The Greenpeace report "Chemical contamination at e-waste recycling and disposal sites in Ghana", released on August 5th 2008, exposes the extent of environmental contamination caused by recycling and disposal of e-waste in Ghana. Analysis of soil and sediment taken from two electronic waste (e-waste) scrap yards in Ghana has revealed severe contamination with hazardous chemicals. (1)
Some of the samples contained toxic metals including lead in quantities as much as one hundred times above levels found in uncontaminated soil and sediment samples. Other chemicals such as phthalates, some which are known to interfere with sexual reproduction, were found in most of the test samples. One sample also contained a high level of chlorinated dioxins, known to promote cancer.
The nature and extent of chemical contamination found at these sites in Ghana is similar to that previously exposed by Greenpeace for e-waste open-burning sites in China and India.(3).
"Many of the chemicals released are highly toxic, some may affect children's developing reproductive systems, while other can affect brain development and the nervous system," said Dr. Kevin Brigden of Greenpeace International. In Ghana, China and India, workers, many of them children, may be exposed to substantial levels of these hazardous chemicals.
Containers filled with old and often broken computers, monitors and TVs - from brands including Philips, Canon, Dell, Microsoft, Nokia, Siemens and Sony - arrive in Ghana from Germany, Korea, Switzerland and the Netherlands under the false label of "second-hand goods". The majority of the containers' contents end up in Ghana's scrap yards to be crushed and burned by workers, often children, sometimes using only their bare hands. This method not only pollutes the environment but also exposes workers to potentially toxic dust and fumes. This crude "recycling" is done in search of metal parts, mostly aluminium and copper, which sells for approximately 2 US Dollars per five kilos.
"Unless companies eliminate all hazardous chemicals from their electronic products and take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products, this poisonous dumping will continue," said Martin Hojsik, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner. "Electronics companies must not allow their products to end up poisoning the poor around the world."
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Greenpeace campaigns for electronics producers to:
• lead the way by voluntarily phasing out all hazardous chemicals and materials from their products
• take responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products, which includes responsibility at the products’ end-of-life, such as through effective take back and recycling schemes that are offered free of charge and globally (wherever their products are sold)
• take the necessary steps to individualise their financial responsibility, and internalise their own products end-of-life costs and
• encourage the introduction, in all countries, of adequately stringent regulation for both the manufacture of electronic equipment and the end-of-life waste management.
E-waste has to be minimised. Unavoidable e-waste must be recycled and disposed of as safely as possible. This can in part be achieved through design of products with greater life-spans, that are safer and easier to repair, upgrade and recycle, and which, as far as possible, avoid the use of hazardous chemicals.
Take action
, write to the companies' CEOs and demand greener computers.
