USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Moral Dilemmas of E-Waste

E-waste is growing. Computers, phones and other electronic devices are increasingly being discarded, as StEP’s e-waste world map shows. Planned and perceived obsolescence make us buy more of them, we discard them when we consider they are not useful anymore, but there are no adequate recycling mechanisms. As a result e-waste is piling up. The different approaches to e-waste management can be presented in the form a dilemma:

A) E-waste contains hazardous elements.
B) E-waste is a source of income and an incipient local industry.

These are both sides of the moral dilemma regarding e-waste recycling from a global perspective. When we started developing the concept of Recyhub, a project aimed at developing low-tech, low-cost tools for informal e-waste recyclers, we were confronted with it. Should we stop our project straight away and devote our efforts to enforcing the ban? Or should we ignore it and focus on the small economies created by the sometimes illegal e-waste exports? We received this comment from a person close to the local administration in Ghana: “If we are supposed to end e-waste, why should we support your project that promotes it?”