How to Shape Human Behavior

6 important takeaways from this video:

00:00:18 Many manufacturers have lead us to believe that our used TVs, computers and consumer waste is being safely recycled in Australia. But a staggering amount of the world’s e-waste is ending up being burned in open dumps in impoverished Ghana, creating an environmental and health-nightmares, and breaking a myriad of laws and conventions.

00:01:47 Ever since the illegal shipments of illegal e-waste from industrialized countries began arriving in Ghana eight years ago (approx. 2004), the cancerous toxic waste and fumes from these burning technological components are billowing up into the river and atmosphere destroying the water and air quality and settling onto the fruits and vegetables sold in the local markets, which detrimentally and irreparably affect the health and development of the local population.

00:05:11 Nearly 500 containers loads of illegal waste are brought into Ghana from the industrialized countries each month. Companies avoid e-waste shipping without permit laws by falsely declaring the e-waste as “working second-hand goods” to make them disappear. Those “working second-hand goods” that can be repaired are re-sold in the local markets. All else it burned.

00:08:30 Environmentally-safe recycling from transporting the waste, purifying it from the lead content, and recycling the used goods back into the market place is an expensive process. And so this waste builds up, and unscrupulous transporters offer to remove the waste for a price.

00:12:25 Many of these computers and e-waste likely contain your personal and confidential information. If hard drives arrive still in tact, workers recover all possible data and copy the information they contain before they are re-sold or destroyed.

00:13:40 One of the only tradeoffs of having your neighborhood used as a global e-waste dumping ground and the damaging heath problems? Cheap access to out-dated, second-hand technology.