E-waste livelihoods, environment and health risks: Unpacking the connections in Ghana

Type Journal Article - West African Journal of Applied Ecology
Title E-waste livelihoods, environment and health risks: Unpacking the connections in Ghana
Author(s)
Volume 22
Issue 2
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
Page numbers 1-15
Abstract
This study evaluates the relationship among livelihood, environment, and health, focusing particularly on how
livelihood patterns and environmental health burdens are experiencing transformations in response to rapid
urbanization and current dynamics within urban economies. Corroborated by a mixed method at the
Agbogbloshie scrap yard in Accra, the study emphasizes that although the informal recycling of e-waste
poses some environment and health effects, myriad benefits that accompany it are glossed over when the
phenomenon is religiously contextualized within an environmental health framework. The findings reveal
that apart from creating employment for many urban youth, e-waste recycling increases people's access to
electronic products through reuse. The study complicates the e-waste sector, and argues that understanding the
particular trajectories of these changing patterns in local economies of developing countries is critical to
ensuring effective e-waste management that supports sustainable livelihood practices.

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