching for a place to dock have been dubbed Ships of Doom<\/a> delivering cargos of \u201ctoxic colonialism.\u201d<\/p>\n Asia has until recently been a key hub for European and North American e-waste dumping, with countries there taking enormous quantities. But China, Thailand and, most recently, Malaysia<\/a> have banned or severely restricted e-waste imports, with Pakistan and India making efforts too \u2014 though success has been mixed<\/a>.<\/p>\n While these restrictions may curb dumping of the most obvious e-waste (eg., phones and computers), it seems likely policing will be very challenged by the flood of invisible consumer e-waste, composed of an astronomical number of video greeting cards, AI stuffed toys and other microchip-containing products.<\/p>\n With Asia trying to curb e-waste flow, Africa has become a prime target<\/a>, as many poorer nations have lax regulations and poor enforcement capabilities. Once e-waste arrives in Ghana, Nigeria or other nations, the problem turns toxic. \u201cRecycling\u201d tends to be crude and dangerous because these countries lack the expensive facilities, machines and sophisticated processes required to effectively and safely recycle complex e-products.<\/p>\n Instead, computer motherboards are burned by young people<\/a> holding Bunsen burners. Cables are heaped in piles and set afire to melt away toxic plastics, with women and children as young as 5<\/a> tasked with separating wires because their hands and fingers are small and dextrous. The World Health Organisation warns<\/a> that more than 18 million children and adolescents are exposed to toxic e-waste globally.<\/p>\n \u201cHuge amounts of [toxic] fine particles are breathed into the lungs of kids,\u201d Andy Farnell, scientist and author of the book Digital Vegan, tells Mongabay. That isn\u2019t the only source of harm. Often young scavengers use bare hands to dip e-waste into nitric, sulfuric or other acids to create a slurry, which is used to extract valuable components. \u201cFor instance, gold is extracted by mixing [e-waste with] sodium cyanide to run off gold cyanide,\u201d Farnell explains.<\/p>\n Lots of toxic wastewater results from this process, and the remaining slurry, which is very poisonous and problematic to handle, is dried, then buried or burned. Farnell concludes: \u201cBurying causes terrible leaching 10 or 20 years later, which poisons the land and makes large areas unfarmable.\u201d<\/p>\n The Agbogbloshie dump<\/a>, near the center of Accra, Ghana\u2019s capital, is among the most notorious digital dumping grounds. Laborers there struggle to process millions of tons of e-waste annually. Scrap workers manually burn heaps of wires stripped from EV auto harnesses and plastic-encased electronic devices to recover copper, while toxins are released unabated into the air, water, and ground.<\/p>\n Local water and soil are contaminated with toxic chemical concentrations<\/a> vastly above permitted limits. Leaching poisons include lead, mercury, arsenic, dioxins, furans and brominated flame retardants. While there have been piecemeal efforts to mitigate this public health crisis, Bashiru Mohammed, a Ghanaian analyst, says<\/a> these have largely failed \u201cdue to a lack of enforcement, political will and sustainable alternatives for the affected communities.\u201d<\/p>\n The damage isn\u2019t confined to Africa. A study<\/a> carried out by the University of S\u00e3o Paulo in Brazil identified abnormal levels of lead, cadmium and mercury in the blood of scrap dealers. Nelson Gouveia, who contributed to the research on S\u00e3o Paulo recycling facility workers, notes that burned e-waste creates toxic fumes. \u201cRecycling is carried out with minimum conditions of safety,\u201d he says<\/a>.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t just recipient countries damaged by dumping. Scientist Eva Garcia-Vazquez has researched and written about \u201coceanic karma<\/a>\u201d by which she means that the deeds people initiate can create effects that ripple back and forth between continents and through people\u2019s lives for years.<\/p>\n E-waste offers a case in point. European countries import cobalt and tantalum from Africa, using these hazardous materials to produce smartphones, tablets, electric cars, e-toys and other digital goods.<\/p>\n Once those products become obsolete or wear out, they\u2019re often sent as e-waste to Agbogbloshie and other dumps in Africa. Because these wastes aren\u2019t safely recycled, the toxins they contain \u2014 including PFAS and other forever chemicals \u2014 if burned can be transported in the wind back to Europe. Or if they end up in landfills, toxins can leach into aquifers and streams, eventually ending up in the sea.<\/p>\n Here they can accumulate in marine sediments, be taken up by plankton and eaten by fish, which may be caught by European trawlers \u2014 a heavy metal harvest<\/a> fishers haven\u2019t bargained on. Those e-waste-contaminated fish could land on European tables, with EU families possibly dining on the toxic remains of smartphones discarded years before.