Avoiding Waste Vocabulary: A Critical Perspective on Raw Materials and Global Trade

This blog has often been based on an email exchange which evolves (from my author's potential point of view) as my borderline "rant". But it's because a question has engaged me personally that I write the long and detailed response - not for monetary reasons but because of the personal social engagement of a person whose eyes I have seen "light up." The sun does not revolve around the earth and framing a poor diaspora's scavenging as the first user's moral liability is a journalism play at the amygdala - fear of liability or social guilt.

The Brain's Role in Susceptibility to Poverty Porn

Human susceptibility to "poverty porn" can be traced to the brain's amygdala, which is responsible for processing fear and emotional responses. Images of children scavenging in dumps or surrounded by hazardous waste trigger feelings of guilt, fear, and moral obligation, and a social feeling of potential (monetary and legal) liability. This emotional response often overrides rational analysis, making it easier for sensationalist narratives to take hold. In contrast, the prefrontal cortex, which governs critical thinking and decision-making, is less engaged when emotional stimuli dominate but is associated with jealousy and greed - the monkey with celery angered by the monkey in the next cage, eating grapes. This imbalance can lead well-meaning individuals and organizations to support policies or interventions based on emotionally charged but factually flawed portrayals of developing countries.

Let 's take this opportunity to expand on some critical points regarding global trade, raw materials, and the loaded language surrounding terms like "waste" and "export."

Lyndon B Johnson used poverty porn to leverage legislation to help the poor... BAN.org uses it and not a dime goes to he kids in their photos, it's funded by planned obsolescence and other self-interests. BAN is run by a photo and film studies major, who encapsulates the Onion meme below.

UNITAR Global E-Waste "Monitor" 2024: Better, but still kinda cringy?

I have yet to read more than the Executive Summary and Table of Contents of the new UNEP Global E-Waste Monitor report, but I can already see that it's being mis-reported.  The "hook" is an emergency, that only 22.3% of e-waste is "documented", and the rest (the Executive Summary implies), is presumed to be "improperly" managed or "lost" to the so-called "informal sector".

Readers may remember this blog previously defined "informal sector" as "a white person didn't enter it into a spreadsheet"... in response to the "Criminal Negligence" 2015 Report.

UNITAR (another UN agency) describes the reports findings as follows:

"Meanwhile, less than one quarter (22.3%) of the year’s e-waste mass was documented as having been properly collected and recycled in 2022, leaving US $62 billion worth of recoverable natural resources unaccounted for and increasing pollution risks to communities worldwide. "

The "five fold growth" in "e-waste" is describing worldwide generation, not just wealthy countries.  This raises questions about the measurement of "undocumented" used electronics... but lets list a few obvious premises.

1.  The size of electronics PER CAPITA is declining due to the miniaturization effect.  In 1992 it peaked because we needed a desk phone, an answering machine, a fax machine, a camera, a radio, etc.... all of which now fit inside the smart phone in my front pocket.  

2. The export market, which the previous 2015 UNEP Report described as "primitive", is mostly for reuse.  So if there was less e-waste generated in the past compared to the future, that can only be explained by the continuous reuse of past devices which continue to be reused and maintained in places like Ghana, Nigeria, Angola, etc.  

3. The UNEP reports conflate the end of first consumer use with "waste generated", as if reuse and repair, if not "documented", is in the "ewaste" volume assesssed.  That would mean that if a white person owns a TV for ten years, and it's purchased and reused by an African for another 40 years, that the "waste" is counted twice - the first time it was "generated" and the actual "end of life" of the TV.

Photo of TV Repairman Ibrahim Alhassan in Savelugu, Ghana, who we introduced to author Adam Minter, who wrote about Ibrahim in the seminal reuse non-fiction book "Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale".  Ibrahim was repairing a 1970 Japanese CRT television, or rather improving it by addint a remote control function absent in the original knob-tuned TV.  This TV certainly would have been destroyed by "Big Shred" in Europe decades ago... but hard to describe the African's continuous use and extended life as "primitive"... unless you are a wee bit racially-profilly.

#WhiteManSplaining Letter 2024: Dear Emerging Markets

February 25, 2024

RE: Basel Convention And OECD Superiority

Dear Emerging Market Tech Sector Buyers:

The purpose of this letter is to explain to you why international laws are drafted by privileged societies purporting to protect and "save" your society, which we have labelled "informal" and "primitive", in order to achieve certain goals which you may not relate to.

1. Protect ourselves from perception of liability for responsibility

2. Shift the burden of proof onto you, the buyer, that what you seek is not stupid externalization of our environmental burdens

3. Protect investments into high-investment machinery and labor-saving shreddiing equipment

4. Retain in our national interests in raw material values.

The first endeavor places a value on our reputation among other WhiteMan Press and Publicity industries which is greater than the value you could ever achieve for creating a critical mass of users necessary to support investments in mass communications in your developing countries. We understand, remotely, that your Nollywood (Nigerian Hollywood) industry and television stations and satellite infrastructure depends greatly upon the affordability of televisions and phones and other communications devicds. However, the potential for the perception of an allegation that we, as whitemandsplainers, might be externalizing an environmental cost poses risk to our much larger value of ownership, real estate, and control over the system of trade. It is better for us that you stay in your place.

Inspired by LCS 2010 Presentation in Alexandria, VA, introducing

Jim Puckett of BAN and Michael "Fishing as a Boy" Anane

Certification and Racketeering 5: Analysis of Seven GPS Tracking Studies

2018 GreenTrack Report found only 5% export, including export to OECD countries grntrac.com DWE

In the next blogs of this series "Certification and Racketeering", we look at a chart comparing 6 actual and 1 hypothetical use of GPS Tracking Devices to follow largely unwitting and unwilling subjects.  We compare methods of placement, tracking, and financial involvement of lead investigators. From there, we will delve into whether the study acts as "Environmental Watchdog" or merely protects the claims of being an authority when those claims are threatened. If, for example, a GPS tracking study specifically seeks to discredit or scandalize someone who has a beef with the Investigator, does that influence the mechanics of the study?

In the 7th hypothetical GPS Tracking study, I've deliberately created a clearcut "Racketeering" use (using the tracking study to offer a solution to a problem that would not otherwise exist without the financial interest of the investigator). The hypothetical would clearly be a matter for the American Civil Liberties Union, or EFF, or Interpol or Bob Mueller to decide. We then correlate the studies to see which ones have more in common with the Racketeering Hypothesis.  Then we look at quotes and behavior of the lead investigator.

