Nigeria Evening News: "Fairly Used" electronics not "E-waste"

Home Run.  WR3A's visit to the Interpol/EPA meeting in Washington DC leads to revelations about "fairly traded" electronics.

See this story on Africacast TV if you want to understand used electronics exports to Africa, and how "e-waste" gets over there as "toxics along for the ride", and how it represents an opportunity for Africa to manage with "fair trade".

Nigeria's EPA director is interviewed, and he and the Nigerian TV station skillfully describe the actual trade in used electronics, both the problem and the opportunity.  If you are not accustomed to the African English accents, you may need to play it over again.  But this is the best coverage of the trade I have seen from African sources.

"If they are fairly used or working, they are not waste.  But the problem is that they bleed non-working electronics into it"."   Another African I met at the DC meeting also recently contacted us and said he had finally gotten around to watching the PBS story on ewaste recycling with Las Chicas Bravas and that he found it an inspiring model for Africa.

By the way, one alternative to this blog is our "Fair Trade Recycling" site on Facebook.    The FTR site was set up so that I would not monopolize the discussion, anyone with an opinion on e-waste exports can post there and dialogue.  About half of the members are from outside of the USA.

We can now have a core of competent young people who can properly refurbish, and properly recycle the ones they could not refurbish.  Speaking of which, our first "Recycling to Africa" video about "e-waste" has passed 10,000 views on youtube... much of the traffic is from Africa... probably not being watched on brand new monitors.