<\/p>\n The U.N. estimates that just 22% of electronic waste was recycled in 2022<\/a>. But this is probably an overestimate. That\u2019s partly because claims about recycling effectiveness can arise from marketing propaganda or misreporting. Also, lots of invisible e-waste likely never is identified as such for export and processing. Lastly, just because something gets collected, that doesn\u2019t mean it will be properly recycled.<\/p>\n Compounding the problem: Most modern electronics are not designed to be easily recycled. And with each new generation, they tend to become less so \u2014 part of our linear economy and culture of planned obsolescence, in which merchandise is designed to be thrown away and quickly replaced by new, more \u201cefficient\u201d products.<\/p>\n An e-object thrown away today is likely held together with custom screws, strong glues and extensive soldering, making components very difficult to disassemble. Products also contain a vast number of materials, including hard-to-separate alloys, plastics and chemicals such as toxic flame retardants and PFAS.<\/p>\n In 2007<\/a>, the U.N. Environment Programme warned that global dumpsites posed a serious health threat to those working and living nearby, with toxic chemicals causing cancer, respiratory problems and skin infections. UNEP cautioned that plastic<\/a> and e-waste<\/a> contain a cocktail of chemicals disruptive to the body\u2019s hormone systems.<\/p>\n Eighteen years later, environmental organizations warn<\/a> that \u201cthe increasing proliferation of technological devices has skyrocketed the amount of electronic waste worldwide\u201d with the dumping of e-waste \u201ccreating an environmental challenge of enormous dimensions.\u201d<\/p>\n In a recent YouTube interview<\/a>, academic and science broadcaster David Suzuki identified capitalism\u2019s tragic flaw: \u201cNature, the air, the water, the soil, the biodiversity that allows us to live is not [counted] in the economic system. [Instead, economics is] all based on us\u201d \u2014 on people. \u201cAmazon \u2026 [the] company, is valued by the economy in the tens of billions of dollars. Amazon, the rainforest, the greatest terrestrial ecosystem on the planet, has no economic value until it is logged, mined, dammed or grows soybeans or cattle or houses. [That\u2019s] a crazy system!\u201d The outcome of this modern conundrum: Maybe only one Amazon can survive.<\/p>\n That\u2019s food for thought the next time you go on Amazon.com to order an e-product.<\/p>\n Banner image: A child at work collecting e-waste in the Agbogbloshie dump in Ghana. E-waste is fueling a global public health crisis. But the problem can\u2019t be dealt with if nations fail to regulate e-waste, and if corporations continue embracing a profitable but highly destructive linear supply chain economic model, rather than a responsible circular economy model. Image courtesy of Fairphone via Flickr<\/a> (CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a>).<\/p>\n Ever-smarter consumer electronics push world toward environmental brink<\/a><\/p>\n Citations:<\/p>\n Kalamaras, G., Kloukinioti, M., Antonopoulou, M., Ntaikou, I., Vlastos, D., Eleftherianos, A., & Dailianis, S. (2021). The potential risk of electronic waste disposal into aquatic media: The case of personal computer motherboards. Toxics, 9(7), 166. doi:10.3390\/toxics9070166<\/a><\/p>\n Ferron, M. M., Kuno, R., Campos, A. E., Castro, F. J., & Gouveia, N. (2020). Cadmium, lead and mercury in the blood of workers from recycling sorting facilities in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Cadernos de Sa\u00fade P\u00fablica, 36(8). doi:10.1590\/0102-311\u00d700072119<\/a><\/p>\n Garcia-Vazquez, E., Geslin, V., Turrero, P., Rodriguez, N., Machado-Schiaffino, G., & Ardura, A. (2021). Oceanic karma? eco-ethical gaps in African EEE metal cycle may hit back through seafood contamination. Science of The Total Environment, 762, 143098. doi:10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2020.143098<\/a><\/p>\n Igharo, O. G., Anetor, J. I., Osibanjo, O., Osadolor, H. B., Odazie, E. C., & Uche, Z. C. (2018). Endocrine disrupting metals lead to alteration in the gonadal hormone levels in Nigerian E-wastE workers. Universa Medicina, 37(1), 65-74. doi:10.18051\/univmed.2018.v37.65-74<\/a><\/p>\n FEEDBACK: Use this form<\/a> to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.<\/p>\n
![\"Isaac](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0-Isaac-Dinwe_Agent-Ghana-2.jpg\")
<\/a>Isaac Dinwe, a Ghanaian, heads a team of 16 people who buy \u2018dead\u2019 phones cheaply from repair shops and elsewhere in Accra, Ghana, to prevent them from being tossed into landfills. But, despite the team\u2019s work, a lot of e-waste ends up in waste dumps where scavengers extract salvageable bits, then burn the rest, causing pollution that threatens public health. Image courtesy of Closing the Loop.<\/p>\n![\"Street](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/9-12830881985_0fc9ea52c1_o.jpg\")
<\/a>Street side electronic repairs in Accra, Ghana. Only a tiny percentage of all e-waste is currently recovered for reuse. Image courtesy of Fairphone via Flickr<\/a> (CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a>).
