An Economic Story of De-Growth from Electronic Waste

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Table of contents

1. A Boy in Accra, Ghana

2. Electronic waste movement and environmental pollution

3. Pointless overproduction and capitalism

 

 

 

1. A Boy in Accra, Ghana

 

A slum on the outskirts of Accra, the capital of Ghana, Africa A boy lifts the TV and hits it. It's to dig for gold. There's a trace of gold in that TV. To extract that, that boy will hit the TV hundreds, thousands of times. And there's a fire behind that boy. Electronics cables and wires are being burned. It is to mine copper. In order to extract gold, copper, and rare earths, hundreds of poor children travel from all over the country to the capital, Accra, every year.
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Hundreds of containers arrive in Ghana every day from all over the world. Computers, mobile phones, laptops, TVs, refrigerators, and other e-waste, so called WEEE. Africa, including Ghana, has long been an e-waste tomb in the northern half, along with Southeast Asia. 500 large containers arrive in the Nigerian capital every month from Asia, including the United States, Europe, and Korea. More than 80 percent of these electronics disguised as "donations" and "used goods" to circumvent the illegal crackdown are junk that is already unavailable. In Europe, more than 64% of electronic waste enters Africa. Every year, 150 million computer waste is dumped in Africa and Southeast Asia.
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The most polluted place in the world with e-waste is outside Accra, Ghana. Children who mine gold like that are exposed to more than 1,000 harmful chemicals and heavy metals. That boy's cylindrical cathode ray tube contains as much as 2 kilograms of lead. Almost all children working there are already suffering from lead poisoning and other diseases or dying slowly. It's even radioactive.

 

2. Electronic waste movement and environmental pollution

 

Electronic waste pollutes the environment as well as humans. Already, the soil and groundwater in that area are severely affected by heavy metals and harmful chemicals. The black smoke seen in the back of the boy is caused by burning PVC cables. It contains the most toxic dioxin on Earth. It includes furan and cadmium. It causes fatal diseases including cancer. Of course, in the process of transportation, incineration, and decomposition, large amounts of carbon are emitted along with ecosystem pollution, and refrigerant is a particular problem. An abandoned refrigerator contains about 100 grams of refrigerant. The 100 grams destroys the ozone layer in several football fields.
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Everything comes back to normal. Capitalism in the northern half of China mines all kinds of rare earths, including lithium, in the southern half. Rare earths go into almost every electronic device, including computers and cell phones. Of course, nothing is free. To refine only one ton of rare earths, 63 million liters of waste gas, about 200,000 liters of acid waste water, and 1.4 tons of radioactive industrial waste water are generated. Mining is to pollute both groundwater and nearby areas as well as workers. In addition, the refining process drains groundwater in nearby areas because it absolutely needs water.
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In short, northern capitalism is mining rare earths and resources in the southern half and spitting back the waste of electronics that it uses and produces. You can see the life of electronics at a glance. That boy who hits electronics to mine rare earths and gold and copper is the beginning and end of the product. It can be immediately realized that capitalism in the northern half can be maintained only by colonizing the three worlds with resource mining and garbage.
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3. Pointless overproduction and capitalism

 

Greenhouse gases generated from the process of mining rare earths until that boy hits the cathode ray tube in Ghana, Africa, account for 11 to 15 percent of the total emissions. only for the life cycle of electronics Of course, the ecological pollution caused by electronic products is greater. Capitalist machines that constantly produce and consume form the driving force of this life cycle. With mass production-consumption, planned obsolescence that inserts the "death gene" into every electronics, we work to buy and buy again and again and again and again and buy again and again and again and again and again. This pointless overproduction system, meaningless growthism.
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As of 2020, e-waste emissions per capita are 21 kilograms in the United States, 15.8 kilograms in Korea, 7.2 kilograms in China, and 2.4 kilograms in India. Korea throws away e-waste twice the average. It is the second largest exporter of e-waste in Asia after Japan. Koreans throw away 1.4 million refrigerators and 1.2 million washing machines a year. There are about 20 million abandoned cell phones. Each Korean throws away his or her cell phone every one and a half years. Rare earths in cell phones that are thrown away carelessly lead to ecological pollution, gang violence wars, the depletion of groundwater in South America, and low-wage exploitation by workers in the third world. Pain and death are repeated. Meaningless. Ecologist Günthers calls this addiction and repetition "Necrophilia."
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Whether it's "de-growth" or "climate justice," it means at least changing this type of production consumption system. Unless you change this, no matter how personal you practice, draw a graph, and fart about carbon, you can't prevent the climate crisis. There is an ecological marginal capacity on Earth. I mean, it's already over that. There are still many people who cause the economy whenever they talk of "degrowth." Degrowth is about minimizing inequality and imagining other ways of abundance, not this meaningless world. They don't even know what they're doing, but what kind of crisis they're trying to prevent.​

 

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