Certain MIT students, when they get older, may want to come forward and disclose specific methods used to drop specific devices at specific places. I can promise anonymity and cover your costs. I can also put you in touch with MIT's own attorney, who took over correspondence after MIT Senseable City Lab excused themselves from further collaboration with BAN.org

Fair Trade Recycling Geek in Tamale, Ghana

Later, we will visit ("Take Your Pic") the use of cringy photos to jolt emotions when the actual statistical findings are not doing the trick. The art of a deal "selling" an unnecessary service, deceitful or otherwise, involves provocative / race-baiting imagery.

In the DWE tracking study, Dennis Ward    @dward_dennis gives us charts. In report by BAN, we have constant tear-jerking imagery evocative of our worst fears and perceptions of their so-called "Third World". But let's first focus on the methodology in 7 separate GPS Tracking Reports.

GPS trackers show exchange of products between two consenting parties.  There is not a single case of direct dumping of used electronics at foreign landfills. Who are we guilty of doing business with? And what makes our partnership suspicious?

Certification and Racketeering: Part 2 The Guardian Deceit

Definition:   RACKETEERS OFFER A DECEITFUL SERVICE TO FIX A PROBLEM THAT OTHERWISE WOULDN'T EXIST.

"We don't want to have to go after you." - JP to yours truly during California Compromise negotiations in 2010.

"I'm not hiding anything, and don't think much of your threats" - My response.

Basel Action Network "goes after" people through the press. This week, The Guardian's environmental desk proves just how easy that is.  Sandra Laville's headline "UK worst offender in Europe for electronic waste exports - report" diligently puts out the hit, failing to interview a single African or Asian technician or importer.

Free Joe "Hurricane" Benson, much?

Mistaking Africa's Tech Sector (importers) for Africa's Scrap Sector (city wheelbarrow scrap collectors) is like mistaking a surgeon for a janitor because he's black.  The only proof BAN provides is a photo of a janitor.  

There are several other really really simple things to find on the internet which should have given The Guardian's editors pause. I'll tick them off briefly, but stick to the point. BAN has created a problem that wouldn't otherwise exist (false reporting, sabotaged equipment, fake statistics) for the purpose of generating millions of dollars from BAN E-Stewards. BAN not only threatens companies that don't pay them, but makes examples out of those of us who defend the Geeks of Color. It is the valedictorians in the Tech Sector who suffer the worst consequences of BAN's sabotage.

BAN doesn't just sabotage their equipment. It sabotages their reputation, and the reputation of anyone with the courage to trade with them, rather than boycott them. (In Part III, we'll look at who finances this sabotage).

The Thorny Distraction of Environmental Police / Malaysia Rhino Horn

It has been a couple of years now since WR3A's last meeting with INTERPOL in Lyon, France. After our first and second visit to Agbogbloshie, laughingling labelled the "world's largest e-waste dump", INTERPOL officials let me know that "Project Eden" was a misfire. They would sunset it silently.  This is what grown up environmentalists do.

The #ewastehoax launched by Jim Puckett of Seattle almost two decades ago has distracted environmental regulators, and has diluted their enforcement, from much more important concerns.  Like this.

Fifty rhino horns, worth $12M, seized by Malaysian environmental officials in Kuala Lumpur. This is a big news story. Yet it's been distracted from and diluted by Basel Action Network, and there's been no country more so distracted by BAN's war on repair than Malaysia DOE.

Nuance Delivery 3: Eyewitnesses To Hell - Oluu Orga

The Agbogbloshie waste site has really become a crucible for examination of the charitable industrial complex. The richer the African city, the more consumer electronic waste it generates.  When I go to Agbogbloshie, I don't see anything I didn't see in Mobile, Alabama.

But once, I thought did.  When Westerners go to unfamiliar places, something happens. We photograph something that seems exotic, and the more shocking and unfamiliar, the more valuable the photo.  It's interesting to contrast our Western photos of Agbogbloshie to those taken by an African who lived and worked at the place. Western photojournalists (e.g. Kevin McElvaney) earn a better living selling their photos if there's a nice Biblical Halloween Titled Hyperbole around them.

In Nuance 1 and 2, we focused again on Awal Muhammed of Savelugu, Ghana, the guy in his mid-20s who figured out that adding more gasoline - literally - to the ewaste (and tires, mostly) burning fire was a recipe for handouts. On my first visit to Agbo in 2015, he certainly stood out. (And he video calls me too often ever since, see last night).

Today, let's focus on an authority, Oluu Orga, who is everything Awal is not. He also came to Agbogbloshie from the North, he also pushed a cart around the city, but he didn't ever learn to perform fire tricks for the Photojournalist convention (which started in earnest a year after Oluu left).

Oluu Orga didn't have much to spend on film, but he took pictures of his friends doing different jobs.

In the mid 1980s, I returned from 30 months in Africa with 7 undeveloped rolls of film. When they were all developed at once, I could see where my priorities had been.  Excited to be in remote Africa, the place I had heard about as primitive and natural and exotic.. many photos apparently were intended to "validate" my time there. More shots of grass roofs than corrugated steel, no pictures of paved roads.  When I went through Oluu's photos of his time there, Agbogbloshie finally got real.

Europe (and INTERPOL) Focus Still Explained by "Strategic Metals"?

INTERPOL announced 30 days of "recycling crime" enforcement this week.

On this I will give them points - They are targeting automobile "recycling crime" and waste exports, and not as many of the photos seem to show reuse or Tech Sector imports. I believe Fair Trade Recycling (WR3A) has been effective in reducing the enforcement agency's obsession with "e-waste exports".

The photo of lead-zinc ore for sale from Africa's most toxic mine (Kabwe in Zambia) is apparently legal.  There's no law targeting the most toxic activity on the planet, because it isn't "waste"... so there is no fetish attached to it.

I love INTERPOL's focus on tigers and elephants and shark fins and ocean dumping. I'm enthusiastic about illegal forestry and charcoal trade. But what explains INTERPOL's strange obsession with recycling, when MINING is so much worse for Africans and the planet?

Mining lead-zinc ore from Africa's forests, for sale to Asia and Europe, is legal.

But it is apparently not legal for Africans to buy back scrap metal?

African "E-Waste" Witch Hunt #4: LCS-Judge Dawson-TinTin vs. Benson-Daniels

Why does the Crown Court threaten 60 months in prison to an illiterate African born TV Repairman?  Because it cannot prove its case and needs to "plea it out".  Here is the fourth blog in the E-Waste Witch Hunt Series, featuring men old enough to remember Ghana as a British Colony, getting their "facts" from Michael Anane, Jim Puckett, and TinTin Comics.  Posting publicly the prosecution's case and sentencing remarks against #FREEHURRICANEBENSON...

His Honor Judge Dawson's Sentencing Remarks

Judge Dawson and LCS Get Facts from Tin Tin

"Basically, the situation seems to be, if I can put it into, again, rather layman's language, that waste electrical goods can be exported to other countries quite sensibly and be used by other countries who perhaps cannot afford such things themselves, poorer countries in the main I imagine, but the rules and regulations to protect the environment say that that waste material must be converted back into items which have been properly tested and which therefore can be safely exported as properly tested secondhand items. 

