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Enviral GH — an interactive story
Every year, humanity discards tens of millions of tonnes of electronics — the fastest-growing waste stream on Earth. Less than a quarter is recycled safely. This is the story of where the rest goes, what it does, and how Ghana can turn poison back into possibility.
E-waste generated worldwide since you opened this page
0 kg
Based on 62 million tonnes per year (UN Global E-waste Monitor 2024) — roughly 1,966 kg every second.
Scroll to follow one phone's journey ↓
Chapter one
A phone in Europe is replaced after two or three years. It still works — mostly. It sits in a drawer, then one day it's "recycled." Its owner never learns what that word will mean.
Billions of devices are in use worldwide — and device lifespans keep shrinking.
Investigators have found that the most common way e-waste crosses borders illegally is hidden inside legal shipments — packed into used vehicles and mixed with second-hand goods. The paperwork says charity. The container says otherwise.
West Africa is among the top receiving regions for these uncontrolled flows.
Since 1 January 2025, the Basel Convention requires prior written consent from the importing country for all e-waste shipments — hazardous or not. The law finally exists. Enforcement is the fight.
New Basel entries Y49 & A1181 — every e-waste shipment now needs consent.
To reach the copper inside a cable, you burn away the plastic. The smoke carries lead, dioxins and fine particles over homes, markets and lungs. Research shows air pollution around informal recycling settlements has intensified as they grow.
Burning one cable feeds a family today — and poisons a neighbourhood for years.
Here the story splits. The same phone, the same copper, the same hands — two completely different endings. You choose.
The copper sells for a day's wage. The lead stays in the soil for generations. The metals that weren't recovered — gold, cobalt, rare earths — are simply gone, along with the jobs a real industry would have created. Nothing changes, so this ending repeats tomorrow.
In 2022, $62 billion worth of recoverable resources went unaccounted for worldwide.
The same phone reaches a formal recycling facility. The cable is stripped, not burned. The board is processed for gold and copper. The worker wears gloves and earns a wage with a payslip. The soil is not part of the transaction. This is the future Enviral GH is building — Ghana's first formal e-waste recycling economy.
Formal recycling turns the same tonne of waste into jobs, materials and clean air.
Chapter two
A phone is a mine and a hazard at the same time. Tap each layer to see what can be reclaimed — and what burning releases instead.
Tap a layer
In 2022 alone, the world's e-waste contained an estimated $91 billion worth of metals. Most was never recovered. Select a component on the left to see what it holds.
Figures are approximate values for a typical smartphone and vary by model.
Chapter three
On 1 January 2025, the strongest rules ever written for the global e-waste trade took effect. Now they need enforcing — that's where advocacy comes in.
Y49
A new Basel Convention listing: for the first time, even non-hazardous e-waste needs the importing country's prior written consent before it ships.
A1181
The expanded listing for hazardous e-waste and everything produced by processing it — including shredder fractions.
PIC
Prior Informed Consent: Ghana now has the legal right to know — and to say no — before any container of e-waste departs for Tema.
→
Enviral GH campaigns for real enforcement of these rules, so "donation" can never again be a synonym for dumping.
Chapter four
Three trajectories, one decision point. Drag the year, switch the scenario, and watch when — or whether — the green line ever crosses the orange one.
Generated
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Formally recycled
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Unmanaged / informal
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Value lost
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Chapter five
The best case isn't a prediction — it's a set of actions. Switch them on and watch the future move. Switch them off and the same distance is travelled toward the worst case. Every lever works in both directions.
What one household controls — small alone, enormous multiplied by millions.
What communities, companies and governments control — the levers advocacy exists to pull.
Your combined scenario, projected to 2040
Generated by 2040
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Formally recycled
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Kept out of soil & smoke
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vs. doing nothing
No single household caused this, and no single household can end it. That drawer of old phones isn't a crime — it's an invitation. Change comes the same way the waste did: in millions of small movements, all pointed the same direction. That's why we tell stories — because communication is the first collective action.
Chapter six
E-waste per person, per year. The regions that generate the most are rarely the ones that live with the consequences.
Chapter seven
Enviral GH's field research measures what the smoke leaves behind. Tap a sampling site on this schematic map of the Agbogbloshie area. (Demonstration values — to be replaced with published Enviral GH field data.)
Tap a site
Soil lead concentration is one of the clearest fingerprints of cable burning. Select a point to compare its reading against the 400 ppm guidance level for residential soil.
The next chapter is yours
Enviral GH is building the case — scientific, legal and human — for Ghana's first formal e-waste recycling economy. Every share moves the story; every supporter moves the outcome.
