The World's 10 Most Polluted Places

November 6, 2013

Agbogbloshie, a neighborhood of Accra, Ghana, wasn't a pretty place in 2006, but the rising flood of e-waste had yet to completely drown the dump in the middle of town in toxic pollution. Ghana now imports some 215,000 metric tons of European computers, cell phones, microwaves, refrigerators, televisions and other electronic goods, making Agbogbloshie the second-largest site for processing such e-waste in all of west Africa. It may yet take the title as largest because e-waste imports are expected to double by 2020. And Agbogbloshie has already earned the dubious distinction of landing on the Blacksmith Institute's top 10 list of the world's most polluted sites, after failing to make the cut for the original list in 2006.

"Everybody wants a laptop, wants the modern devices," noted Jack Caravanos, Blacksmith's director of research, at a November 4 press conference unveiling the list. "Stopping e-waste is proving very complicated and difficult," particularly because the newest gadgets, such as tablet computers, are even more difficult to recycle than old desktop computers.

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