"In essence, what happened here is that when the environment agency intercepted these containers they looked inside them and they found that a large proportion of the items were hazardous waste, were not tested or suitable for use abroad, and in reality what would have happened -- the percentage is about 50 per cent -- in reality what would have happened is that large containers would have arrived in these African countries and 50 per cent of the items inside would have been hazardous waste. What happens, I am told, is that although there are rules and regulations all over the world for the treatment of hazardous waste, the reality is that in countries such as these the hazardous waste is not properly policed and therefore creates a danger, an environmental danger, not only to the residents and citizens of that country but I suppose to the world because these hazardous materials can create a problem of pollution worldwide."

The bold italics I added to link to NGOs Basel Action Network, who made this claim in "A Place Called Away"... after describing the Metal Scrappers in Agbogbloshie as "children" and depicting them with ghoulish, halloween language, Puckett gives the story about Benson's containers.

"This material [at the Agbogbloshie scrapyard] made its arrival on African shores just some days earlier as cargo inside 40-foot intermodal corrugated containers — the shifting bricks of globalized trade turned techno-trash haulers. Around 400 of these, each containing about 600 computers or monitors arrive each month at the Port of Tema, Ghana, from the UK, USA, Canada and countless other rich and developed countries. They may find a quick stay on the floors and shelves of hundreds of second-hand markets throughout Accra. But those that do not sell — about half, even if they work perfectly — are then picked up by small boys pushing heavy carts and hauled several miles to the outskirts of town, to be thrown away — to Agbogbloshie’s scavengers." 

"small boys" according to Jim Puckett

For film of the "Small Boys", see the Alex Wondergem / Adu Lalouschek documentary titled "Scrap Metal Men". These are not small boys, Abogbloshie is definitely not on the "outskirts of town", and the display devices "working or not" are not thrown away.  But despite 3 preposterous, self evidently false claims in the paragraph, Judge Dawson appears to give the claim more weight than Benson's.

What a "Hurricane Joe Benson" load looks like

Over the past decade, the Wealthy Nation West (WNW) suffered under the heavy load of conscience-grubbing photos by Pieter Hugo combined with "fun anti-facts" by Basel Action Network and Greenpeace.  The bright regulators in Europe and PACE, Interpol, StEP and Secretariat of the Basel Convention were busy at work, designing tests and enforcement procedures to protect African consumers from the wicked or accidental fallout from Africa Tech Sector Importers like Joe "Hurricane" Benson.

The tests were difficult, a thankless task for scores of customs agents who struggled to program their VCR machines in the 90s, and who probably paid for Windows 8 upgrades and have 2 smartphones and 3 flip phones in their dresser.  The diagrams drawn by Europeans showed used PCs heading down a pipeline of decisions, like a stool down a chamber of drains.  The generator was the "actor", a fetish of guilt and liability attached to the used electronic "waste" device.

WNW could have saved a lot of money on sewers if Africans were at all motivated to come to America and Europe and pay to ship our feces and urine to unregulated rivers.  But of course, why would an African do that?

Interpol, UNEP, and others repeated ad nauseum the fake fact that TVs and monitors had lots of gold and were worth lots of money when banged apart by kids with hammers.  That millions of dollars were spent, and Hurricane Joe Benson imprisoned, based on the malarky that avoided disposal cost was an ATM for Africans is shocking because anyone who spent 15 minutes taking apart a display device and weighing the copper on a bathroom scale could tell you it was nonsense.

They counted the number of TVs in Joe Benson's containers, but they never employed the math to show that the value of the copper never paid for the shipment of the container, only the reuse did.  But far be it from Europe to take economics and African judgement into consideration.

The used electronics resembled waste, and anything downstream from Europe was to be mopped up.

As it turns out, "it's not about you".

Five Sources of E-Scrap (ewaste) at Agbogbloshie, Ghana, Africa

I keep having to answer this specific question again and again:

"Where does the WEEE / E-Waste photographed in Africa come from? Wasn't it obviously imported?"

Sure, anything not manufactured in Africa was imported, and Africa has even less electronics manufacturing than the USA does.  But beware the "car waste" fallacy.  Junk Volkswagens at a dealership show trade-ins, after decades of use, not "illegal German a-waste dumping".

Retailers we interviewed in Ghana sell mostly used Western electronics.  They often do repairs, not just on what they import, like a car dealership that has a repair shop (most USA dealerships).

With these interviews in the background, here is a list of 5 Sources of E-Scrap at Agbogbloshie.

1. Exhausted product. For example, TVs imported to Ghana in 1970s, 80s,, 90s that are no longer worth repair.
2. Elective upgrade.  For example working VCRs which people choose to replace with DVDs, due to affluence and declining costs of newer technology (DVD players).  
3. Home Breakage.   Product damaged by electric surges (see reports on Ghana electric grid problems. This is more likely to be brand new product, lighter circuits which can't resist power surges.  It explains why Ghana consumers prefer "solid state" 1990s products.
4. Fallout of recent imports (est. 9% of new and used imports).  "Fallout" is called "breakage and spoilage" in tracking commerce.  A percentage of rice, of cars, of books, etc. always finds damage in shipping or human error.  This includes working goods which sit on the shelf too long and don't sell (and are not re-ordered).
5. Working Refrigerators, Air Conditioners, etc.  New electric standards in place in Ghana are designed for energy conservation.  Older white goods are seized by Ghana customs (working ones which are eligible for subsidy to reduce electric grid demand).

Yes.  There is scrap being recycled in ugly ways (See 2012: Ten Most Toxic Africa E-waste Recycling Practices). But the sources of that scrap are not what photojournalists claimed.

Number 1 is blatantly obvious to anyone who lived in Ghana in the 1980s and 1990s.  Ghana has 21 Television stations.  Most households in cities like greater Accra (4M residents) have had electrical appliances, computers, TVs, cell phones, radios, VCRs, etc. for decades.

2015 Imports

Ghana is generating far more "ewaste" than we can see in Agbogbloshie (which is mostly car and appliance scrap metal).  African consumers, like Americans, tend to believe a 1970s television (which they purchased in the 1980s) is more valuable than it is.  No one in Africa wants to buy a VCR, but the consumer remembers how much it costs.  USA car dealers have these discussions all the time... consumers believe their 1980s Volkswagen is worth more than the dealer does.

