The new 2016 Report, published by United Nations University, is 39 pages. What is remarkable about it is not only that it arrives at almost exactly the same "ewaste" percentages as documented by academics (like Josh Lepawsky of Memorial University, who was savagely mud-slung by a certain NGO director in Seattle last month). The #ewastehoax around places like Agbogbloshie has been roundly covered by several academics, Basel Secreteriat (the ACTUAL international organization, not the USA charity using its name), and data journalists.
Again, disclaimer - poverty in Africa isn't fake. Toxics in Africa aren't fake. What was faked was the narrative that EU and USA recycling programs dump waste and are responsible for the poverty or toxics.
What's remarkable about the UNU study is two things. First, it uses completely different data sets from MIT, Memorial U, US ITC, and data journalism by #ewasterepublic Jacopo Ottaviana, etc... but arrives at the same conclusions. For example, the chart below shows that less than 1% of Europe's used electronics are exported intact .
Very, very little of Europe's e-waste gets exported intact. In fact, I interpret the data to say that Europe is being waaay too conservative - the percentages of working and non-obsolete goods is way higher than what is being sent overseas.
And very, very little of the junk in Africa's junkyards (like Agbogbloshie) came directly. More than 95% of Africa's "ewaste" is its own, devices imported decades ago, used productively for years.
Some individual countries, they say, have higher or lower incidents of transboundary movement which is junk... but that begs the question... if it's an individual country like Burkina Faso, they are getting used electronics from wealthy cities like Accra. As Lepawsky and Mather already documented, there are used goods traded WITHIN the global "south".
These screenshots shows exactly what I've been telling UNU and StEP since New Orleans in 2006. The "Stuff" in the "Story of Stuff" gets used for YEARS and is EVENTUALLY discarded and recycled. What's the first intact piece we photographed in Agbogbloshie? It was a scrapper's VCR device that Adam Minter and Isaaco Chiaf and Jacopo Ottaviana (#ewasterepublic) stooped to photograph. Africans imported millions and millions of used VHS players - IN THE 1980s and 1990s! In Joe Benson's itemized packing lists, there isn't a single VHS player. BECAUSE AFRICANS NOW WATCH DVD and STREAMING and soon, digital TV broadcasts. The latter will generate exactly what it did in the USA - waste analog CRTs. But those aren't being imported anymore to places like TEMA which have already switched to digital.
Golly gee, Colonialists, the evidence is that Africa's Tech Sector knows it's STUFF.
What Joseph Benson said on camera was the truth. What Mike Anane said on camera was a lie. Africa's Tech Sector needs reparations.
Again, disclaimer - poverty in Africa isn't fake. Toxics in Africa aren't fake. What was faked was the narrative that EU and USA recycling programs dump waste and are responsible for the poverty or toxics.
What's remarkable about the UNU study is two things. First, it uses completely different data sets from MIT, Memorial U, US ITC, and data journalism by #ewasterepublic Jacopo Ottaviana, etc... but arrives at the same conclusions. For example, the chart below shows that less than 1% of Europe's used electronics are exported intact .
And very, very little of the junk in Africa's junkyards (like Agbogbloshie) came directly. More than 95% of Africa's "ewaste" is its own, devices imported decades ago, used productively for years.
These screenshots shows exactly what I've been telling UNU and StEP since New Orleans in 2006. The "Stuff" in the "Story of Stuff" gets used for YEARS and is EVENTUALLY discarded and recycled. What's the first intact piece we photographed in Agbogbloshie? It was a scrapper's VCR device that Adam Minter and Isaaco Chiaf and Jacopo Ottaviana (#ewasterepublic) stooped to photograph. Africans imported millions and millions of used VHS players - IN THE 1980s and 1990s! In Joe Benson's itemized packing lists, there isn't a single VHS player. BECAUSE AFRICANS NOW WATCH DVD and STREAMING and soon, digital TV broadcasts. The latter will generate exactly what it did in the USA - waste analog CRTs. But those aren't being imported anymore to places like TEMA which have already switched to digital.
Golly gee, Colonialists, the evidence is that Africa's Tech Sector knows it's STUFF.
What Joseph Benson said on camera was the truth. What Mike Anane said on camera was a lie. Africa's Tech Sector needs reparations.
