A Case Study of the Agbogbloshie E-Waste Dump in Ghana

Accra is the capital of Ghana. The city has an area of 173 square km and had an estimated population of over 2 million, making it the country's most populous city. It is located along the Atlantic coast, with inland extensions towards the north. More than half of the population is under 24 years old.

The urbanization on Accra, combined with Western “donations” led to Agbogbloshie transforming from a wetland into an e-waste dump. In the late 1990s, newly available electricity from the Akosombo Dam led to increased demand for functional second-hand televisions and computers. Rich nations used a legal loophole of classifying the garbage as “donations” to “bridge the digital divide” between the developed and developing world to get around the Basel Convention rules making e-waste dumping illegal. Although these computers cost one-tenth the price of a new one, 75 percent of these second-hand electronics sent to Africa could not be reused and ended up in the landfill, changing the landscape of Albogshobie from a wetland into an e-waste dump.

At the Agbogbloshie e-waste dump, workers barely survive. In order to survive, many come to the Agbogbloshie dump from the northern regions of Ghana and neighboring countries such as Niger, Mali, and the Ivory Coast. Around 80,000 of Accra’s poorest subsist on the Agbogbloshie dump, living on-site or in the nearby slum. Men, women, children, and animals coexist on the site.

With no regulatory oversight, workers are exposed to toxic burning fumes. Although discarders of electronic goods expect them to be recycled properly, most contain toxic chemicals that are expensive to recycle. As a result, illegal dumping has become a commonplace and profitable business. In Agbogbloshie, workers burn waste and strip valuables from obsolete electronics, where the burning fires create toxic fumes. As a result, health conditions in Albogshobie are poor.

80% of the children have dangerous levels of lead in their blood.

Inhabitants often suffer from chronic nausea, headaches, chest, and respiratory problems.

High levels of toxins have also been discovered in soil and food samples, as these chemicals stay in the food chain.

The Basel Action Network found dangerous levels of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBS) in chicken eggs at Agbogbloshie.

Organized cybercrime runs rampant in Agbogbloshie and is a danger to US citizens and national security. Ghana is listed by the U.S. State Department as one of the top sources of cybercrime in the world. Agbogbloshie is filled with organized criminals who recover credit card information and private financial data from the computers of ordinary Americans. The US government even dumps their old electronics in Agbogbloshie, many of which contain classified government documents. Once they are dumped, there is a chance that someone will uncover the secret data (and in fact they have).