Number 2 is the devil wrestled with by retailers.   They must place orders now for something consumers will buy 3 months later.  Retailers can't afford to pay reuse price for scrap... no matter what the continent.  As a result, African retailers wind up with stuff "traded in" or abandoned or not picked up after repair.  Sometimes they made a mistake in importing a device... They order 3,000 large 27" CRT televisions, but can only sell 2,000 at the price they predicted.Number 5 was reported as the largest "illegal" percentage by the Ghana customs agents we interviewed, which are included in the 1/3 of randomly intercepted containers Interpol reported contained some illegal goods.  

The "elective upgrade" also impacts #4.  Consumer demand changes, and sometimes Africa's Tech Sector imports too many Pentium 3s, or non-smart-phones, or older displays.  That's the same as Western retailers who must discount stock and sell surplus.  It's not "wastecrime".  The retailer has already been punished by purchasing something, transporting it, and having to mark it down.

Repair Shop receives TVs imported 1990-2005, most by weight are not recent imports

Europe's EWaste Armada: Following Captain Puckett to the Edge?

The logo to the right appeared in the NY Times Opinion Editorial section, in a n article by philanthropist Peter Buffett, titled "The Charitable-Industrial Complex"

" Between 2001 and 2011, the number of nonprofits increased 25 percent. Their growth rate now exceeds that of both the business and government sectors. It’s a massive business, with approximately $316 billion given away in 2012 in the United States alone and more than 9.4 million employed.

"Philanthropy has become the “it” vehicle to level the playing field and has generated a growing number of gatherings, workshops and affinity groups.

"As more lives and communities are destroyed by the system that creates vast amounts of wealth for the few, the more heroic it sounds to “give back.” It’s what I would call “conscience laundering” — feeling better about accumulating more than any one person could possibly need to live on by sprinkling a little around as an act of charity.

"But this just keeps the existing structure of inequality in place. The rich sleep better at night, while others get just enough to keep the pot from boiling over. Nearly every time someone feels better by doing good, on the other side of the world (or street), someone else is further locked into a system that will not allow the true flourishing of his or her nature or the opportunity to live a joyful and fulfilled life."

This #charitableindustrialcomplex meme, and #theafricathemedianevershowsyou, and #povertyporn and #parasitesofthepoor memes are not something I made up as an "ad hominem" attack on the Basel Action Network, which renewed the claim in an Op Ed this month at Resource Recycling.

"Exporting Deception:  The Disturbing Trend of Waste Trade Denial" by Jim Puckett

Jim makes some kind of association with climate change deniers, and tries to make the case that his poor non-profit is the victim of some kind of right wing conspiracy.  If his #EwasteHoax is denied, and Climate Change is denied, then obviously .. uh what?

He goes through 3 studies that I've featured here on the blog which focused on exports of second hand electronics to cities in emerging markets, studies which found about 9% of what is exported may not be repaired.  That "fallout rate" is documented in every industry, in "spoilage and breakage" statistics.  If you export 100 tons of corn, and 9 tons spoil, did you "illegally dump" nine tons of corn waste?

What is maddening is that Jim himself acknowledged the value of the study two years ago (before Hurricane Joe Benson was sentenced) and made the claim that it was better now thanks to his organizations "reform" of the trade.   But when it was pointed out that the studies were done on the very containers his organization accused, leading to seizures, (BAN Spins: How the Basel Action Network "Saved" Africa) he never replied.  We have had to attack the #ewastehoax, because he wasn't answering any questions or making any corrections, calling Joe Benson "collateral damage".

In the latest version of BAN SPINS, we see a curious loop.

"The media messengers that are now presumably in the cross-hairs of a new chorus of deniers include the most prestigious journalistic outlets in the world, including CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, AP, CNN, CBC, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, The Guardian, BBC, Al Jazeera, National Geographic, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The New York Times." - Jim Puckett

So in defense against "deniers", he cites the very articles I cited... the ones which reported him making the specific claim that 80% of what Africans and Chinese buy isn't reused but illegally dumped and burned by orphans.

Something Jim then denies.  From the first BAN Spins Blog

"Despite your reading diligence however, it is unfortunate that you did not start by questioning the baseless assertions made by Adam Minter in his reckless article.   Never has BAN ever stated that 80% of US e-waste is exported." - Jim Puckett
(-Bloomberg News)

Jim cites the organizations, which claimed the Hoax Statistics, citing Jim, which he denies giving them?  Jim defends himself with the statistics quoted by those organizations citing interviews with Jim Puckett, who denied giving them the statistic?  And this in an editorial calling African Technicians, calling Joe Benson innocent, "deniers".

 If Africans now have TV, radio, internet and cell phone use at rates competing with Europeans, it must be with brand new devices, since the used ones were dumped?

Here are the guys going to jail.

Environmental Anaphylaxis: Auto-immune Attacks by Environmentalists on Harmless Africans

This is another "Environmental Malpractice" blog.  And it's not an easy read. Some may decide to ignore it.  But the number of people who "get it" is steadily increasing.  This summer another major player "took the red pill", and realized that "saving Africa" is not accomplished by impugning motives, environmental balance, or skills of Africa's "ewaste" Tech Sector.  In this blog I try by analogy to connect the #whitesaviorcomplex, #charitableindustrialcomplex, and #environmentalmalpractice to greater liabilities and inefficiencies in societal systems designed to cure flaws - from affordable housing, to peanut allergy, to snakebite kit sales, or to used car sales in Eastern Europe... 

It's all about bringing Stewardship Advocates to practice Stewardship (liability) for their own regulatory systems, to do no harm, and when they find out they have been harming, "adjust course".  It doesn't require a mea culpa if you do the right thing from now on.

Last week I was alerted to an editorial by Laura Seay and Alex de Waal (July 17)

This was via a tweet from AfricanSolarLLP, a boots-on-the-ground solar energy project coordinator based in Accra, Ghana, who (along with Alhassan Abdallah) has been bringing first-hand accounting of the Old Fadama / Agbogbloshie real estate evictions (vs. "Sodom and Gomorrah") via @Twitter.

TASC‏@AfricanSolarLLPDo-gooders, do no harm: What are the best-and worst-ways to help those mired in international conflicts? http://wpo.st/jX-R0 

The article (Q and A) addresses many of the cautions I've undertaken, and there's some heavy stuff to dish out to readers of de Tocqueville.  An increasing number of environmentalist intellectuals like myself, may remain ardent environmentalists, but still fear the "churchiness" of the environmental-regulatory complex.  This is also true of other "world savers", we can be ardently pro African while suspicious of what Peter Buffet called the Charitable Industrial Complex.  In fact, much of it could apply to Fair Trade Recycling, and is a reminder of the dangers in heroicizing our "geeks of color" and "hurricane bensons".

Making more people aware of an injustice by oversimplifying the problems and the remedies is Poster Child Policy.  Making sad photo-essays of orphans working in scrap yards, and representing those children to be "emblematic" or embodiment or archetypal of African importers, is wrong on the science, and leads to environmental malpractice.

