For years now, we have been exporting most of our dirty industries overseas and now, it seems, we are doing the same with the most dangerous junk that’s left over from our consumer goods. We’ve been led to believe by many manufacturers that our used TVs and computers are being safely recycled in Australia.
But, on a recent trip to Africa, Dateline’s Giovana Vitola found that a staggering amount of the world’s E-waste, including Australian waste, is ending up being burnt in open dumps in impoverished Ghana.
It’s creating an environmental and health nightmare there, and it’s breaking a myriad of laws and conventions that are meant to be in place here. Nice laws, but things look rather different on the ground.