Ghana: A global graveyard for dead computers

In August 15 edition of New York Times Magazine, the photographer Pieter Hugo documented the garbage dumps in Ghana, where computers are burned and ripped apart for their rich minerals. Most of his work focused on a slum called Agbogbloshie, which he says is referred to by the locals as Sodom and Gomorrah. The work explains the plight of those left to sift through the landscape of the dumps

In August 15 edition of New York Times Magazine, the photographer Pieter Hugo documented the garbage dumps in Ghana, where computers are burned and ripped apart for their rich minerals.

Most of his work focused on a slum called Agbogbloshie, which he says is referred to by the locals as Sodom and Gomorrah. The work explains the plight of those left to sift through the landscape of the dumps

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)
Yakubu Al Hasan, 20, with computer extractions. Copper is perhaps the most desirable, then brass, then aluminum, then zinc. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
Abdulai Yahaya, 14. Many boys are sent to mine the dumps by families from the north. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)

Naasra Yeti, 11 years old, is one of the scavengers in the Agbogbloshie Market. Women and girls often carry bowls of ice to put out fires. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
At the dump, the machines are dismantled and often burned to extract metals for resale. The equipment in this digital cemetery come mainly from Europe and the United States, sometimes as secondhand donations meant to reduce the "digital divide'' - the disparity in computer access between poor nations and rich. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
In 2008, Greenpeace sampled the burned soil at Agbogbloshie and found high levels of lead, cadmium, antimony, PCBs and chlorinated dioxins. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)

A make-shift shack where scavengers rest. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
Livestock among the ruins. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
Computer monitors sometimes double as chairs at the Agbogbloshie dump. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)

A scavenger stops work for a meal. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
Mami Al Hassan, 11. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
Prices in Agbogbloshie are about four times below the international market price, but for the scavengers of the dump, the income is incentive enough. Left, Yaw Francis, 17. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
Ibrahim Sulley, 17. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
The remnant of a shack, where recycled copper used to be weighed and sold to vendors. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
A half-buried keyboard. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, agreed to in 1989 and now adopted by a majority of nations, was meant to stop the dumping of toxic waste in poor countries. But rules get complicated when the waste arrives as a gift. (Photo credit: Pieter Hugo for The New York Times)