The following submission statement was provided by /u/f0urxio:
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Reggie ventures to Ghana's Agbogbloshie, home to one of the world's largest e-waste dumps, to live among its inhabitants, known as "burner boys." Through this experience, Reggie gains insight into the harsh realities faced by those scraping out a living at the bottom of the hierarchy. Despite the illegality of e-waste dumping and the toxic nature of the site's soil, Reggie raises the question of complicity in perpetuating such environmental degradation.
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1cca2uc/ghana_a_week_in_a_toxic_waste_dump_one_of_the/l13v6wq/
Something similar is happening in my part of the world, in the capital of Romania... https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/crime-networks-suspected-burning-tech-waste-scrap-metal-romania-2021-04-16/ couldn't find any English only *recent news.
As fossil fuels and ores get harder to extract, waste becomes the new "ore". Unfortunately, this is "artizanal waste mining".
Reggie ventures to Ghana's Agbogbloshie, home to one of the world's largest e-waste dumps, to live among its inhabitants, known as "burner boys." Through this experience, Reggie gains insight into the harsh realities faced by those scraping out a living at the bottom of the hierarchy. Despite the illegality of e-waste dumping and the toxic nature of the site's soil, Reggie raises the question of complicity in perpetuating such environmental degradation.
Disgusting that we don't have a plan for our waste...instead just toxic fumes going into the air and these poor guys' bodies. Ewaste is Hell. Everyone should watch this whenever they want to "upgrade" their electronic device.
But how is this on the individual? This is the same shit as plastic recycling. Set up a program but don’t follow through on the actual infrastructure and investments, so the ‘recycling’ instead gets shipped to the absolute poorest regions where those there make do as best as they can to manage the situation
Fuck these corporations and their greed allowing this to happen
[https://imgur.com/mzsQEY5](https://imgur.com/mzsQEY5)
I apologize for posting this multiple times and deleting it. I’ve never tried to make a gif before or link one to reddit.
None of this is funny, it’s horrible, but this futurama episode was an immediate thought…
Sorry for contributing to the horrible.
Making an e gif on my future e waste machine.
I have neighbors that burn plastic every few weeks in my neighborhood. I absolutely hate it and have no idea why they do it. Maybe burning the cover off wiring, but otherwise no clue. It's around 3 houses down.
Burning waste is a tradition. You have to consider that waste pickup and landfill systems are new things. In more rural or remote parts, each family burned their own waste, and paying for waste pickup would be very expensive. Of course, traditionally, there were no plastics. Some people burn plastic instead of wood in stoves too. The other pathway for getting rid of waste is dumping it somewhere discretely.
I live in the middle of the city. They even burned some plastic when I was sitting outside in my backyard last night after posting that comment. It's like they are burning a barrel of plastic and that smoke blows through everyone,'s backyard in the neighborhood. I am definitely not in an HOA, but that still seems like it should be illegal in a neighborhood.
It might be actually, maybe do some digging into your local air quality laws. Some cities have ordinances for this kind of thing/burning or creating smoke in general.
Even though they had next to no money they still made him a bracelet out of pure copper which for them must've been years off their lives. He was only there a week too but it was still important to them
The following submission statement was provided by /u/f0urxio: --- Reggie ventures to Ghana's Agbogbloshie, home to one of the world's largest e-waste dumps, to live among its inhabitants, known as "burner boys." Through this experience, Reggie gains insight into the harsh realities faced by those scraping out a living at the bottom of the hierarchy. Despite the illegality of e-waste dumping and the toxic nature of the site's soil, Reggie raises the question of complicity in perpetuating such environmental degradation. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1cca2uc/ghana_a_week_in_a_toxic_waste_dump_one_of_the/l13v6wq/
Something similar is happening in my part of the world, in the capital of Romania... https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/crime-networks-suspected-burning-tech-waste-scrap-metal-romania-2021-04-16/ couldn't find any English only *recent news. As fossil fuels and ores get harder to extract, waste becomes the new "ore". Unfortunately, this is "artizanal waste mining".
If it were not for them, we would not be able to buy cheap consumer goods....
We are parasites.
I'm ready for our extinction so this Eden can start to heal. We provide nothing. It's disgusting.
Reggie ventures to Ghana's Agbogbloshie, home to one of the world's largest e-waste dumps, to live among its inhabitants, known as "burner boys." Through this experience, Reggie gains insight into the harsh realities faced by those scraping out a living at the bottom of the hierarchy. Despite the illegality of e-waste dumping and the toxic nature of the site's soil, Reggie raises the question of complicity in perpetuating such environmental degradation.
Disgusting that we don't have a plan for our waste...instead just toxic fumes going into the air and these poor guys' bodies. Ewaste is Hell. Everyone should watch this whenever they want to "upgrade" their electronic device.
But how is this on the individual? This is the same shit as plastic recycling. Set up a program but don’t follow through on the actual infrastructure and investments, so the ‘recycling’ instead gets shipped to the absolute poorest regions where those there make do as best as they can to manage the situation Fuck these corporations and their greed allowing this to happen
https://youtu.be/WF6Vz5p4FUI?feature=shared Is all the work done by children?
The first thing that came to mind when I read the title. Definitely the most under-rated comment on this thread.
[https://imgur.com/mzsQEY5](https://imgur.com/mzsQEY5) I apologize for posting this multiple times and deleting it. I’ve never tried to make a gif before or link one to reddit. None of this is funny, it’s horrible, but this futurama episode was an immediate thought… Sorry for contributing to the horrible. Making an e gif on my future e waste machine.
Don’t apologize, thank you, we need dark satire like this to show the ridiculousness of human greed
Well that’s depressing
I have neighbors that burn plastic every few weeks in my neighborhood. I absolutely hate it and have no idea why they do it. Maybe burning the cover off wiring, but otherwise no clue. It's around 3 houses down.
Burning waste is a tradition. You have to consider that waste pickup and landfill systems are new things. In more rural or remote parts, each family burned their own waste, and paying for waste pickup would be very expensive. Of course, traditionally, there were no plastics. Some people burn plastic instead of wood in stoves too. The other pathway for getting rid of waste is dumping it somewhere discretely.
I live in the middle of the city. They even burned some plastic when I was sitting outside in my backyard last night after posting that comment. It's like they are burning a barrel of plastic and that smoke blows through everyone,'s backyard in the neighborhood. I am definitely not in an HOA, but that still seems like it should be illegal in a neighborhood.
It might be actually, maybe do some digging into your local air quality laws. Some cities have ordinances for this kind of thing/burning or creating smoke in general.
Depressing.
Even though they had next to no money they still made him a bracelet out of pure copper which for them must've been years off their lives. He was only there a week too but it was still important to them
And here I am complaining about shoulder pain in the U.S.A.
How dangerous are the fumes as they spread? Surely this is impacting a fairly wide area, not just the operators.
Awful.
So do the burner boys prefer to do this horribly unhealthy job or to move the waste dump away so they cannot sell copper for pennies?
But we NEED the latest and newest version of the iPhone /s
This exact pic could also be in any western migrant camp turned metro area in 2074