The challenge is to neither write so densely that no one reads it, nor so simply that it sets people off with the equivalent of racial profiling.  Basel Action Network "simplified" the long and complicated Annex IX, B1110 rules on export for repair and refurbishment by telling virtually everyone that it meant "fully functional", creating a set of enforcement guidelines which Joe Benson eventually gave up and pled guilty to in return for a decreased sentence.  [NOTE: That is not "twice convicted of the same offense," the just-world-fallacy / panacea shared by CWIT].  But at the same time, we have to recognize that progress has been made in understanding the nuance of "ewaste exports", and I think I can report that arrests of other Africa Tech Sector geeks like Joe Benson are less likely.

The awareness of the misuse, and misapplication, of well-meaning guidelines should serve as a broader lesson for all environmental interventions.  First, do no harm.  Protection of the innocent takes precedence over the simplified profiling guidelines (what Emile Lindemiller of Interpol called "Proactive Enforcement" - get out there and accuse people before the crime has been committed, and less environmental harm will occur.

That's like giving snakebite kits to everyone and telling them to incise and suck out the venom, whether you know the snake was poison or not.

I'm happy to report that Interpol staff may not be electronic repair experts, but I'm reassured they can eventually see when their enforcement is being abused by interested parties.  Eventually, they will get it right.  What environmentalists need to learn is to take responsibility for our stewardship and environmental dumping enforcement "cures" before a proper diagnosis has been reached.

This is how the study of environmental health must learn the same lessons as the application of western medicine to promote human health.  It's ok for a doctor to make a mistake, a mistake is not malpractice.  It becomes malpractice when you have been provided information to correct your practice and don't follow it.  This is the pivot point.  We don't blame NGOs or Interpol for believing 80-90% of used computer purchases by Africa's techs were for "primitive burning" when they actually believed it, and were told so by the press.  Once the source of the statistics has been discredited (and we can safely say we are at that point), it is the way the agencies - International and Non-profit - comport themselves going forward which matters.

Review: Jacopo Ottaviani Documentary "E-waste Republic" Mystery Vault

The great news is that  -- compared to previous articles (via BBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, NPR,  NY Times, Washington Post, Wired, etc.) -- the web documentary appearing yesterday on Al Jazeera and internazionale by young Italian reporters Jacopo Ottaviani and Isacco Chiaf, "E-waste Republic"*, is much more sophisticated.  It allows many other (English-speaking) voices to come forward and describe the nuance of a scrap problem in an African city.

* edited redirect to Der Spiegel 2022.09.27

This documentary is far ahead of the pack in documenting the complex pieces of the electronic reuse and scrap markets in Africa.   And they hit the nail on the head by stating that demolishing Agbogbloshie will make the problem worse.

Kudos to Ottaviani for interviewing second hand dealers and repair shops, and giving time to yours truly (on behalf of WR3A / Fair Trade Recycling).  They give author Adam Minter [whose own accounts of Agbogbloshie are frankly more factual] almost as much screen time as Mike Anane.  There are data and statistics, and the documentary stands apart from the lie that boycotting Africa's Geeks will somehow make wire burning juveniles "go away".  I thank and respect Ottaviani and Chiaf for taking the hours and hours to get a "whole story" perspective.

What the documentary fails to do, sadly, is to correct the proportion distortion. or the myth that import for repair is "illegal".  Like Kyle Wiens piece @Wired, Ottaviani recognizes the demolition of the slum is bad - but alsocontinues to make the story about westerners' stuff.  This continues the central conceit that Agbogbloshie's problems somehow revolve significantly around "imported e-waste".

The focus on e-waste exports in sea containers is the Mystery of Al Capone's vault, 29 years after.



[ postscript:  This was a tricky blog to write, as I respect Jacopo and Isacco and value the effort to interview #geeksofcolor and tell a nuanced account.  But it also perpetuates definitions of #ewaste that include reuse and repair, and false testimony about volumes and timelines of simply disposed waste, and honestly it does represent another example of photojournalism's need for exotic hooks. ]

Delayed Report on WR3A Investigation of Africa Tech Sector and Agbogbloshie

Please excuse the delay in publishing the promised report on our visit to Accra, Agbogbloshie, Mole, Tamale, and Tema in March and April, 2015.

We were nearly finished with a report, and expected to post it before end of the month of May.  However, four major developments occurred in the weeks immediately preceding the publication date.

• Natural Disaster - A major flood in Accra, combined with an explosion at a gas station, killed 150 people.  During this disaster, no one was thinking about discarded appliances.
• UNEP published a lazy, poorly reviewed report (ignoring most of the studies they cite from UNU), and worse, accompanied it with a false headline of "90% illegal" (which was contradicted by the contents of the study itself).   Mathematically, how can 90% of contents be illegal if only 1/3 of seized containers contain SOME illegal material?  What mattered were the photos - eight of Agbogbloshie.
• CWIT and Interpol announced a meeting for June 24 and 25, featuring Jim Puckett of BAN and Mike Anane as speakers.   While we felt it was unlikely they would spring "new information", we were already delaying our report to address UNEP's "new information" and waiting seemed prudent.
• AMA, a local Accra municipal association destroyed Agbbogbloshie, citing "floods" and "ewaste imports", AMA sent bulldozers to knock down the homes and businesses of tens of thousands of Agbogbloshie residents and workers.  It was the beginning of Ramadan, and #UNWorldRefugeeDay and rainy season... and the bulldozing to "dredge the waterway" occurred at the populated homes side of the slum, not the abandoned side of the waterway.  

From our "e-waste" prospective (not the evicted's), what's most important about the last point were a couple of hours of filmed interviews we have, with Ghana technicians and scrappers.  Some had told us, when I asked "why?" about the #ewastehoax of Agbogbloshie, that they believed it was part of a propaganda campaign to take their land.  

I reviewed the maps and it was definitely true that Agbogbloshie, described as the remote "outskirts" or "nearby cities like Accra" in Greenpeace and other NGO reports, is smack dab in the middle of the city, 9 minutes from the most luxurious hotels, less from major banks and government complexes.  But in the first draft of the report, I avoided mentioning it, as I thought it came across as rather paranoid.  Now, after the evictions and apparent razing of the scrap businesses, I have to  check that dismissal...

The entanglement of Western second hand goods export and urban planning in Ghana is complicated. In writing the report, we need to check our outrage, and report the facts.

Recommendations to CWIT, INTERPOL on WEEE EWaste Project

delivered by Twitter, Linkedin, and Blogspot


June 25, 2015

David Higgins
Pascal LeRoy


Dear Pascal and David,

Thank you for Pascal's response to our initial draft of comments for the CWIT meeting in Lyon in June.   In addition to presenting more factual numbers, it is important that the CWIT group focus on percentages, not tons.

