/ Xeni Jardin / 9:53 pm Fri Aug 13, 2010

Graveyard for gadgets in Ghana: Pieter Hugo

The New York Times has published "A Global Graveyard for Dead Computers in Ghana," a stunning series of images by South African photographer Pieter Hugo documenting life and work in an Accra slum. Here, "adults and children tear away at computers from abroad 
to get at the precious metals inside."

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  3. The real story and the real scandal is 99% of the so-called “recycling” programs run by your favorite retailers, manufacturers are just green washing and complete PR falsity. They “recycle” the tech by loading it up on ships to third world places in Asia and Africa where it is dismantled by child labor and the most desperate humans on earth to earn pennies. Children (the cheapest, most compliant labor) picking through smoldering heaps of toxic junk. An average CRT monitor contains several pounds of lead. Your first world government has implemented a handful of mostly toothless regulations to keep your precious progeny from inhaling that, so we civilized citizens of the planet’s great democracies said: “Fuck it. Let some poor people’s kids break open those CRTs with a hammer. I don’t know them.”

    These people, however, are straight up fucking authentic:

    http://www.ban.org/

    Start there and you won’t go wrong.

    If you are dropping your tech into some recycle bin with a picture of a fucking tree on it, you might as well not fool yourself. You aren’t recycling shit and those people are standing in *YOUR* burning trash.

    Do the right thing. Each time. Every time. Or relinquish your right to be called civilized. And human.

    Also…

    http://www.freegeek.org/

    I volunteered for many years at Free Geek in Portland.

  5. I heard a story on NPR that said that gold was the most desired element in the world of computer scavenging, not copper.

    1. It certainly does merit the photo, but it’s probably breaking copyright to re-post it here without authorisation from either NYT or Pieter Hugo himself.

      Great images. I always shudder when I hear about how people want to buy e-readers or the such “to help the environment”. So very, very misguided.

      Also as a side note to Trotsky’s message:

      There are often decent small organisations that recycle and dismantle computers and computer parts for people in local communities that need cheap computers. These are much safer bets than companies that send tech to 3rd world countries as gifts.

      At least in Australia a lot of companies will charge to properly recycle certain devices (i.e. CRT monitors, broken printers which are very difficult to dispose of properly, and generally are not wanted by even those picking up a cheap computer for $75) but if you are getting charged to dispose of something properly, you’re much more likely to find that it actually happens.

      Anyone that is taking CRT monitors for nothing isn’t doing the right thing. It’s a costly and laborious process to scrap them properly.

      Here is an example of one responsible service in Melbourne.
      Business to Community Recyclers.

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