E-Waste Toxins Threaten Breastfeeding Mothers and Infants in Ghana

This section explains Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and circular economy principles: (1) EPR is a policy mechanism where producers are responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, including post-consumer packaging. (2) In Nigeria, the industry-led model requires manufacturers to form Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs) to manage waste. (3) FIBRA (Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance) manages packaging waste for the food and beverage sector, with 49 member companies. (4) The circular economy aims to eliminate waste by creating a loop where materials are continuously reused, contrasting with the linear economy (production → use → disposal). (5) The section demonstrates circular economy in practice through PET bottle recycling: consumers use bottles, waste pickers collect them, recyclers process them into raw materials, and manufacturers use recycled materials to produce new bottles. Companies like Nestle now use 50% recycled content, with regulations requiring 25% by 2028.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) must evolve beyond its traditional focus on recycling to address the full spectrum of environmental impacts throughout a product's lifecycle, including design-stage considerations, pollution prevention, and geographic leakage issues; this requires implementing complementary mechanisms such as true cost internalization through penalties for non-performance and virgin material reduction targets, while ensuring these policies work within a broader circular economy framework that integrates multiple policy instruments to achieve sustainable resource use and reduce environmental harm.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy framework where producers are responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, including end-of-life collection and recycling, requiring coordinated systems between producers, PRO organizations, recyclers, and municipalities to create effective circular economy solutions; successful EPR implementation depends on adequate funding for recyclers, strategic investment conditions, appropriate technology matching to waste stream complexity, and transparent fee allocation that connects consumer payments directly to recycling infrastructure, with different waste streams requiring different recycling approaches such as mechanical recycling for clean streams, chemical recycling for mixed streams, and gasification for highly contaminated materials.

Product-as-service (servitization) involves companies retaining ownership while providing services, promoting extended producer responsibility and incentivizing durability. E-waste presents challenges due to growing volumes from accelerated consumption and toxic substances, with much waste flowing to developing countries where recycling occurs under precarious conditions. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks create legal obligations for producers to manage products throughout their lifecycle, with examples including EU directives requiring PET bottle manufacturers to incorporate 25% recycled plastic by 2025 and Chile's EPR law for tires. Pyrolysis converts end-of-life tires into pyrolysis oil, steel, and carbon black, addressing environmental problems while transforming waste into reusable resources.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy mechanism where companies that introduce packaging into the market are legally required to pay for its collection, sorting, and recycling after use, providing dedicated, ongoing, and sufficient funding that addresses the economic gap where current recycling costs exceed revenues; this mandatory approach creates a level playing field among all stakeholders, incentivizes better packaging design, and serves as a structural foundation for building circular economy systems, as evidenced by the recent alignment of over 150 organizations including major FMCG companies, retailers, and governments behind EPR as essential for solving packaging waste and pollution.

Effective occupational health and safety interventions for informal workers require a multi-pronged approach combining participatory design of ergonomic tools, multi-stakeholder policy platforms, municipal worker-linkage programs, and participatory hazard mapping, as demonstrated by WIEGO's five-year project across India, Tanzania, Peru, Brazil, and South Africa working with waste pickers, street vendors, homebased workers, and domestic workers.

Effective occupational health and safety interventions for informal workers require a sectoral approach that disaggregates workers by their specific places of work (such as sidewalks, public parks, private homes, construction sites, and waste dumps), as different sectors face distinct risks and require tailored solutions; this approach recognizes that informal workers often lack autonomy and control over their working conditions, and that extending OHS beyond formal employment requires addressing barriers including insufficient government resources, lack of political will, poor inter-departmental coordination, and the need for worker-driven interventions that build on existing organizational capacity.

Occupational safety and health in informal sectors requires a multi-level approach combining national policy frameworks, tripartite dialogue (employers, workers, government), and adapted communication strategies that reach vulnerable populations through accessible channels like radio campaigns and simplified training methodologies, as demonstrated by the ILO's successful interventions in Colombia's coffee sector where 730,000 workers face unique challenges including seasonal employment, limited social protection access, and high informality rates.

