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Eight arrested in Holland for e-waste dumping in Ghana

Page last updated at Thursday, March 5, 2009 10:10 AM // Comments Off

A partly burnt keyboard at the Agbogbloshie scrap yard

It has now emerged that eight men have been arrested in connection with the arrest in Amsterdam port of a container full of e-waste destined for export to Ghana.

A Dutch publication Volkskrant reported in its Wednesday March 4, 2009 edition that police have arrested eight men in connection with the attempted illegal export of toxic waste to Ghana.

According to the report, three of the gang members are brothers and police picked them up in Deventer, while the other five were picked up in various parts of Amsterdam.

Sources in Amsterdam told ghanabusinessnews.com by phone that three of the men arrested are from Turkey, while the other five are Ghanaians.

The names of the suspects were not given as a source told ghanabusinessnews.com that the Dutch police hardly release names in such circumstances. The source added that they however, release initials, but they have not done so in this case

The report says the gang is alleged to have been operating in the east of Holland for a number of years with the cooperation of shop-keepers who sold them used household items which they exported to developing countries.

European  countries have passed the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) to control the handling and disposal of e-waste or electronics waste. But it appears poor supervision is encouraging unscrupulous organizations and individuals to export the cocktail of poisonous chemicals into Ghana and other developing industries.

In accordance with this regulation, retailers are only allowed to sell off these goods to licenced recycling firms which are partially financed by public money.

The police also raided four warehouses where they found almost 2,400 used household goods.

Speaking to the publication, Wim Hogenslag, head of the interregional environmental team which tracked down the gang, said transporting these goods to Ghana was a lucrative business for the gang leaders.

The prosecution service has seized seven homes, business premises, trucks and cash. The three chief suspects, two of whom receive welfare benefits, also own 33 apartments in Turkey, the paper says.

E-waste

E-waste is a major public health and environmental problem in Ghana. The Agbogbloshie scrap yard in Accra has been turned into an e-waste dumping ground by young boys who are eking out a living by dismantling obsolete electronics equipment from Europe and America. These boys without knowing, are endangering their own lives and that of others in the country.

E-waste is the generic name for electronic or computer wastes. These are discarded electronics devices that come into the waste stream from several sources. They include gadgets like televisions, personal computers (PCs), telephones, air conditioners, cell phones, and electronic toys.

The list can further be widened to include appliances such as lifts, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, kitchen equipment or even air crafts.

Electronics equipment is one of the largest known sources of heavy metals, toxic materials and organic pollutants in city waste.

E-waste is known to contain dangerous chemical pollutants that are released into the atmosphere and underground water.

The modes of disposal, which include dumping old gadgets into landfills or burning in smelters, also expose the environment and humans to a cocktail of toxic chemicals and poison. These chemicals contain substances like lead, mercury and arsenic.

The cathode ray tubes (CRTs) in most computer monitors and television screens have x-ray shields that contain 4 to 8 pounds of lead, mostly embedded in glass.

Flat screen monitors that are mostly used in laptops do not contain high concentrations of lead, but most are illuminated with fluorescent lights that contain some mercury.

A PC’s central processing unit (CPU), the module containing the chip and the hard disk, typically contains toxic heavy metals such as mercury (in switches), lead (in solder on circuit boards), and cadmium (in batteries).

Plastics used to house computer equipment and cover wire cables to prevent flammability often contain polybrominated flame retardants, a class of dangerous chemicals. Studies have shown that ingesting these substances may increase the risk of cancer, liver damage, and immune system dysfunction.

Lead, mercury, cadmium, and polybrominated flame retardants are all persistent, bio-accumulative toxins (PBTs), that can create environmental and health risks when computers are manufactured, incinerated, landfilled or melted during recycling. PBTs, in particular are a dangerous class of chemicals that linger in the environment and accumulate in living tissues.

And because they increase in concentration as they move up the food chain, PBTs can reach dangerous levels in living organisms, even when released in minute quantities. PBTs are harmful to human health and the environment and have been associated with cancer, nerve damage and reproductive disorders.

Looked at individually, the chemicals contained in e-waste are a cocktail of dangerous pollutants that kill both the environment and humans slowly.

Meanwhile, not much is being done in Ghana, in terms of policy or practical action to address the situation.

When we called Ghana’s EPA Thursday morning, March 5, 2009 to find out what they were doing about the situation, an official asked us to come over and book an appointment.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi

Email: edogbevi@hotmail.com



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