by Cosimo Graziani
The search for rare earths for energy transition is often regarded as a form of neo-colonialism, and today it is the area in which this phenomenon manifests itself most clearly, especially due to its geopolitical and economic effects. However, there are other neo-colonial practices that are less visible but with equally negative consequences at the local level. One of these is the export of waste to Africa and Asia by Western countries, particularly the export of plastic, clothing, and electronic waste. The export of waste to the Global South is a phenomenon that has been ongoing for decades and that in the past was addressed through attempts to regulate and stem, notably with the drafting of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes . In addition to halting waste movements, the Convention also aimed to assist developing countries in the ecological management and disposal of waste.
Unfortunately, despite its intentions, the Convention failed to produce concrete results in international waste management. On the contrary, the situation has worsened over the years. The global export of waste has been dubbed “Waste Colonialism,” precisely because it remains a form of exploitation by countries with a colonial past over their former colonies.
The most traditional form of this colonialism concerns the export of plastic, which was initially not included in the Basel Convention and was only included in 2019 with the introduction of a specific amendment.
For years, China was one of the main destinations for exported waste; however, it stopped importing plastic and other waste in 2018. As happens in all economic mechanisms affected by restrictions, trade flows subsequently shifted toward other destinations in Asia, beginning with countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
Between 2021 and 2023, these three countries received respectively 1.4 billion, 1 billion, and 600 million kilograms of plastic waste. Among the new destinations, though with smaller quantities, India should also be mentioned. Another country in the region, Thailand, followed China’s example and banned plastic imports starting in 2025, after importing one million tons of plastic between 2018 and 2021.
What all these countries have in common is that the origin of the waste reflects colonial past: Malaysia and India import plastic from the United Kingdom, while Vietnam imports it from the European Union.
What makes the situation even more alarming is the increase in the value of imports of all types of waste to Asia: according to data released by the United Nations Commission on Drugs and Crime , between 2017 and 2019, the value of waste exports from the European Union to ASEAN countries—which include all the Asian countries mentioned so far are members except China and India—increased by 153%.
This situation has obvious environmental consequences. The fact that waste imports have increased in recent years in Southeast Asian countries, and that this waste includes plastic, also has a significant impact on ocean pollution, because estimates suggest that most of the plastic in the seas originates from Asian rivers .
The problem of waste colonialism is also present in Africa. In addition to plastic, the African continent is the destination of second-hand clothing and, above all, technological waste. Both types of waste are collected in landfills in major African cities, around which densely populated neighborhoods have developed: in Nairobi, the Dandora landfill; in Accra, Ghana, the Agbogbloshie neighborhood adjacent to the landfill; in Lagos, Nigeria, Makoko; and in Dar el Salaam, Tanzania, Tandare.
One of the most important collection centers for second-hand clothing in Africa is Ghana’s capital, Accra. The core issue lies in the fact that these clothes are second-hand and made of synthetic materials, which makes reuse more difficult. This is a consequence of the fast fashion industry, whose effects include rapid consumption and a lack of a culture of reuse. This phenomenon is fueled primarily in Western countries but also involves China, which in just a few years has shifted from being a recipient of waste to becoming an exporter.
Clothing that reaches Africa is either collected for resale in second-hand markets, dumped in landfills, or even burned. The latter two options have devastating environmental consequences: according to a 2024 Greenpeace study analyzing the phenomenon in Accra, a significant portion of the clothing arriving in the Ghanaian capital is collected by local residents and used as household fuel. This causes the release of polluting and carcinogenic substances into the air. But this is not the only form of pollution: the longer synthetic clothing remains in landfills, the more microplastics it releases, contaminating rivers, soil, and air, also impacting local ecosystems.
Another form of pollution resulting from waste colonialism is electronic waste. This is the most modern and most worrying form and one of the fastest-growing worldwide, according to United Nations estimates updated in the latest 2024 report, which recorded 62 billion kilograms of electronic waste produced globally in 2022. The shipment of this type of waste is disguised by countries in the Global North as donations of recyclable and reusable materials. For a long time, the export of electronic materials to countries in the Global South was able to benefit from a flaw in the Basel Convention: the absence of a precise rule regulating flows between exporting and importing countries. Only recently has the issue been addressed with the introduction of a new amendment regulating these flows, which entered into force on January 1, 2025. One of the promoters of this amendment was Ghana, because Africa—despite being the continent that produces the least electronic waste according to the UN—is its main destination, with Nigeria and Ghana as the points of arrival. A true labor market has developed around electronic waste, similar to the emergence of second-hand clothing markets imported from imports from the Global North. According to estimates reported by the International Labour Organization in a report published in 2019, Nigeria has at least 100,000 informal jobs in the electronic waste sector, with the capacity to process half a million waste units per year. The same applies to Ghana: according to the Catalan NGO Ciutats Defensores dels Drets Humans, for every ton of electronic waste in Ghana there are fifteen workers involved in recycling and two hundred in repair activities. There is, however, another factor that hinders effective action: Ghana earns approximately 100 million dollars annually in taxes from electronic waste-exporting countries, making this trade a source of revenue the government can hardly do without.
The problem is that all forms of work related to the reuse and recycling of these materials have health and environmental consequences similar to those related to the disposal of plastic and clothing. According to a study by the World Health Organization, the disposal of such waste exposes populations to as many as one thousand different chemical substances that can damage the brain, lungs, and nervous system. As with plastic waste, this situation disproportionately affects the most vulnerable segments of the population, such as women and minors.
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