Every year, around 200,000 tonnes of second-hand and condemned electrical goods arrive in Ghana, West Africa – shipped mainly from the developed world, often under the false label of “second-hand goods.” Much of it arrives broken, obsolete, or beyond repair. There is no facility in Ghana to manage its disposal in an environmentally sound manner. Most of it ends up in Agbogbloshie.
Set entirely in this vast settlement on the banks of Accra’s heavily polluted Korle Lagoon, E-Wasteland documents the informal economy that has grown up around e-waste recycling in Ghana. Home to more than 30,000 people – many of whom have migrated from Ghana’s poorer northern regions – Agbogbloshie has become synonymous with one of the largest e-waste dump sites in Africa. With limited access to education and formal employment, many residents rely on the hazardous work of salvaging, burning, and breaking down electronic waste to survive.
Filmed without dialogue or narration, the film is deliberately observational. Director David Fedele wanted to make a film about the e-waste itself as much as the people involved. In this environment, electronics are no longer valued for their original purpose, but for the fragments they can be reduced to and the small returns they can generate. The toxic smoke from burning electrical cables hangs over everything.
Through its unflinching imagery, E-Wasteland captures the physical toll of this environment alongside moments of resilience and routine, revealing a human landscape shaped by global consumption patterns, inequality, and the hidden afterlife of the technology we discard.
E-Wasteland won Best Australian Short Documentary at the Antenna Documentary Film Festival and Best Editing at the Social Impact Media Awards, among other international awards.
