“Consumer goods are meant to be used up and to disappear; the idea of temporariness and transitoriness is intrinsic to their very denomination as objects of consumption; consumer goods have memento mori written all over them, even if with an invisible ink.”
Zygmunt Bauman
Guangzhou, China
A boy waits for customers in his hardware materials store, inside a big shopping mall for electronics.
They sell mostly used materials which can then be used to compose “new” second-hand electronic items.
Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong
Hong Kong harbour is one of the largest commercial ports in the world and is the largest access point to mainland China for goods from all over the world.
Here arrive also container ships full of electric and electronic waste from Europe and the United States.
Walton Road, Lahore, Pakistan
On the roof of a building, bins full of chemicals that will be used for the extraction of precious metals from
electronic waste.
Agbobloshie, Accra, Ghana
One of the young boys working in Agbobloshie made the landfill his home; he has built a shelter made of
different types of scraps and wastes.
Most part of the people who work in Agbobloshie is from the North of Ghana, from the rural regions. To
work in Agbobloshie they have to leave their families and their homes.
New Territories, Hong Kong
A collection and stocking site for electrical and electronic waste. Here are collected large amounts of e-waste
arrived by container ship at the port of Hong Kong. Will be stocked here for a short time, waiting to be
transported overland to the various recycling sites in China, which is a few kilometers away. The border with
Shenzhen is just behind those hills.
Lahore, Pakistan
A guy stand in front of a huge pile of electronic components which will be later processed to extract
precious metals. His father had to pay a great amount of money so that his son could learn this technique from another
person, but this investment is allowing them to increase the profits of their small business that is specialized in the
recycling of electronic waste.
Kancheepuram Districti, Tamil Nadu, India
Plastic monitors wrecks accumulated in the “plastic segregation” sector of GEMS (Global E-Waste
Managment and Services) facilities close to Chennai.
GEMS is one of the few companies authorized to treat electric and electronic waste in India. They separate
the different parts of the wastes, plastic and metallic, and then they sell them to companies specialized in the
recycling of those specific materials.
Huaqing Recycling Solution Center, Qingyuan, China
A room with informational materials about the life cycle of electrical and electronic products designed to
sensitize the local population on the use and dispose of these wastes.
Old Seelampur, New Delhi, India
Old transistors are boiling in metal pots.
In this way, the plastic will melt and the worker will be able to gather the metallic parts and sell them.
Most of the time, this technique is carried out in a yard or in private houses, just like in this case. The
consequences are severe problems to the health of the worker because of the toxic smoke produced by
burning plastic.
Lahore, Pakistan
A small repair shop in a center for retail and wholesale of electrical and electronic equipments.
Wagha Town, Lahore, Pakistan
Trucks full of metallic materials coming from the disposal of electric and electronic waste arrive to this
foundry daily. Here the metal, along with some other metal scrap of different provenience, is melted at a
temperature of 1800 degrees Celsius. In this way, they create new metallic materials and use it in the
construction field.
Old Seelampur, New Delhi, India
Two young men during a break in a warehouse full of old cathode ray tube monitors. These types of devices
contain polluting and toxic substances like lead, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and Brominated Flame
Retardants (BFRs). A prolonged exposure to these compounds can cause serious problems for the
environment and for human health.
Lian River, Guiyu, China
A branch of the Lian River, a minor river that flows into the South China Sea.
Here, every night, huge piles of electrical and electronic waste, together with other waste derived from the
manufacture (another business very present in this region) are accumulated on the banks of the river and are
set on fire. These wastes are the last link in the chain, the result of all the processes of cannibalization and
recycling. From these materials is no longer possible to extract anything that has a value, then are burned in
the open air thus creating serious pollution problems for air and the surrounding waterways.
Agbobloshie, Accra, Ghana
Guys burning electronic scraps in the e-waste dump of Agbobloshie.
The materials treated in the Agbobloshie landfill contain substances that are highly toxic for the environment
and for human health. Cadmium, lead, phthalates, antimony, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls),
chlorobenzenes, Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), triphenyl phosphate (TPP), Brominated Flame
Retardants (BFRs).
Odaw River, Accra, Ghana
The Odaw River and the Korle Lagoon are full of every kind of wastes coming from the Agbobloshie landfill
and from the nearby slums where they use the river like a latrine. A couple of hundreds meters downhill the
river and lagoon flow into the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean.
The government of Ghana is trying to restore the natural conditions of the lagoon thanks to the Korle
Lagoon Ecological Restoration project (KLERP).
Electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) is growing faster than any other type of waste. According to the UNEP, the amount of e-waste could grow exponentially, as much as 500 times over the coming decade, especially in countries like India, China and some African regions where the technology industry is growing fast. It is hazardous waste, containing dozens of substances dangerous to human health and the environment; it is hard to be sustainably disposed of and it needs a costly processing technique to make it recyclable. This is the reason why about 80% of the e-waste produced in developed countries (North America and Europe on the top of the list) is not disposed of in situ, but shipped, most of the time illegally, to developing countries on cargo ships, where it is illegally disposed of.
This research is inspired by this important, practical problem, represented by the e-waste and focuses on the extreme consumerism of the society we live in. A society that keeps hostage modern slaves, forced to live and work in detrimental conditions and that at same time, keeps itself as a hostage, always looking for technological and innovative products to satisfy its own need of being fast and competitive. A society where the consumer does not acknowledge boredom and his culture avoids it. Where there is not happiness and the moments of happiness are when we satisfy our impelling needs, careless of acknowledging that our choices have an impact on the life of those that have no choice.
