Barenaked #PovertyPorn: Venn Diagram Shows Truth of Africa EWaste Market

Pal Adam in Malaysia forwarded this to me, suggesting it was good blog fodder.  And it is, except that it speaks for itself.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/dirty-tourism-cambodia

Here is a story which cannot seem to "speak for itself" to many reporters I meet...

In 4 days I'll be leaving to meet three reporter/documentarians at Agbogbloshie, who are working on a very similar story in Ghana.  I've provided each with some of the same information.  I have shared hard data on the sources of these diagrams, but will still treat it as a "thesis" and look for evidence to confirm or deny the "E-Waste Hoax" from the heart of Agbogbloshie, Ghana.

Here's my thesis:

1. Wealthy OECD nations use brand new computer displays, TVs and cars for about 4 years average (afterwards these go into the "secondary market").
2. CRT displays and cars last an average 15-25 years (depending on hours of use / mileage)
3. Rapidly urbanizing cities like Lagos and Accra have electricity, average per capita incomes of about $3000 per year, and access to television broadcast and internet (and highways).  The purchase price of the electronics is a very high percentage of wages, which supports a vibrant repair infrastructure.
4. Repairpeople (like Joe Benson, Emmanuel Nyaletey, Wahab Odoi) can repair 15 year old electronics sourced in Ghana and Lagos, but make far more money repairing (or finding working) appliances that are 4-5 years old from wealthy nations.  
5. As appliances from the 1990s and 2000s wear out in Ghana and Nigeria, most owners take them to be repaired, but are often convinced instead to buy a newer 5 year old model from London rather than repair their 20 year old appliance from London.
6. The commerce funding the imports of 500+ imported containers per month is the reuse and resale market which sells affordable "good enough" technology for 25% the cost of brand new.

Explaining the circles... New product sales are estimated at 30% of total sales.  That's like Egypt in 2002, and it will change (today new product is a higher percentage of Egyptian markets).   Used electronics products are estimated at 70% of electronics sales.  A small portion of each may go "directly to Agbogbloshie", but it is far more likely (85%-93%) will be used for a decade or more.    Meanwhile, most of the "junk" at the African dump have nothing to do with electronics.

Even if no imports at all come to Accra, the amount of scrap and waste arriving at Agbogbloshie will continue to increase for the next 15 years, based on sales documented by World Bank in 2003.

The UN reports determined that most of the "waste" observed, while originally imported used, was in fact reused for 8-16 more years (very similar to automobiles).

Greenpeace and Basel Action Network each made a claim that 75%-80% of imports are not reused but are disposed of in Agbogbloshie.  If that's 500 containerloads per month, I should expect to find footage of 400 loads per month arriving in Agbo... about ten trailerloads per day.   I challenge anyone to find that.  The claim to have studied and found 75%-80% waste was false.

We are not claiming that scrap yards are not toxic.   All scrap yards are toxic.  We are not denying that Ghana, Nigeria, etc. import 500++ containerloads per month of used appliances and car parts and electronics, they certainly do.

What we deny is that the exporters are unscrupulous polluters who are trying to avoid the cost of "true recycling" in the EU and USA.   The organization which made the claim now admits to receiving approximately $3M in corporate donations during the news cycle, and kind of admits they never had a source for the 75-80% statistic in the first place.

Joe Benson is only one example, he is the tip of the iceberg.  I'm writing a book about a dozen or so people like  him who I've met who were falsely accused of exporting waste in the media but never interviewed.  What they were doing was supplying "good enough" used product to a "critical mass of users" (world bank) so that enough Africans would have a TV, cell phone, computer and car to justify investment in TV towers, Cell phone towers, Internet, and highways.  Could they attest to the future of the device, 10 years after they sell it?  No more than Dell, or Toyota, or IBM.   But we don't put those companies in a prison cell.

The "big shred" model is making hay out of the false statistic accusation, sharing film of children in a dump in an exotic place which viewers feel guilty about, and then arrest used goods dealers for dumping.   

African buyers no more dumped used TVs in Ghana than Japanese dumped waste automobiles in America and Europe.

The important thing is that Westerners are intensely focused on a small number of Africans and a small percentage of their hard goods.   Both the Africans working in recycling and the Africans repairing and owning product are much better off than the rural Africans, outside of Accra.   The process we are observing, urbanization, is the same thing bringing internet access and vaccinations and longer lives.   That is why AFRICANS are paying the price to import.  No "unscrupulous recyclers" are dumping in Africa unless the African buyer is tricked, or forced to buy from a back alley because everyone else is boycotting them!

Stop boycotting the emerging markets.

Follow the money.  Follow the money.  Follow the money.

Why would Africans be paying their money to buy the used equipment and transport it?  And why would shredding companies pay $3M to Basel Action Network to create this film to prevent the Africans from doing it?

All the university researchers now agree with us, there are plenty of experts, but I hope researchers doing papers and peer reviewing articles at NIH, etc., will find the time to interview Grace Akese, Emmanuel Nyaletey, Joe Benson and Wahab Odoi - Africans who were never interviewed in previous documentaries.