\nThe rising tide of invisible e-waste<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/12-E-TOYS-P_20170329_094608_vHDR_Auto-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>A collection of electronic toys. Corporations the world over are always on the prowl for new e-products, AI-gizmos, and e-gimmicks to attract consumers. Much of it may end up as invisible e-waste. Image courtesy of Julianabolico via Wikimedia Commons<\/a> (CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>).<\/p>\n![\"Electrical](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/8.-2560px-Agbogbloshie_Ghana_-_September_2019.jpg\")
<\/a>Electrical wires are burned to recover copper at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Image by Muntaka Chasant via Wikimedia Commons<\/a> (CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>).
\n![\"Components](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7.-exels-paduret-1476321-scaled-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Components of a Sony PlayStation 4 include plastic housing and a variety of electronic components including power supply, optical drive, multilayered custom computer chips, wiring and more. E-devices contain multiple toxins and are extremely difficult to recycle due to their solid state construction. Image courtesy of iFixit PlayStation 4 teardown.
\nDigital consumerism meets e-waste colonialism<\/p>\n![\"Sixty-two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-e-waste.jpg\")
<\/a>Sixty-two million metric tons of e-waste were generated in 2022, with 82 million tons forecast for 2030. A growing portion of that waste stream is invisible e-waste found in a vast number of products. Big Tech\u2019s marketing strategy of planned obsolescence adds greatly to this e-waste stream. Image by Rwanda Green Fund via Flickr<\/a> (CC BY-ND 2.0<\/a>).<\/p>\n![\"Electronic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6-e-waste-in-india.jpg\")
<\/a>Electronic waste dumped in India, circa 2011-13. It\u2019s impossible to provide an exact total of accumulated e-waste globally since 1950, as comprehensive data only began to be systematically collected in recent decades. Much of this e-trash is not biodegrade and will persist for centuries. Image by Victor Grigas via Wikimedia Commons<\/a> (CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>).
\nThe intensifying Africa e-waste stream<\/p>\n![\"Young](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-Agbogbloshie_Ghana_2019.jpg\")
<\/a>Young men burning electrical wires to recover copper at the Agbogbloshie dump in Ghana. The smoke from such fires is extremely toxic, and can spread on winds far beyond such dumps. Image by Muntaka Chasant via Wikimedia Commons<\/a> (CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>).
\n![\"E-waste](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4-e-waste.jpg\")
<\/a>E-waste is the fastest growing domestic waste stream on Earth and the most toxic. Some communities offer e-waste drop-off for recycling as seen here, but how much of this collected e-waste is ever properly recycled is largely unknown, with much shipped from the Global North to Global South which lacks safe processing facilities. Also, invisible e-waste often isn\u2019t recognized by consumers as being potentially toxic and requiring proper recycling so it is disposed of with other household trash. Image by Montgomery County Planning Commission via Flickr<\/a> (CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>).
\nWhat comes around goes around<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/11-12830882805_8f2cb580c5_o-1.jpg\")
<\/a>The end of life for much of the Global North\u2019s consumer e-waste will be a dump or landfill somewhere in Africa, Asia or Latin America. Seen here is a collection of urban dump-mined copper in Ghana. Image courtesy of Fairphone.
\nA world drowning in e-waste<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/13-teddy-bear-shaped-USB-flash-drive.jpg\")
<\/a>A teddy bear-shaped USB flash drive. As we shop online seeking unique holiday gifts, it\u2019s easy to be seduced by clever and creative e-products. Perhaps we would reconsider our purchasing choices if we recognized that many such items have extremely short useful lives, but they will live on as e-waste far into the future. Image courtesy of Olybrius.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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