The History behind Electronic Waste Dumping in Lagos - Research Paper Example

?Research proposal (E-waste dumping & the rule of Law in the 'computer Village' Lagos- Nigeria 0 Introduction 1 Background to the study The saying that the world is a global village has become one of the commonest sayings with people of all ages and class today. Indeed, the content of the saying are not far from truth. The transformation of the world into a global village is formally referred to as globalization. The Levin Institute (2010) explains that “globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology.” The realization from this definition is that globalization cannot strive in the absence of technology. It is not for nothing that people stay in one continent and make purchases of goods from other continents without personally meeting the seller. Again, it is not for nothing that someone sits in the comfort of his home in Lagos and watch live soccer matches from the Stanford Bridge in London. All these processes are made possible by the pivoting power of technology. Technology may therefore be generally regarded as a good thing and the growth of it thereof (Koduah, 2003). However, it becomes worrying when technology and for that matter, globalization will not grow through the right approach. It is very important to appreciate the fact that any phenomenon; including globalization and technological advancement may be regarded as good but if it is implemented through a poor approach, the real essence of the phenomenon becomes defeated. 1.2 Statement of the Problem According to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the recent economic meltdown will “widen global inequality and plunge more of the African population into poverty” (Trevor, 2009). This submission by the two world leading financial organizations is made against the background that Africa already suffers as one of the poorest continents in the world. In an attempt for Africa and for that matter Nigeria to take advantage of the new drift of globalization and technological advancement discussed above, there has been a trend whereby electronic equipment that are drawing very close to their useful life are pushed to Lagos, the supposed commercial capital of Nigeria. This situation is descried as electronic waste dumping (Cal Recycle, 2005). E-waste is generally argued to be an unfair way that the Western world is trying to bridge the gap in technological advancement that exists in Nigeria. Due to this, there have been calls and concerns from International, regional and local institutional environmental laws that guarantee public right to habitual health for critical scrutiny into the issue of e-waste dumping in Lagos. 1.3 Research Aims 1. To explain from a theoretical perspective what electronic waste dumping means. 2. To critically assess how rule of law in Lagos promotes or opposes electronic waste dumping in Lagos. 3. To identify specific enforcement processes in International, regional and local institutional environmental laws that guarantee public right to habitual health that are being abused as a result of electronic waste dumping in Lagos. 4. To give the root causes of electronic waste dumping in Lagos and by extension, Africa. 5. To forecast what the eventual effects of electronic waste dumping would be for Africa and Lagos to be specific if the practice is made to continue. 1.4 Research Questions 1. What is the history behind electronic waste dumping in Lagos? 2. What factors have promoted the continuous existence of electronic waste dumping in Lagos? 3. What is the position of rule of law in opposing or promoting the electronic waste dumping cycle in Lagos? 4. How can international, regional and local agencies be instrumental in addressing the issue of electronic waste dumping in Lagos? 5. Does the continuous practice of electronic waste dumping have any long term adverse effect on Africa? 1.5 Justification of the Research Problem The successful completion of this research work holds a lot of benefits. These benefits cut across national development, academia, healthy living and economic empowerment. These benefits serve as the justification and need for the research. As far as national development and economic empowerments are concerned, the research shall review how local markets can be helped to grow if the electronic waste dumping issue is well managed. The growth of electronic businesses in Lagos will surely lead to the economic growth of individuals and by extension, Nigeria as a whole. With reference to healthy living, primary and secondary data shall be collected on the health implications of electronic waste dumping so that useful recommendations can be made to dwellers of Lagos on how to protect themselves health wise. Finally, the research shall be of great relevance to the academic field as results, findings, conclusions and recommendations from this research become permanent contributions to literature in the field of electronic waste dumping to be served as secondary data reference by future researchers. 