Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directives. The
WEEE directive is based on the principle of extended producer respon-
sibility, which states that manufacturers are legally responsible for safe
and environmentally friendly product disposal or, failing this, they must
contract with a government-approved waste-handling fi rm to undertake
disposal. However, according to the Basel Action Network, a transna-
tional social movement organization, approximately three-quarters of
the e-waste generated in the European Union is unaccounted for (Basel
Action Network 2008). To make the situation worse, many of the ship-
ments to Ghana and other developing countries are placed in containers
labeled “secondhand goods” since EU law allows reusable electronic
goods to be exported (Greenpeace 2008). EU guidelines state that
electronics can only be considered secondhand, reusable goods if they
are tested for use and properly packed and labeled. However, estimates
suggest that 25 to 75 percent of the secondhand electronic goods exported
to Africa are broken beyond repair. The altruistic intent of bridging the
digital divide by shipping electronics to other countries is having the
unintended consequence of developed nations “dumping on the poor”
(Greenpeace 2008, 10).
The act of disposing of e-waste, whether for altruistic reasons or not,
highlights a critical aspect of a global environmental inequality that has
emerged over the years—namely, the presence of a spatial disconnect
between public consumption and the desire for profi tability by multina-
tional corporations in one part of the world, and the environmental and
human rights burdens these drivers of action can and do impose on
others. In some instances, global supply chains are a source of inequities
as corporations respond to remote demand by seeking to extract resources
or site facilities in ways that pose threats to human and ecological health.
In other instances, governments, consumers, and consumptive patterns
are driving the movement of waste, toxics, and other hazardous materials
to distant locations and, in the process, are having negative impacts on
natural resources, environmental quality, public health, and local social
and cultural dynamics.
Shipments of e-waste to Ghana, as well as to other developing coun-
tries, are an example of a global spatial inequality that is having signifi -
cant environmental and health impacts. For instance, after the waste
arrives at its destination, it often is manually dismantled by workers or
scavengers, many of whom are children and teenagers. The workers are
given no protective gear and use rudimentary tools such as stones to
break the products apart in order to salvage scrap metals. The remaining
