Exhibition Debut
Photos by Oscar Vinck and Bram Saeys
Found Maps of Global E-Waste Routes
Known and Suspected Routes of E-Waste Dumping, image by Greenpeace
Transboundary E Waste Shipments By Josh Lepawsky
Interconnected E Waste Flows By Josh Lepawsky
Geography of E-Waste Exports from Europe
Agbogbloshie Scrapyard Accra Ghana 20092018
Amsterdam Mediamarkt 20092018
Map Of Transborder Export Destinations Of E Waste From Europe
E Waste Data Facts
E Waste Site Satellite Photos
Satellite Images of E-Waste Sites
Agbogloshie Accra Ghana
Artificial Island Thilafushi Maldives
Dandora Dumpsite Nairobi Kenya
Deonar Dumping Ground Mumbai India
Guiyu Guangdong China
Lakhodair Landfill Lahore Pakistan
Olusoson Landfill Lagos Nigera
Payatas Dumpsite Metro Manila Philippines
Postcards of E-Waste Dumping Sites
Battery Artificial Island Thilafushi Maldives
Fridge Agbogbloshie Dumpsite Accra Ghana
Know How Payatas Dumpsite Metro Manila Philippines
Laptop Guiyu Guangdong China
Mobile Phone Dandora Dumpsite Nairobi Kenya
Online Shopping Lakhodair Lahore Pakistan
School Deonar Mumbai India
Vehicle Olusosun Lagos Nigeria
The Transboundary Loophole
Noud Sleumer
Globally, we produce between 40 and 50 million tons of electronics waste each year. Commonly known as e-waste, only 20 percent of this rubbish is properly recycled or disposed of, with the remaining 80 percent becoming part of an illegal, transboundary trade. Dealers take advantage of a loophole in the definition of junk by labelling e-waste as second-hand goods, creating a grey area in which objects are exported as usable stock but are imported as refuse. Problematic detritus is removed from one country and discarded in another. E-waste dumps exist within a cycle of exploitation and pollution, but the import of e-waste also creates new industries and opportunities. This informal system produces tangible, evolving infrastructures of jobs, products and services.
Using satellite images, Noud Sleumer creates an open atlas of independent E-waste sites. Site-specific narratives are represented by symbolic objects printed on a series of postcards, linking an illicit global market to its localised impacts. Combined, they depict a global network where abuse goes hand-in-glove with development, building a narrative of global urgency.
Credits
Map data: Google Earth, DigitalGlobe, CNES / Airbus, Maxar Technologies
References
Agbogbloshie Makerspace, “Agbogbloshie recycling and maker ecosystem,” GoogleMaps. Link
Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (Basel: United Nations, 1989). Link
C.P. Baldé, F. Wang, R. Kuehr, Transboundary movements of used and waste electronic and electrical equipment (Bonn: United Nations University-ViE SCYCLE, 2016). Link
C.P. Baldé et al., The Global E-waste Monitor 2017: Quantities, Flows, and Resources, United Nations University (Bonn: United Nations University-ViE SCYCLE, 2017). Link
Center for International Development, “The Globe of Economic Complexity,” Harvard University. Link
Djahane Salehabadi, Transboundary Movements of Discarded Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Green paper, United Nations University/Solving the E-Waste Problem, 2013). Link
“E-waste,” Environmental Justice Atlas. Link
Growth Lab, “Atlas of Economic Complexity,” Harvard University. Link
Josh Lepawsky, “What E-Waste Journalism Gets Wrong,” MIT Press Reader, March 20, 2020. Link
Josh Lepawsky, “The changing geography of global trade in electronic discards: time to rethink the e-waste problem,” The Geographical Journal 181, no. 2 (June 2015): 147–159. Link
Juan Wang, “Transboundary Shipment of E-Waste” (Master’s thesis, TU Delft, 2009). Link
Kristof Geeraerts, Andrea Illes, and Jean-Pierre Schweizer, Illegal shipment of e-waste from the EU: A case study on illegal e-waste export from the EU to China (London: IEEP, 2015). Link
Oliver Whitla, Ruediger Kuehr, and Patrick Wäger, International policy response towards potential supply and demand distortions of scarce metals (Green paper, United Nations University/Solving the E-Waste Problem, 2012). Link
One Global Definition of E-Waste (White paper, United Nations University/Solving the E-Waste Problem, 2014). Link
Perrine Chancerel and Karsten Schischke, Worldwide Impacts of Substance Restrictions of ICT Equipment (Green paper, United Nations University/Solving the E-Waste Problem, 2011). Link
Secretariat of the Basel Convention, Where are WEee in Africa? Findings From the Basel Convention e-waste aFriCa Programme (Châtelaine: United Nations Environment Programme, 2011). Link
Senseable City Lab, “Monitour: E-Trash Transparency project,” MIT. Link
Senseable City Lab, “Monitour: How does e-waste travel across the world after disposal?” MIT. Link
Siddharth Prakash and Andreas Manhart, Socio-economic assessment and feasibility study on sustainable e-waste management in Ghana (Freiburg: Öko-Institut e.V., 2010). Link
Bio
Noud Sleumer is a conceptual designer whose work explores global systems of production and processing. His research focuses on the lifecycles of consumer electronic products, tracing the supply chains from resource to production and from points of sale to final processing. Sleumer’s practice provides insights not just into our everyday objects, but the systems, infrastructures and people who support them too.