Niwame is a 15-year-old boy who helps his family earn a living by breaking down discarded electronics to recover base metals and materials. However, the work exposes his family to toxic elements from electronics. Niwame's father begins having breathing problems and curses the contaminated groundwater he had been drinking. The father eventually dies from arsenic poisoning caused by the toxic electronics waste in the area. Though Niwame's father recovers with medical treatment, the dangerous work continues and more people are at risk of illness from the growing mountain of electronic waste.

1. A Tale of Waste
Niwame’s Struggle
Image retrieved from: http://www.globalwireonline.org/2012/02/06/ifixit-promotes-ewaste-recycling-through-
repair/#.VUJ5JZNWW71

2. Daily Life of a “Recycler”
Each day, Niwame wakes up in his small town in Nigeria. Aged 15,
he has to help with his family’s only means of income – breaking
down abandoned electronics like cell phones into their base metals
and materials.
No matter how much his or the other families deconstruct,
however, reduces the mountain of discarded electronics due to the
fact that some companies have a contract to dump their collected
“trash”.

3. Daily Life of a “Recycler”
Today, when he got up from a night’s sleep, Niwame noticed that
his father was still in bed. His father was having a hard time
breathing, and cursing the fact that he had drank some of the
groundwater near the waste for the past week.

4. Learning Check
Given what you know about the toxic elements found in cell
phones, what type of poisoning does Niwame’s father have?
A. Lead poisoning
B. Cadmium Poisoning
C. Arsenic Poisoning
D. Bromine Poisoning

5. The Doctor’s Visit
Niwame runs to the local clinic and fetches the doctor. After
examining his father, the doctor isn’t sure about what he is
afflicted with. He recommends that Niwame’s father just get some
rest.

6. Fatal Findings
Niwame’s father eventually gets worse, leading to an early grave a
few weeks later. This leaves Niwame as the sole recycler of the
family…
The job never ends; though the human cost rises, so does the
mountain of electronics.

7. The Doctor’s Visit
Niwame remembers what this looks like, arsenic poisoning. He
runs to fetch the local doctor, who immediately confirms that his
father does have a mild case of the toxin in him. Luckily, the
doctor has the supplies to treat the condition.

8. Never Ending
Though Niwame’s father recovers over the next few weeks, the
work remains the same, leaving more people to eventually get
sick…
The job never ends; though the human cost rises, so does the
mountain of electronics.

9. Prevention
What could people from all over the world have done in order to
prevent the poisoning of Niwame’s father?
A. They could have sold their phones to buyers
B. They could have donated their phones to charities
C. They could have recycled their phones
D. They could have repaired and reused their phones

10. Prevention
Every answer is correct. The term “recycle” means to re-use, and
by either selling it back to a company or by donating it to a charity,
the phone does get recycled.
From here, we are going to learn more about the steps needed to
properly recycle.