How does this encounter make you feel?
A computer case supports Adam Latif as he stands in an e-waste dump
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Bright emotions
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Not at all Extremely
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Quiet emotions
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Not at all Extremely
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Heavy emotions
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Not at all Extremely
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Sombre emotions
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Not at all Extremely
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A computer case supports Adam Latif as he stands in an e-waste dump
Date
2014
Description
Creator of the image: Kevin McElvaney
Date of the image creation: 2014
Medium: Photograph
Person depicted: Adam Latif
The young man depicted in this photograph is Adam Latif. He was 21-years-old when McElvaney visited his toxic workplace — Agbogbloshie, a former wetland in Accra, Ghana, then the site of the world’s largest dump for electronic waste.
'Boys and young men smash devices to get to the metals, especially copper. Injuries, such as burns, untreated wounds, eye damage, lung and back problems, go hand in hand with chronic nausea, anorexia, debilitating headaches and respiratory problems. Most workers die from cancer in their 20s.'
The constant upgrades and fashion shifts in consumer electronic devices combine with their built-in obsolescence to create vast amounts of waste. Old computers, phones, and other devices that 'we just can't live without' quickly become e-waste. While many components of these machine can be recycled, it is expensive to do so, at least if one is concerned with keeping toxins out of the worker's bodies and ecosystems. To avoid paying the actual costs associated with these machines, a number of large-scale e-waste dumps have formed in poor countries that act as dumping grounds for the electronic consumerism of the Global North.
Compare yourself to others
Choose different variables below, and see the patterns of response reflected in the circle of emotion above. Your responses are the coloured wedges. Others' responses are averaged in the spider graph of lines and dots.
