Mike Anane during the interview at the photo exhibition
There have been many reports about the illegal exportation of electronic waste from Europe to Ghana in the past. Although all European countries signed the Basel Convention, which bans the export of hazardous waste (which e-waste always is) to non-OECD-countries, new, functional, and repairable devices are legally being shipped to India, China, Nigeria, or Ghana. However, it seems infeasible for customs authorities to effectively police prohibited waste shipments versus permitted exports. As a consequence, e-waste from Germany and other Western countries ends up in the illegal dump site of In Germany, two documentaries on this, „Giftige Geschäfte – Der Elektromüll-Skandal“ and „Die GPS-Jagd – Wo landet mein Schrottfernseher“ recently raised a lot of attention about this. We met Mike Anane, environmental activist and journalist in Accra, at a photo exhibition by Kevin McElvaney and talked with him about the social impacts, manufacturer responsibility, and why we see him in every single documentary on this subject.