Ghana's secondhand imports, estimated at 215,000 tons, includes approximately 21,000 tons not reused. That's a real problem, but smaller than the generation of once-reused, now discarded electronics (and cars, and other machines) as cities like Accra modernize.  The generation predicted by World Bank and other sources will require in-country solutions, much greater than "informal" scrapyards (like Agbogbloshie) can offer. 

The ratio of fallout from secondhand electronics imports is similar to clothing, new electronics, automobiles, cell phones, broadcasting equipment.  No import container is perfect.  Shipping damage, human error, demand forecast changes, electrostatic discharge, and other fallout cannot be termed "illegal waste transport" without impacting all development. Criminal enforcement should be directed at goods (such as ivory) which is 100% illegal.

We recommend Interpol and CWIT start discussing acceptable "de minimus" quantities, and whether the testing Guidelines (used in prosecutions) is a good predictor of percentages.  And please, incorporate discussions with Africa's Tech Sector.  They are the ones who send contacts to Europe to source proper reuse equipment, they are the ones who pay for the equipment, they are the ones who have created double and triple-digit teledensity growth for Africans this decade.  Their supply to the "good enough" market creates the critical mass of users which makes paving roads, laying internet cable, erecting cell phone towers, etc., economically feasible.

We can introduce you to several speakers, or university research departments, who know these technicians, who would have been a valuable addition to your list of experts.  Here are some articles written by westerners who accepted this invitation, and met with these champions of the Emerging Market.  Fair Trade Recycling (tm) goal is to engage these technicians in managing the takeback of used electronics, and pay for their proper recycling by donating MORE used equipment at lower prices, rather than by driving up price and lowering demand in the current "Prohibition" enforcement model.


I will be arriving in Lyon (previously scheduled business) on July 1, if anyone from Interpol is interested in meeting to discuss a more progressive agenda to the media-driven "export crisis". In the meantime, here are some articles we recommend for distribution to your guests and attendees.

http://therestartproject.org/repair-elsewhere/representations-of-e-waste-matter/

http://discardstudies.com/2015/06/24/criminal-negligence/

http://shanghaiscrap.com/2015/06/anatomy-of-a-myth-the-worlds-biggest-e-waste-dump-isnt/

http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/profile/1018351/

Sincerely,

- Robin Ingenthron, WR3A.org 



PS.  The illegal goods reported in Ghana were refrigerators which work, and which are eligible for a subsidized program to replace them with energy efficient models.   Stating that 1/3 of inspections found illegal goods should differentiate between the energy efficiency ban (not widely understood by importers) and illegal dumping.

Open WR3A Letter to CWIT / @Interpol on #Ewaste

DRAFT OPEN LETTER

Please send edits, suggestions, comments either by commenting under this draft or by email or tweet to yourname at wr3a.org.


Mr. Pascal LeRoy
Mr. David Higgins
Countering WEEE Illegal Trade (CWIT) 


Dear Sirs,

As you may know, WR3A (dba "Fair Trade Recycling") is an NGO business consortium which seeks to support businesspeople in emerging markets.  WR3A offers discounts on the cost of legitimate used electronic devices as an incentive to create takeback and proper recycling channels in those emerging markets.

We appreciate the advance copies of the CWIT literature [links below] which will guide the discussions in Lyon, France, next week.   While I will be in Lyon (previously scheduled) a few days later, I cannot afford to change my ticket.  Worse, the Association has just completed a major field work in Ghana and does not have the resources to bring representatives of Africa's Tech Sector to the meeting.   Therefore I have prepared this letter to convey our thoughts on this process.

The CWIT report contains a chart (from World Bank) showing electrification rates in several African countries.  We immediately noticed that the first statistic for Ghana was incorrect, perhaps because it is frequently updated.   Understandable, since the statistics on electricity and teledensity in Africa are changing at double and triple digits each year.

What we would like CWIT to learn from this is that import of used electric and electronic devices is not driven by European shredding costs.  It is actually driven by this rapidly changing statistic.

Stating the percentage of household electrification rates in Africa without stating the rate of growth can lead to wrong conclusions.   The relatively low percentage of homes with electricity (as compared to the EU) might imply, to some, that the sales of used electronic appliances are less likely to be "legitimate".

In fact, it is the rate of growth of electrification which predicts demand.

In the USA, for example, the poorest parts of the country were the last to get electricity.  When hydroelectric dams came to the Ozark Mountains, my family members drove to cities like Chicago or St. Louis to purchase used appliances.  Memphis, though closer, had a higher poverty rate, fewer used appliances, and more buyer competition.  If you are poor but making progress, your smartest move is to purchase used goods from wealthy geographies.

Similar modelling accounts for sales of automobiles in geographies which were rapidly paving roads (again, the Ozarks is a good example).   The last place to get paved roads had the highest rates of purchase of both new and used cars, and the ratio of used cars to new cars looked very similar to the rates of used vs. new sales of electronics in Africa.

The CWIT Interpol literature uses works like "illegitimate" and "informal" and "criminal" to describe well established supply and demand patterns.  Perhaps when Germany was reunited, the demand for used cars in East Germany and Poland was driven by a desire in Western Germany to avoid the cost of properly recycling autos...  But if Interpol had targeted auto mechanics in East Germany and Poland, it would have been a poor use of limited enforcement resources, discouraged agents of conscience, and thus attracted criminal enterprise to an otherwise mundane exchange of "good enough" products.

The growth of teledensity (internet, television, cell phone) in Africa is a marvelous story, and one written by canny Africans in the Tech Sector.   The best and brightest students are reading tech repair manuals, hacking phones, and finding the cheapest display devices (ones which last 20 years but are replaced in the West after 4 years are a ripe target).

Language with biblical and "halloween" references, and many photos describing "e-waste" businesses, tend to marginalize, exoticize, and otherize these technicians.  The UNEP's recent use of Agbogbloshie photos to describe Africa's Tech Sector was thoughtless and ill considered.  Similar propaganda was used to describe Simon Lin, Terry Gou, Lee Byung-chul, Chung Ju-jung, and others who repaired and tinkered their way into multibillion dollar economies which lifted the living standards of their compatriots in the most sustainable and environmentally sound manner available - through sustainable reuse, repair and refurbishment.   

If Africa is to meet its own potential, mining ores and shredding working devices is the least sustainable path.  But the demand will be met... there is no "Eden" to shepherd Africans to, and no "Sodom and Gomorrah" to take them away from.  It is fruitless and pointless to try to arrest all the geeks and nerds in Africa.  They are too many.  Crackdowns on internet cafe investors have already occurred in Africa, using "e-waste" as an excuse.   As we say in the Ozarks, "We don't have a dog in that fight."

