Agbobloshie, Ghana. Photo: Fairphone
They call them “electronic graveyards”: vast dumping grounds in developing nations, where millions of tonnes of discarded computers and appliances from other parts of the world are sent to find a final, toxic resting place. It often costs less to dump the goods overseas than recycle them properly, so things like broken televisions, computers and keyboards are shipped to countries like Ghana (above), where people in poverty sift through them for parts to sell. It’s poisonous not only to local waterways and soil, but also to the people who are trying to make a living from dealing with the electronic waste, and those in the neighbourhood affected by toxic fumes from burn-off.
St James’ Settlement’s WEEE Go Green project takes broken appliances and electronic goods from Crossroads, and repairs or recycles them.
We’re acutely aware at Crossroads that when the planet suffers, its people suffer too, and it’s the poor who are left the most vulnerable to environmental change. Each year, we’re donated thousands of electronic and electrical goods, which we gratefully redistribute to people in need. Sometimes, though, donated appliances and computers are broken or missing parts and need to be disposed of. When that happens, we want to manage the disposal process in a way that causes the least harm to the environment.
“WEEE Go Green has recycled or repaired 38,443kg of Crossroads’ electronic and electrical waste.”
Enter St James’ Settlement and their ‘WEEE Go Green’ project! For more than seven years we have partnered on the project, which offers a neat solution to the problem of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Hong Kong. Their workshop in Tuen Mun takes discarded WEEE from around the city and then trains and employs disadvantaged people from the community to process the goods. Whatever can be fixed is repaired and donated to the elderly and other needy groups and whatever can’t be fixed is stripped and recycled efficiently. Crossroads’ partnership on the project has been an investment not only in the lives of those employed, who have been given new skills and opportunities, but in the health of our planet and the people who suffer because of environmental damage.
The project trains and employs disadvantaged people from the Hong Kong community to process, repair and recycle electronic and electrical waste.
Over the course of our partnership, Crossroads has given WEEE Go Green a hefty 38,443kg of electronic and electrical waste. Some of those items were even repaired and given back to Crossroads, so that we could give them away to our clients in need. On other occasions, the workshop has sourced equipment for our own operations, like a chest freezer (below) that our kitchen staff needed to store food for daily volunteer catering. They also supply us with new rice cookers for local clients who need them, from a stockpile of 30,000 donated to them – an incredible and valuable gift!
A huge chest freezer sourced by WEEE Go Green has been a valuable addition to Crossroads’ volunteer catering department.
In a city that generates 70,000 tonnes in WEEE each year, it is a privilege to partner with groups like St James’ Settlement who care enough about our environment and our people to make Hong Kong a safer place for both.
Kato doesn’t know why his parents abandoned him. They left their home in rural Uganda one day in 2009, bound for the capital, and simply never came back. Overnight, the little boy was left completely alone, seemingly forgotten by the world and by those who should have cared for him most.
Life changed for Christine and the 8 little ones when a shipment arrived from Crossroads, filled with goods donated from Hong Kong. Our partners in Uganda came into contact with Christine and her family and were able to give her some of the very things she needed most: mosquito nets, new plates, cups and cooking utensils, toys, clothes and games for the children and, most importantly, uniforms and stationery so that they can return to school.
It wasn’t only impoverished families like Christine’s that benefited from the shipment. Goods from this container were used to invest in community schools and health centres. At one clinic, some patients were sleeping on the floor because the number of beds was insufficient. Now, beds from Crossroads mean that more patients can be treated and served in comfort and safety.
School furniture from Crossroads’ shipment means that now, not only can they sit at desks and chairs each day for more effective learning and concentration, but the school has been upgraded to an exam facility! This means children no longer have to travel to a different village for exams but can sit them at their own school.