The ILO addresses occupational safety and health challenges for informal workers through a multi-pronged approach: formalization efforts to bring informal workers into the regulatory system with access to credit and protections; extension of protections to informal workers since accidents occur regardless of formal status; adaptation of messages and materials for low-literacy populations using pictograms and simplified communication; and participatory training methodologies like paratory training in agriculture, working with extension workers and farmers in field settings with practical components. This approach acknowledges that informal workers represent approximately 60-80% of workers in many developing countries and require culturally appropriate, accessible interventions.

Approximately 5 million of South Africa's 17 million workers operate in the informal economy, yet this sector receives minimal attention in occupational health policy discussions. Addressing this gap requires coordinated action by NEDLAC and other institutions to develop appropriate policy and governance frameworks.

The concept of 'worlding electronic waste' examines how citizens, consumers, corporations, materials, and geographic sites connect through use and disposal practices, forming organized geographic patterns. Traditional 'first world/third world' narratives are challenged by data showing mobile subscriptions in Ghana surpassed Canada and Mexico by 2010-2011. Under the Basel Convention, countries are classified as Annex 7 (US, EU, Canada) or non-Annex 7. Research from 1996-2014 reveals dramatic reversals in e-waste trade flows, with Indonesia and China becoming net exporters to the US and Europe. The Agbogbloshie dump in Ghana exemplifies complex realities beyond media portrayals of toxicity, with repair shops building custom PCs from scavenged parts. Singapore participates in regional recycling networks, collecting unwanted electronics for shipment to Africa, South Asia, and China, where Bangladesh hosts specialized street-level repair ecosystems achieving profit margins exceeding 200%.

Global waste trade represents a form of environmental inequality where wealthy countries export waste to poorer nations. While only 5% of the world's population produces 19% of global waste, residents of the richest countries generate 1,763 pounds per year compared to less than 440 pounds in the poorest countries. E-waste generation varies dramatically: China generates 1.2 kg per capita while the US generates 19.4 kg and Germany 22.2 kg. Successful environmental movements in wealthy countries create incentives to export waste to countries with weaker regulations. Countries like Malaysia and Turkey have fought back against becoming 'rubbish time of the world,' demonstrating growing resistance to environmental dumping.

Electronic waste such as scrap computers is classified as hazardous waste containing toxic substances. Up to 80% of e-waste collected for recycling in wealthy developed countries is exported to developing nations like China and India, where it is processed through dangerous methods including burning, acid treatment, and dumping. This creates environmental injustice where the electronics industry avoids responsibility by passing toxic impacts to the world's poorest communities. The practice exploits weak regulations in developing countries while generating employment in repair and recycling sectors.

The e-waste recycling chain operates hierarchically: burner boys perform dangerous work for minimal reward while middlemen control supply chains and earn significantly more. Ghana receives electronic waste from around the world, including the UK and USA, despite the Basel Convention prohibiting such exports. Broken items from retail stores like Currys and PC World are marked as faulty and sold to third parties who transport them abroad. Local traders like Baba specialize in computers, paying workers to break down goods into raw materials. This creates a complex global trade network where Western consumers contribute to environmental harm in developing nations. Workers attempt to profit by buying scrap goods at local markets, but success remains uncertain.

Electronic waste (e-waste) consists of discarded electronics like computers and phones. Developed nations generate massive amounts—America discards 30 million computers yearly, Europe 10 million phones—with much flowing to countries like China for processing. Guiyu, China processes 1.5 million tons annually, employing 70,000 of its 150,000 residents. Workers use primitive methods: heating circuit boards to melt solder, hammering plastics, and water-based sorting to separate metals from plastics. Despite international agreements like the Basel Convention (1992) and South Korea's 2000 ban, illegal trafficking continues due to enforcement challenges and economic incentives.