Five hundred shipping containers of used electronic goods from Europe and the US will arrive in Lagos, Nigeria, this month, according to Ethical Corporation. Each will contain the equivalent of 800 computer monitors or 350 large TV sets. Up to 75% of the goods will be junk, according to Basel Action Network, (BAN) an environmental justice NGO.

The United Nations Environment Programme says that most of the 50 million tons of electronic e-waste produced globally finds its way to Africa in the guise of “charitable donations.”

The buyers who know the cargos will contain a mixture of reusable computers and junk can negotiate the amount of scrap they are willing to accept providing the load contains some computers that can be reused. The good computers will be sold second-hand, the rest will be thrown away. Lagos accepts 500 tons of e-waste a day, which includes a monthly tally of 100,000 computers. Most unusable units end up in dumpsites. What little recycling is done usually happens in small, unventilated rooms, by workers for whom health and safety are of little concern.