Export for reuse and repair is explicitly legal in the Basel Convention, Annex IX.  The title of the UNEP Report contains a line about "inconsistencies", which describes well the challenges Interpol will face in enforcing EU interpretations which create new interpretations of the Convention, lined against the forces of supply and demand.   We would ask why, when rhino poaching and child labor and sex trafficking and arms trafficking and conflict metal mining are such a blight, Europe would want to add reuse and repair of electronics to the list that only criminals would succeed at.  Africans have real problems.  Reusing goods is not one of them.

Unintended consequences, collateral damage, friendly fire... These have been offered as excuses for false descriptions of statistics for ten years.  We are asking Interpol to suspend the enforcement of Project Eden until you have met the technicians who not only import used electronics, but have raised Africa's teledensity far beyond the wildest goals set by the most aggressive UN ICT or UNCTAD planners in the 1990s.   Decriminalizing things which should not be criminal is the most difficult, but wisest, challenge for regulators. 

Robin Ingenthron

DRAFT


Founder, WR3A
fairtraderecycling.org

6 Observations: UNEP Report Earns "F" on #E-waste

Illegally Traded and Dumped E-Waste Worth up to $19 Billion Annually Poses Risks to Health, Deprives Countries of Resources says UN Report

WASTE CRIME – WASTE RISKS: GAPS IN MEETING THE 

GLOBAL WASTE CHALLENGE (2015)

"a rapid response assessment"

“Inconsistency in Cross-Border Regulations Challenge to Effective Control of Illegal Waste Trafficking”.  This is the sub-headline of the United Nations Environmental Programme’s May 12, 2016, press release.  The headline of the report states the trade is worth $19 billion, poses risks to health, and deprives countries (European countries) of resources.  

Say this slowly. Inconsistency in regulations... between countries... is a challenge to arresting people... for illegal activity... because it's not illegal.... in the other country? And therefore (by not making second hand goods illegal), the second country is "depriving (Europe) of resources?"

Four "e-waste experts" are on the team of 16 authors. I've highlighted their names at the bottom.

We counted 43 photos in the report, eight of which are taken at Accra scrapyard Agbogbloshie.

And the adjectives..."primitive", "informal", "deplorable"...

These are the insults slung at the geeks of color, the workers in Africa's tech sector and manual disassembly operations. Perhaps, the authors "assessed" and "responded" too "rapidly". My own report has been slowed down, in contrast. I planned 10 pages, but was dealt with two curve balls on my return to the USA. First, Interpol announced a big EWaste (CWIT) meeting in Lyon, France - where I already have a ticket (was going to be there anyway). The CWIT features another 2010 performance by Jim Puckett and Mike Anane.

How about this for a response? READ YOUR OWN DARN REPORT NUMBERS!!!

Doubt I have ever seen such an incompetently written press release. To rebut the UNEP's headline, look at the report's own figures. It appears the authors were so excited by the prospect of more funding that they looked only at the black children posed on obscure lonely pieces of Ghana generated e-waste (imported 20 years earlier, now discarded), and didn't study the numbers in the report itself. THE REPORT DISPROVES ITS OWN HEADLINE. If that's not a key indicator of Racial Profiling, I'm not sure what's a better one.

The UNEP Report announced that ten European Countries in 2012 (year of the E-Waste Country Assessments in Nigeria and Ghana, finding 85%-91% reuse) shipped 2,929 tonnes of "e-waste" (or reuse, the report doesn't specify) to five countries - 4 in West Africa plus Pakistan. Ghana is profiled as the biggest target, and eight photos of Agbogbloshie illustrate the case.

Spoiler - our analysis was that Agbogbloshie manages (outside of cars and white goods) about 910,000 POUNDS (not tons) of electronics scrap, delivered by hand cart from street collectors in Accra. This week Scrap Magazine (p.78) publishes an article by Adam Minter (Junkyard Planet author), who we met in Agbogbloshie. The cover page photo shows how most of the material is delivered.

See below left. By hand cart. Pickup trucks on occasion. Zero sea containers. But access roads into Agbogbloshie and outgoing wire, plastic, and circuit board (bottleneck) weights support the estimates of the workers there. Agbogbloshie manages between 20-50 pieces (TVs, VCRs, computers) per day. The pieces on the ground in the UNEP (Kevin McElvaney) photos look like they've been there a long time. And they have been.

About 910,000 pounds per year. Disassembled by hand, delivered by hand cart.

Now look at the UNEP Report figures, configured below.

Convert 2,929 million tonnes (metric) to pounds (x 2200) = 6,443,800,000 lbs. Six billion per year, from ten countries - not including the USA or Asia - of "e-waste". Divide 910k by 6,443,800k.

One of the five largest destinations handles about one fiftieth of one percent. 

Two conclusions are possible... if one assumes 100% of the material at Agbogbloshie is imported from Europe, and none of it was used for decades in Accra (which had tens of thousands of households with TV in the 1990s), then:

1. Although Agbogbloshie is on the top 5 destinations list, it manages only about 2 percent of ONE percent (0.0002) of Europe's "ewaste".
2. UNEP and Interpol are using Secondary Market (non-scrap, reuse) numbers in their "e-waste dumping" statistic.

Of course, if at least half of Agbogbloshie's volume was domestically generated, and the imports are one percent of one percent, the UNEP Report (shockingly) tries to explain that...

If the latter, the $19B suddenly becomes confusing if not meaningless. Africans buying used laptops on ebay is certainly legal... and Ebay has annouonced a $195 billion dollar market selling to emerging markets. Who knows what percentage of $195b is used electronics. But if it's 10%, then UNEP's $19B number looks low.

Below is an analysis of the UNEP Report which I've had to cut from my report (in order to respect my page limit).  It begins with UNEP making the massive case for millions of tons, then shows how Interpol's seizures only implicate 2-3 times the 9-15% waste estimate of the E-Waste Assessment studies.   Interpol accuses one third of the shipments of containing some waste.

It covers 6 observations about the report, Debate Team style.

OBSERVATION NUMBER ONE: One Third does not equal 90%

The report's own numbers disprove the 90% allegation.

"There were also checks in Ghana, Guinea, and Nigeria in Africa, a region considered to be a destination for this waste. Almost one-third of the checks resulted in the discovery of illegal electronic waste.”*

We found most of these to be electric, not electronic waste.  White goods being reused, illegal due to Ghana appliance refund-takeback program - which targeted WORKING fridges (because they were older and used more of Ghana's scarce electricity).  In any case this "discovery" is legally an allegation at this point.  And most importantly, how the heck do they explain the "90%" illegal headline if 2/3 of the cases against suspect containers are dismissed??? Finally, if you "discovered" some in 1/3 of the containers, how much of those containers was allegedly illegal?  If 50% of "almost one third"... we have verification of the Ghana E-Waste Assessment Study (15%), don't we?

