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The latest place where Greenpeace has discovered high tech toxic waste causing horrendous pollution is in Ghana. Their analysis of samples taken from two electronic waste (e-waste) scrapyards in Ghana has revealed severe contamination with hazardous chemicals.

The ever-growing demand for the latest fashionable mobile phone, flat screen TV or super-fast computer creates ever larger amounts of obsolete electronics that are often laden with toxic chemicals like lead, mercury and brominated flame retardants. Rather than being safely recycled, much of this e-waste gets dumped in developing countries.

In the scrapyards, unprotected workers, many of them children, dismantle computers and TVs with little more than stones in search of metals that can be sold. The remaining plastic, cables and casing is either burnt or simply dumped.

Some of the samples contained toxic metals including lead in quantities as much as one hundred times above background levels. Other chemicals such as phthalates, some of which are known to interfere with sexual reproduction, were found in most of the samples tested.  One sample also contained a high level of chlorinated dioxins, known to promote cancer.

Dr. Kevin Bridgen, from Greenpeace's science unit, has visited scrap yards in China, India and Ghana:
"Many of the chemicals released are highly toxic, some may affect children's developing reproductive systems, while others can affect brain development and the nervous system.  In Ghana, China and India, workers, many of them children, may be substantially exposed to these hazardous chemicals."

How does it get to Ghana?
Containers filled with old and often broken computers, monitors and TVs - from brands including Philips, Canon, Dell, Microsoft, Nokia, Siemens and Sony - arrive in Ghana from Germany, Korea, Switzerland and the Netherlands under the false label of "second-hand goods".

Exporting e-waste from Europe is illegal but exporting old electronics for 'reuse' allows unscrupulous traders to profit from dumping old electronics in Ghana. The majority of the containers' contents end up in Ghana's scrapyards to be crushed and burned by unprotected workers.

Some traders report that to get a shipping container with a few working computers they must accept broken junk like old screens in the same container from exporters in developed countries.

What's the solution?
While working computers and mobile phones can have a new lease of life in some African countries, they create pollution when thrown away due to the high levels of toxic chemicals they contain. Greenpeace is pressuring the biggest electronic companies to phase out toxic chemicals and introduce global recycling schemes.

Some companies are making progress towards taking responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products. However, according to Greenpeace, Philips and Sharp stand out for refusing to accept that they are responsible for recycling their old products. The stance of these powerful multinationals is ensuring there will always be a digital divide that they prefer remains hidden, a dangerous divide with unprotected workers in developing countries left with the toxic legacy.

Responsible recycling
Even though Greenpeace have found this loophole, it does not mean that all organisations are exploiting it.  Among the responsible organisations is Computer Aid, who refurbish our old computers and send them around the world to those who need them.

One such project where Computer Aid PCs are being used is Corporacion La Morada in Chile. Corporacion La Morada is a community radio station project in Chile enabling Chilean women to have their voices heard.

La Morada aims to empower women in their communities by changing the balance of gender relations and promoting the social inclusion of discriminated groups. It has set up various community radio stations across the country using Computer Aid's donated PCs.

Freecycle is also a great way to pass on your old working TV or computer.  It's free to give and it's free to receive, and you help someone in your local community at the same time.