"In Ghana's capital, the Accra neighborhood is traversed by polystyrene pallets, plastic bottles and hills of tattered clothing. Much of this is pollution caused by the dumping of old textiles from the developed world." The website of the French newspaper Le Monde reported recently.

At present, many African countries are facing the problem of "foreign garbage". A large number of waste electronic and electrical equipment, plastic products, second-hand clothes and chemicals from Western countries have gradually become a burden on African countries because they exceed the local digestion capacity.

A recent study by the Basel Action Network, an international environmental group, was quoted by the website of the Spanish daily Public as saying that every day, shipping containers filled with various kinds of waste from rich countries arrive at African ports. Most of the containers come from Britain, Italy, Germany, Spain, Ireland and Poland, and end up in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and other countries.

According to the United Nations Environment Program, more than half of the 50 million tons of e-waste generated worldwide each year ends up in landfills or is illegally exported to Africa and Asia. Europe sends at least 1.1 million tons of e-waste to Africa and Asia each year, according to reports from the World Customs Organization and Interpol.

In 2021, about 15 million used items of clothing arrive in Ghana every week from the United Kingdom, European Union countries, North American countries and Australia, and 40 percent of them are sent to landfills, according to the ABC. "Africa has become a dumping ground for used cars from European countries," South Africa's Automotive Industry association also said in a statement last August.

Economic development is trapped in a "vicious circle"

Swiss Associated Press reported that many developing countries need to import radio, television, computers and other used electrical appliances, which objectively leads to the "foreign garbage" phenomenon for a long time.

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of West Asia and Africa, China African Research Institute researcher Yang Baorong said in an interview with this newspaper, African countries into the "garbage siege", behind the reflection of the north-south development and consumption level of the great difference and the international division of labor serious imbalance.

"From the perspective of supply and demand, over the years, many developed countries have excessive consumption phenomenon, resulting in the excessive production of fast-moving consumer goods such as clothing, shoes and hats, followed by the dumping of second-hand goods so that some developing countries have become" victims ". Yang Baorong said, "On the other hand, because they are at the end of the global industrial chain and lack local manufacturing support, some African countries have a market demand for cheap second-hand goods, which objectively drives the import of foreign garbage. At present, there are many institutions or enterprises in Western countries specializing in the sale and transportation of garbage, and there are also many people in Africa who make a living by recycling, processing and reselling resources, thus forming a complete and huge industrial chain."

Yang Baorong said that the influx of "foreign garbage" has brought a series of governance problems to Africa. With the influx of cheap imported clothes, the sales of African native fabrics and clothing have encountered challenges, which further curbed the development of Africa's local printing and dyeing industry, textile machinery industry and clothing industry, and hindered the improvement of Africa's local manufacturing industry. At the same time, the local government also needs to spend a lot of money on garbage recycling and environmental governance, and financial investment is difficult to expand production, so that economic development is trapped in a "vicious circle".

"Although Western countries' exports of second-hand products to Africa belong to" legal trade "and" charity aid "on the surface, in essence, they are still garbage transfers to alleviate China's garbage crisis and shift the cost of garbage disposal. The pollution consequences, treatment costs and serious consequences will ultimately be borne by developing countries." Yang Baorong said.

Global issue

At present, the problem of "foreign garbage" continues to threaten the lives and health of local people. According to a study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 79 percent of people living near Agborg Blocher will have severe physical pain in 2020 that will require daily painkillers. Other common ailments include burning eyes, digestive disorders, coughing, skin problems, hearing loss, breathing difficulties, migraines and chronic nausea, among others.

"The Garbage Siege is not only a matter of governance in Africa, but also a global issue." Yang said that in order to ease the pressure on African countries as soon as possible, the international community should uphold the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" to provide assistance, in which developed countries should shoulder practical responsibilities to improve the garbage disposal mechanism, and at the same time provide financial or technical support to African countries to help establish local waste management restraint mechanisms. At the same time, all parties should also make joint efforts to promote the progress of Africa's local economic and industrial system and enhance Africa's capacity for independent development, so that these countries can say "no" to "foreign garbage" one day.

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