Planned Obsolescence, Circular Economies and Ecologies of Electronic Devices

Abstract

Abstract

In the last two decades, discarded electrical and electronic equipment (commonly known as e-waste) has grown greatly and become a powerful signifier of the detrimental environmental effects oof digital capitalism. This crisis of e-waste has drawn the attention of activist and environmental groups, policymakers, international news media, and academics (BAN 2007; UNEP 2017; The Guardian 2020). Although ignited by broader issues of planned obsolescence and overconsumption of digital technologies, the overwhelming majority of discussions has revolved around the proliferation of e-waste processing hubs in the Global South. The inner-city scrapyard, Agbogbloshie, in Ghana’s capital Accra for instance, has been singled out by NGOs and international media coverage on e-waste. While this coverage and policy directions continue to be dominated by binary stories of e-waste originating in the Global North and polluting the Global South, academic research on the geographies of e-waste (see Lepawsky 2014; 2018, Davis et al. 2019; Akese 2019) has shown that the empirical picture is much more complex. First, e-waste flows are far from unilateral, as depicted in many widespread reports, with the majority of trade happening between countries of the Global South and within regional blocks such as the EU (Lepawsky 2014). Second, the majority of electronic devices arriving in African countries are functioning (Schluep et al. 2012). In Ghana, trade data shows that only 10% of second-hand goods imported by commercial sellers do not function (Ghana E-Waste Country Assessment, 2011, p. 25). Third, the majority of waste and emissions arising from electronic devices happen before consumption rather than after (Lepawsky 2018). These insights provide the main impetus for our project: rather than narrowly focusing on e-waste streams from Germany to Ghana, we study the various multi-directed mobilities and relationalities of electronic device – of design practices, material journeys of the devices, and their repair cultures in both countries.