- hot-spots
- plastic pollution
- Ghana
- Toxic e-waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana

Toxic e-waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana
Ghana
last update:
6 months agoProblems
Agbogbloshie is a nickname of a commercial district on the Korle Lagoon of the Odaw River, near the center of Accra, Ghana's capital city in the Greater Accra region. Near the slum called "Old Fadama", the Agbogbloshie site became known as a destination for externally generated automobile and electronic scrap collected from mostly the Western world. The Basel Action Network, a small NGO based in Seattle, has referred to Agbogbloshie as a "digital dumping ground", where they allege millions of tons of e-waste are processed each year Agbogbloshie is one of the world's digital dumping grounds, alleged to be at the center of a legal and illegal exportation network for the environmental dumping of electronic waste (e-waste) from industrialized nations.
What are the causes of pollution in Agbogbloshie?
Ghana imports approximately 215,000 tons of used consumer electronics from Western Europe and generates an additional 129,000 tons of e-waste yearly. About half of these imports can be immediately utilized or refurbished for resale, while the remaining is recycled to salvage valuable components. About 80,000 men, women, and children exist from the Agbogbloshie dump, living either on-site or in the adjacent slum. They are among the poorest of Accra's 1.7 million inhabitants, many of whom come from the northern regions of Ghana and neighboring countries such as Niger, Mali, and the Ivory Coast. Various recovery operations occur in Agbogbloshie, each carrying specific risks to workers and the environment. The main activity of concern, particularly regarding public health, involves burning insulated cables to extract the copper content. Styrofoam packaging fuels this process, and the burning occurs in open spaces. Cables often contain several heavy metals, such as lead, which can, to some degree, disperse through smoke particles. Additionally, substantial quantities of these metals remain deposited in the surrounding soil.
Gallery
4Timelines
2021
Scrapyard demolition relocated most of the e-waste and scrap practices to the old Fadama informal settlement much close to where people live.
2019
A study by the Basel Network and the International Pollutants Elimination Network found high levels of toxins such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and chlorinated dioxins in free-range chickens eggs at Agbogbloshie.
2016
German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) started working together to improve conditions for waste workers and to protect the environment in the process.
2014
The NGO Pure Earth (formerly Blacksmith Institute) funded the establishment of a Copper Wire Recycling Center in Agbogbloshie. The center facilitated the installation of automated machines to streamline removing plastic coating and minimize burning. While the efforts have shown some degree of success, burning activities persist.
2008
The Basel Action Network circulated a claim in 2008 that as much as 75 percent of these second-hand electronics sent to Africa could not be reused and ended up in landfills.
2003
The Ghanaian government made an effort to restore the area through the “Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project” (KLERP). The OPEC Fund for International Development, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development provided a loan for this project with the expectation that the Ghanaian government dredge the lagoon and restore its surroundings.
1998
Newly available electricity from the Akosombo Dam led to increased local demand for electric and electronic appliance consumption.