Building Policy Coherence for Sound Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Management in a Developing Country

Oteng-Ababio, Martin; Velden, Maja van der; Taylor, Mark

doi:10.1177/1070496519898218

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The Agbogbloshie dumpsite in Ghana is the largest e-waste dump in Africa, and one of the largest in the world. It is estimated that about 250,000 tons of sorted electrical and electronic wastes are dumped there annually [13]. About 40,000 people live and work within the environs of this site.…”

Section: Which Countries Are Most Affected By E-waste?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, in Ghana in 2010, an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people were involved in refurbishing old and second-hand computers while another 20,300 to 33,600 were estimated to be working in recycling and e-waste management [12]. More recently this number has been estimated at more than 40,000 [13]. In 2010, an estimated 201,600 people across Ghana, including families and children, were dependent on e-waste recycling and management for support [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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E-Waste in Africa: A Serious Threat to the Health of Children

Lebbie

Moyebi

Asante³

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Waste electronic and electrical equipment (e-waste) consists of used and discarded electrical and electronic items ranging from refrigerators to cell phones and printed circuit boards. It is frequently moved from developed countries to developing countries where it is dismantled for valuable metals in informal settings, resulting in significant human exposure to toxic substances. E-waste is a major concern in Africa, with large sites in Ghana and Nigeria where imported e-waste is dismantled under unsafe conditions. However, as in many developing countries, used electronic and electrical devices are imported in large quantities because they are in great demand and are less expensive than new ones. Many of these used products are irreparable and are discarded with other solid waste to local landfills. These items are then often scavenged for the purpose of extracting valuable metals by heating and burning, incubating in acids and other methods. These activities pose significant health risks to workers and residents in communities near recycling sites. E-waste burning and dismantling activities are frequently undertaken at e-waste sites, often in or near homes. As a result, children and people living in the surrounding areas are exposed, even if they are not directly involved in the recycling. While toxic substances are dangerous to individuals at any age, children are more vulnerable as they are going through important developmental processes, and some adverse health impacts may have long-term impacts. We review the e-waste situation in Africa with a focus on threats to children’s health.

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Section: Which Countries Are Most Affected By E-waste?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

E-Waste in Africa: A Serious Threat to the Health of Children

Lebbie

Moyebi

Asante³

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…The harmful Waste Act HI 2004 in Nigeria banned the importation of hazardous waste but has failed to stop the thriving e-waste import business in the country (Nwagwu & Okuneye, 2016). Umesi and Onyia (2008) In 2016, Ghana passed Act 917 to support e-waste management efforts, but there has been little improvement (Oteng-Ababio et al, 2020). Ineffective implementation of e-waste policies makes it easy for an average of 600 40-foot long containers to dock and offload e-waste every month in Ghana (Amuzu, 2018).…”

Section: Lack Of Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The attainment of most of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) hinges on a digitally connected world (Orisakwe et al, 2019;Oteng-Ababio et al, 2020;Schroeder et al, 2019). As the world transformed into a global village, the knowledge economy emerged with more dependence on electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) (Ssewanyana & Busler, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

E-waste management in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic literature review

Maphosa

2020

Cogent Business & Management

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The developing world has become the primary destination for used electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) exported by the developed world, making e-waste management critical. This paper aims to determine the state of e-waste management in Sub-Saharan Africa by critically reviewing the corpus on electronic waste (e-waste) management in the region. Even though many studies were conducted on e-waste management, very few are conducted on developing countries who are significant recipients of used EEE. We applied a systematic literature review (SLR) process on research articles retrieved from Web of Science, EBSCO Host and Sabinet databases. Using the keywords that included e-waste management or recycling or policy in Sub-Saharan Africa or Africa, we searched for articles from these databases. We analysed 25 papers selected from 151,558 papers initially retrieved to answer the research questions. The findings revealed that about 80% of research on e-waste management in the Sub-Saharan Africa region was undertaken in three countries: Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. The review of the selected articles revealed that lack of policy and limited recycling infrastructure were the main barriers to effective e-waste management. The SLR revealed that most

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“…The author, however, describes US food banks as re-gifting depots that function as part of the wider capitalist system, noting that surplus food and underemployed workers are created by the for-profit food system. 4 The reliability of these estimates has been challenged byOteng-Ababio et al (2020). 5 For a discussion of ethnic inequalities and tribalism in Ghana, seeAbdulai (2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

Informal Waste Recycling Economies in the Global South and the Chimera of Green Capitalism

Fevrier

2022

Antipode

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This paper contends that green growth/economy strategies directed at the global South through ideas such as the circular economy (CE) can maintain and reproduce predatory practices that aggressively exploit racialised groups, while simultaneously cannibalising their environments. These green strategies facilitate transfers of wealth from the global South to the North through new socio‐spatial frontiers for wealth creation, global South cities, and their expanding, dispossessed, unhoused, and racialised army of informal labour. Green growth/economy strategies—mechanisms that attempt to “green” capitalism—are portrayed as a chimera that can reproduce racial forms of exploitation and accumulation in discursive and material ways. Green campaigns that attempt to reconstruct notions of waste and value, and re‐imagine informal waste work as good and safe, neglect an accounting of race and the historical, political, and economic factors that make possible waste recycling as a viable economic strategy for sustainable development in the global South.

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Building Policy Coherence for Sound Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Management in a Developing Country

Cited by 16 publications

References 31 publications

E-Waste in Africa: A Serious Threat to the Health of Children

E-Waste in Africa: A Serious Threat to the Health of Children

E-waste management in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic literature review

Informal Waste Recycling Economies in the Global South and the Chimera of Green Capitalism

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