Cemetery of Electronics
Country:Ghana
Client:Frihet Magazine
Country:Ghana
Client:Frihet Magazine
Near the largest food market in Accra, Ghana, there is a waste dump. It´s a place where the toxic smoke of burning plastic is always thick. This is where poor youth and children come to earn their living and some also to live. This is where large quantities of obsolete computers and other electronic waste from Europe, the USA and others is being dumped - illegally. The children smash and burn the waste to extricate coveted metals such as lead, mercury and copper. Every day they are breathing in the toxic substances freed by the burning. This is where the two orphaned brothers Yao and Samuel, 17 and 14 years old, work and live.
Yao uses the magnet from a loudspeaker to soak up small pieces of metal.
Yao uses the magnet from a loudspeaker to soak up small pieces of metal.
Yao leads his life among heaps of obsolete electronic appliances from all over the world. He and his brother survives on the incomes received from selling metal they find.
Yao leads his life among heaps of obsolete electronic appliances from all over the world. He and his brother survives on the incomes received from selling metal they find.
Smoke from burning plastic is constantly in the air at the site and drifts into the neighbouring food market.
Hundreds of boys and some girls are working every day at the dump. Many come from the poorer northern parts of Ghana.
From hand to mouth. The earnings of the morning are immediately used to pay for lunch.
The boys are setting electric appliances on fire to extricate the coveted metals they contain: lead, mercury, iron and copper. The fires are fed by the only combustible material available: plastic.
The whites of Samuels eyes are yellow, an indication of liver disease. He dreams of becoming an actor.
A large amount of the waste that end up here has been illegally exported from western countries.
During the worst heat of the afternoon Samuel and Yao takes a rest. One of the metal buyers has built a simple shed to provide a shaded resting place for the boys working the site.
Yao dreams of becoming a priest or a goalkeeper.
A slight scent of citrus sweeps by and momentarily replaces the pungent smell of burning plastic.
Towards the evening patience is running low and fights amongst the boys often occur. The band-aid on Yaos head is covering a wound he received during a dispute with another boy. The conflict concerned who was to take a computer apart.
Evening. Fresh from the communal shower at the food market and with clean clothes. The old ones are thrown away. After a couple of weeks use the clothes are so saturated with heavy metals that their hands will be harmed if they wash them. At night they sleep on a wooden bench in a stall at the market.