1.6 Theoretical and Empirical Framework This section of the proposal shall be given an argumentative backdrop to discuss whether or not indigenous inhabitants of Lagos see electronic waste dumping as a menace. The arguments shall be built based on the use of existing researches; thus theories and empirical studies. Research has shown that Africa has very little capacity to manufacture its own technological needs (Schmidt, 2006). The low economic turnover of Africa (Lagos) coupled with the findings of Schmidt (2006) makes it very debatable to ask whether or not electronic waste is seen as a menace by the Lagos dweller. Theoretically, McCarthy (2001) posits that global development can never be executed on an even ground. This means that not all parts of the world will develop at the same time. Leading on to this theoretical statement by McCarthy (2001), Alvaro (2004) concludes in his findings on electronic waste in Nigeria that some natives actually see the dumping of electronic waste as a blessing. In his research, as many as 49% of respondents indicated that they cannot afford brand new electronic gadgets and so in the absence of electronic waste, they would not have been part of the new revolution. In a similar research by McCarthy (2001), some respondents in Lagos to be specific refused to admit that ‘used’ electronic gadgets be referred to as ‘waste’. The opinion of these people, the gadgets would not be working if they were waste. Not withstanding these findings, there are other findings from international agencies that have proved the demerits associated with electronic waste dumping in Lagos. For example Mergel (2011) documents a report from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, which states that “just one computer can contain hundreds of chemicals, including lead, mercury, cadmium, brominated flame retardants, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). “ 2.0 Background Literature This section of the proposal is dedicated to briefly outlining literature that shall be used in the final project report. The essence of the literature review is to help in analyzing existing works that have been done in the area of the research work and that helps in answering most of the research questions asked. More importantly, the research questions with qualitative background shall be answered by the review of literature. In the long run therefore, the review of literature shall play a central role in helping the researcher achieve the research aims set. For a clearly defined review, the literature review shall be conducted under segmented themes. These segmented themes are listed and briefly discussed below. Causes of e-waste dumping in Lagos The absence of will power to enforce laws, forbidding or controlling the importation of electronic waste to Lagos has been identified as one of the major causes of electronic waste disposal in that part of Nigeria. In a report by Greenpeace and documented by Mergel (2011), it was pointed out that laws have been made to ban importation of electronic waste on several occasions but the laws have been broken with impunity. A mixture of poverty and political inappropriateness has been linked to why the fight against electronic waste never seems to succeed. This is because Brobbey (2005) reports of how political leaders allow the importation of electronic waste just because they have percentages of total revenue amassed by importing companies that go to them. Onoka (2009) also reports of how as a result of poverty, most people of Nigeria and for that matter most people in Lagos cannot afford brand new electronic products such as television, video decks, computers and refrigerators and so they have to depend on electronic waste if they want to keep up to speed with technological advancement. Effects of e-waste dumping in Lagos Generally, works of literature have both the merit effects of electronic waste dumping and the demerit effects of electronic waste dumping in Africa. However the general aim and the research questions of the research are more directed towards the negative effects of electronic waste in Africa and so the theme on the effects of electronic waste dumping in Lagos shall focus on the demerit effects. In this direction, Puckett (2007) outlines extremely damaging effects of electronic waste dumping to human health. Apart from the risk to human health, the environment is also damaged through pollution as Puckett posits that “examples include open burning of plastic waste, exposure to toxic solders, river dumping of acids, and widespread general dumping.” Even more, the dumping of electronic waste unto the market of Lagos is seen to causing great economic harm to local industries, investors and markets. This is because electronic wastes are generally cheap and so are most preferred among indigenous dwellers as compared to brand new and wholesome products. For instance Schmidt (2006) reports that\‘It costs an average of US$5,000 to ship a 40-foot container full of used electronics from the United States to Africa.” Worse it all, the presence of electronic waste kills the vision of local scientists and technologists to come up with their own inventions of products. Finally, Corporate and synergizing effort to combat e-waste dumping The campaign to stop electronic waste dumping in Lagos has been taken over by the international world and local institutions. To this end, there is a growing corporate risk management approach that synergies the fight against electronic waste dumping. Among the agencies who champion the fight against electronic waste dumping are the environmental protection agency, CalRecycle, United Nations Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste and e-Stewards. There are also several corporations and companies that tackle the fight against e-waste dumping as their corporate social responsibility. In most cases, the corporate strategies used for synergizing the effort to combat e-waste dumping include inventory management, production-process modification and finally volume reduction, recovery and reuse (Ramachandra and Varghese, 2004). 