One third contained "illegal" imported EEE. Not WEEE (unless W stands for "Working")

Our interviews with custom officials in Tema indicate that seizure of working but eligible-for-rebate refrigerators were the only items declared illegal at the Tema port courtyard.

OBSERVATION NUMBER TWO:  Prima Facia Evidence of Legal Incompetence.

The report's claimed 'cause' of illegal transport is disagreement over illegality.

“Identifying and classifying electronic and electrical equipment as waste may be challenging. One could argue that used or discarded equipment could still be of value to others and therefore should not be considered waste. However, the life span of second-hand goods is very short, and within a couple of years it becomes discarded waste. " 

Nuff said.  They are frustrated that it's legal. See #1 above. Also, brand new devices fail the same test (more often, according to African technicians).  Is this what "Project Eden" means, reversing Africa's teledensity? And on what is the objective evidence of "a couple of years"?  BAN claimed they were discarded "within days". BAN made up the 80% figure. What does UNEP ("90%", "couple of years") have in common with BAN? Fundraising is easier when numbers are more salacious.

OBSERVATION NUMBER THREE:  Theory of "Drivers" is Disproven by Evidence

The report's theory of causes of trade is disproved by the report.

“The main drivers of the trade in hazardous waste appear to be the high costs of proper treatment and the opportunities for illegal actors to operate in a market with relatively low risks and high financial benefit. In addition, low shipping costs and demand for certain types of used goods and constituents in some countries can be a driver for the illegal export of waste to developing countries (Bisschop 2012)." 

Ahh.  Appear to be... to you?  But the 5 countries shown on the chart have the highest shipping costs on the planet.  The low shipping cost (cited) was for China.  USA-Ghana is about $7,000 or $14 per CRT.  And the scrap value for the CRT is only $2, so the "demand for certain types of used goods" (and not others) is explained only by reuse.  "Appear to be" is in the eye of the group seeking funding for more studies... it appears to ME to be racial profiling.

OBSERVATION NUMBER FOUR: Evidence of Value is NOT Evidence of Waste.

Payment for goods shown in report is not evidence of "waste" or "illegality".

"The owner/producer of the waste can pay a waste broker to take the waste off his hands for further recycling. Waste brokers maximize their profit through getting paid first by the player disposing of the waste and second by the player who buys it as a reusable commodity. "

First, no one pays the "waste brokers" who ship to Africa (if they do, it probably really IS waste, like Trafigura, and UNEP should focus and enforce there!). Second, if it only works because it's a "reusable commodity"... See #1, and subtitle. Frustrating that you cannot enforce against the "wastecrime" because of that stubborn "reuse innocence" thing.

OBSERVATION NUMBER FIVE: Only Conviction Doesn't Fit Theory

Conviction example (Benson) undermines case, demonstrates Observations 1-4

"Investigators found the defendant had been collecting e-waste from a number of council-run sites in the London area and taking it to his licensed waste premises. Instead of processing the e-waste properly, he sold and loaded four containers of items – including cathode ray TVs and fridge freezers with ozone depleting substances– to brokers and shipping firms who then exported the waste to West Africa. He loaded items at the front of the containers that appeared to have been tested properly for functionality and even put “testing labels” on them."

We have 100+ pages of documented evidence in the case, none shows freon appliances in Benson's containers and he denies being in that business and there are none in the photos.  His company license was a REUSE license, not a "waste processing license".  But that's all secondary evidence, the point here is that it doesn't fit any of the theories presented in this UNEP report.  Shipping costs were high, cost for Benson to return items (which he documented doing, after failed testing) was $0 at the council-run sites.  And repair is legal, a "cut cord" (cited as evidence of not being tested) is a simple repair, a most obvious "for repair" case under Annex IX Basel Convention.  Benson would lose money on the bad ones, which he could recycle in the UK for free.

OBSERVATION NUMBER SIX: No habeus corpus.

See math. If Ghana is at top of 5 country list, and Agbogbloshie is the largest site in Ghana, hand carts and tire fires cannot possibly manage millions or hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands - or even 1% - of tons claimed in the report.

Larger diagram below

Number Five is Fair Trade Recycling's "Hurricane Benson".   Their star example, Joe Benson of BJ Electronics, as being the kingpin, the example of the bad dealer, and proudly trumpets his 16 month prison sentence... 

But all the math in their own report indicates there is no Benson material dumped at Agbogbloshie.  Tying black Benson, a TV repairman, to black Rachid, Awal, and Razak (my new chums in Agbogbloshie) is racial profiling - you may as well tie him to Kofi Anan or Nelson Mandela or Hurricane Carter or Joe Johnson (the boxer).

Joe Benson may not be perfect, I've met him only after his indictment, and have never traded with him.  But I have seen the "evidence" against him, and it's based on the same bad math as riddles this UNEP Report, making Joe Benson the most important example of legal abuse.  

• Only reuse explains African incentives.
• Only reuse explains African growth in teledensity.
• Only reuse explains the $19B dollars cited.
• Only reuse explains the costs paid to load, ship, and unload the electronics.

The authors of these reports have jobs to "solve" #ewaste, and the conclusions between the lines of their reports are that they need more resources, to arrest more #freejoebensons.  This is #whitesaviorcomplex at best, and #parasitesofthepoor or #charityindustrialcomplex at its worst.

So we meet, head to head.  Sixteen paid UNEP experts, armed with professional photography, vs. one lonely blogger.  

ENVIRONMENTAL MALPRACTICE AND FALSE PROSECUTION.

INJUSTICE AND RACISM AND PROTECTIONISM OF EU SHREDDING INTERESTS.

THIS IS A SCANDAL.  THIS IS #EWASTEGATE.

Academic peer review is occurring (Josh Goldstein and Josh Lepawsky are separately reviewing the UNEP Report), reporters like Adam Minter are taking the time to examine the case, Africans like Wahab Odoi Muhammed and Emmanuel Nyaletey are coming forward, and other photojournalists, less driven by "poverty porn" (like Heather Agyepong) are finding out about the Ewaste Hoax on their own.

Below is the rough analysis of the UNEP Report cut from my own Agbobloshie Report, which has larger paragraphs for better context of the quotes above (I have footnotes as well).  But it's almost 9 AM and I have a recycling factory to run... a plant which manually disassembles most of the electronics, because no one would want them or would want to pay to ship them to Africa.  Everyone in our business knows that.  Everyone in EScrap knows this is a hoax, that there are no Africans buying thousands of containers of packed junk.

Africa's best and brightest, the Tech Sector which brought double-digit and triple-digit teledensity growth to the "dark continent", year upon year.   The Tinkerer's Blessing is the opposite of the curse of natural resources.  We have met the enemy, and he is us.