We don’t tend to like to use guilt as a driver for behaviour change. But there is something so powerful about South African photographer Pieter Hugo’s work on e-waste recyclers in Ghana, that we could not resist sharing.
Hugo will be speaking on Friday at Photographer’s Gallery in London – a talk which is already sold out. The exhibition of his work lasts until September 9. Continue reading
Our e-stuff is a goldmine. Recently the United Nations University and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) estimated that electronic waste now contains precious metal “deposits” 40 to 50 times richer than ores mined from the ground. Annually $16 billion in gold is built into our electronics and at least 85% is not recovered – lost forever.
WRAP estimates that in the UK, between now and 2020, 3 million tonnes of IT equipment, consumer electronics and display screens will be disposed.
This is roughly the weight of 30,000 Routemaster buses EACH YEAR.
According to WRAP, at least 25% of this waste could be reused.
But statistics are often abstractions. What actually happens on the ground? What does this look like? We visited Camden’s waste disposal and recycling site at Regis Road earlier this month.
After running our first four events, we’d like to concentrate on those fearless people who make Restart Parties possible: our very much appreciated Repairers.
This is why we’re organising an informal gathering for Repairers this coming Saturday, August 25th, 3-5pm at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre.
We’ll be in the SE corner (closest to the Hayward Gallery – see this map), just look for a Restart sign with our logo.
We know the need is there: every time we run an event, more and more people come, bringing their e-gadgets to be looked at. We would like to expand our support to communities in London, but in order to do this we need to find more repairers willing to get involved. Continue reading
Thanks Smart Monkey TV for taking some time with us and filming these interviews!
In Part 1, Ugo introduces the Restart Project and our “restart parties” and in Part 2, Ugo talks about our inspiration: what we’ve seen in Kenya (and elsewhere).
This project originated from discussions at the ICT4D meetup in London. ICT for “D” (d meaning development) is a term that started gaining momentum in recent decades, although people have been using communications technology for development since the advent of smoke signals.
Ugo and I have both worked extensively in places where communications technology can make a massive difference – where simple mobiles can often literally save lives in everyday situations. And we’ve seen that people’s relationship with gadgets and technology is completely different in most of the places we worked. I often give this example, but even a simple ballpoint pen would have never been discarded in the provincial Mozambican office I spent time in.
What was troubling us more and more was not actually the “underdeveloped” places we worked in, but in fact the attitudes and behaviours of people here back in our northern homes.