3.0 Research Methodology 3.1 Research Design The research design to be adopted for this study shall be a case study. This is because the electronic waste market as exists in Lagos, Nigeria shall be singled out as a case to be studied by the researcher in an attempt to find answers to research questions raised and research aims set. 3.2 Population and Sample The population of the research shall be made up of all dwellers of Lagos, Nigeria. This population shall however be subdivided into three groups, which shall be classified as consumers of electronic waste products, marketers of electronic waste products and finally agencies against electronic waste dumping in Lagos. Out of the population, a number of people shall be set aside, who shall serve as people the researcher shall collect primary from directly. Herek (2009) describes this smaller group as the sample size. This research is more or less a fact finding research and so the researcher would want to achieve the highest level of fairness in the collection of data. For this reason, a random sampling method shall be used to select participants in the sample group. Trochim (2006) explains that “a probability sampling method is any method of sampling that utilizes some form of random selection.” Because participants are selected randomly, the likely of the researcher being baized in data collection is minimized to the barest minimum. 3.3 Research Instrument There shall be the design of special materials to collect data from the three categories of respondents. These materials for data collection are called research instruments and they are described by Mosby's Medical Dictionary (2009) as “a testing device for measuring a given phenomenon, such as a paper and pencil test, a questionnaire, an interview, a research tool, or a set of guidelines for observation.” The intended research instruments to be used are questionnaire and interview. Interview shall be used on the consumers because the ability of all members in the sample size to read and write cannot be foretold. Questionnaire shall be used on the marketers and agencies. Interview and questionnaire all come with their added advantages. For instance the use of questionnaire shall ensure even collection of data, which will make data analysis very simple and straight forward. 3.4 Primary Data Collection Primary data to be collected from the three groups of sample members have been summarized in the table below. Category Data to be collected Consumers Whether or not they see e-waste dumping as a menace The benefits they derive from e-waste dumping The negative effects they suffer from e-watse dumping Marketers History behind the dumping of e-waste in Lagos Why they feel they will have to be permitted to continue trading in e-waste Agencies against e-waste dumping How far the fight against e-waste dumping has gone. Hindrances against the successful stoppage of e-waste dumping Reasons why they feel e-waste dumping in Lagos must stop How the efforts of various agencies can be harnessed and synergized for the common achievement of their goals 3.5 Secondary Data Collection Secondary data shall be collected through the review of existing literature. Secondary data collection shall consolidate and to a large extent, validate data to be collected from respondents through the primary data collection procedure. Secondary data collection shall also make room for the researcher’s qualitative data analysis to be based on empirical facts. 3.6 Data Analysis Plan Data to be collected shall be analyzed by the use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection procedure. Quantitatively, the researcher shall make use of mathematical formula, percentages, tables, charts and diagrams. This will give data analysis a universal interpretation. Qualitative data analysis shall on the other hand be done by the use of the researcher’s personal judgments and interpretations. These judgments and interpretations shall however be based on factual and empirical review in literature. REFERENCE LIST Alvaro L. C. 2004, ‘Legalizing Electronic Waste in Africa?’ Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Vol. 2 No. 1. Accra. Brobbey F. K., 2005, ‘Why e-waste in Nigeria will not stop anytime soon’, Daily Mail. Issue 12 No. 2. Lagos Cal Recycle, 2005, ‘What Is E-Waste?’ accessed October 15, 2011 Harek G. M., 2009, ‘ A Brief Introduction to Sampling’, accessed October 14, 2011 Koduah I. G. 2003, ‘Maximising the Importance of Globalisation’, Toronto: PrintMark Publications Limited. Levin Institute, 2010, ‘What is Globalisation?’, accessed October 14, 2011 McCarthy G. I. ,2001, ‘Global Economic Trend – The Balance that will never be achieved’, Abuja: Omega Printing House Megel M. , 2011, ‘Electronic Waste (E-Waste)’, accessed October 16, 2011 Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 2009, ‘Research Instrument’, 8th edition. Elsevier. Available on line at http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/research+instrument Onoka M. A., 2009, ‘Causes and Prevention of Electronic Waste Dumping in Africa’, Supreme Savior Printing Press: Abuja Puckett J., 2007, ‘Time to realize the global E-Waste Crisis: Basel Action Network shocked the world with photos from China’ Recycling Magazine No.07/2007. Ramachandra T.V. and Varghese K. S, 2004, ‘Environmentally Sound Options for E-Wastes Management’, accessed October 14, 2011 Schmidt C. W., 2006, ‘Unfair Trade e-Waste in Africa’, Environ Health Perspect. 2006 April; 114(4): A232–A235. Available online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1440802/ Trevor J., 2009, ‘IMF and World Bank reports predict bleak future for Africa’, accessed October 15, 2011 Trochim W. M. K., 2006, ‘Probability Sampling’, Social Research Methods, accessed October 15, 2011 Read More