Electronics are designed for the dump

Every year, electronics become more wasteful, more designed for the dump. And to hide the problem, we in the Global North have found a classic way of behaving that so expresses the sheer hollowness of our civilization. We dump our toxic crap among the poor in the Global South, while advertising that we are helping them, donating to them out of the sheer goodness of our hearts. But most of the “donations” we send them doesn’t even work and even the “second-hand” electronics that actually work will have a very short life, as Kees Baldé, an e-scrap researcher explained:

“We should not forget that after a secondhand commodity, or a secondhand good, or a secondhand fridge is being shipped into Ghana, it will last for a couple years. It will be repaired as much as possible, but it will also become waste in that country. In the end, it is all waste.”

Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood and Ibukun J. Adewumi wrote about the racism inherent in sending e-waste to Africa: “Toxic waste dumping in the Gulf of Guinea amounts to environmental racism. This is a term that’s used to describe a form of systemic racism—manifested through policies or practices—whereby communities of colour are disproportionately