A Global Graveyard for Dead Computers in Ghana

Pt 10289

A Global Graveyard for Dead Computers in Ghana – Slide Show @ NYTimes.com

In Agbogbloshie, a slum in Accra, the capital of Ghana, adults and children tear away at computers from abroad 
to get at the precious metals inside. Left, David Akore, 18, and other foragers. Credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times.

Their response is a reminder of the alien circumstances that are imposed on marginal communities of the world by the West’s obsession with consumption and obsolescence. This wasteland, where people and cattle live on mountains of motherboards, monitors and discarded hard drives, is far removed from the benefits accorded by the unrelenting advances of technology.


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — Philips, an electronics giant, has faded from its former glory

Wearables — You’re a gem

Electronics — Copper keepout!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: 100 CircuitPython Community Libraries, a New Arduino UNO and much more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Boxing Glove Tracker, Disconnecting Smart Appliances, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — JP’s Product Pick of the Week — 4pm Eastern TODAY! 3/28/23 @adafruit #adafruit #newproductpick

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



2 Comments

  1. Hey, Thanks for sharing, these images remind me of doc. that I saw on npr from asia about this subject, it was a while back, it reinforced my feeling that art is starting to predict the future, which needs to end. All those sci fi movies in the 90’s are here on our doorstep, ironically I just got in from looking for LED’s for a project for our 8 soon to be 9 y.o. boy’s birthday party, a dark illuminated jousting/femcing/starwars type event in the back yard, going to make sheilds lied with led’s ect.. no one could help me at the stores they looked at me like I was some weirdo . “why don’t you just buy them already made” Here is another kicker from the useless shack, “you’ll have to get those at party city” I didn’t realize party city sold LED’s I said, I was looking for a large quantity anyhow you know where this is going…again thanks, I hope more then just the reuse repurpose community reads your feeds
    D

  2. This makes me sad 🙁
    I used to work for a computer recycling company that claimed that they never sent anything out of the united states.

    At one point that i was working there in the “Monitor Testing” area. Basically i plugged in a monitor to see if it worked. If it didn’t it went onto a pallet of monitors. After about 32 pallets were built me and 3 other guys had to take them apart and load them into these shipping containers packing as many as we could from top to bottom.

    The trucks with the containers never left during the day when there were people there only at the cover of night.

    I was naive at the time not really wondering where the monitors went, and upper management just said things like “oh over there” waived their hands in a random direction then would walk away.

    What I always found strange was that the containers always had cardboard on them to cover the name of the shipper. So one night I stayed around hiding in the adjacent parking lot and I took this photo
    http://wtfmoogle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/0121080716.jpg

    Later I confronted management about it and they said that it was Illegal to ship broken or bad monitors to china but it was perfectly legal to ship “untested electronics” (a total lie as i tested these monitors)

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.