ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 37 NO 4, AUGUST 2021 7 Samwel Moses Ntapanta Samwel Moses Ntapanta is a PhD candidate in social anthropology at the University of Oslo. He is interested in the anthropology of consumption, waste and infrastructures, informal economies, and labour relations. His current research focuses on informal electronic waste recycling and how these activities contribute to the valorisation and value transformation of electronic waste, toxicity and environmental pollution in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His email is s.m.ntapanta@ sai.uio.no It is March 2019 at the ‘Refrigerator Court’ (Mahakama Ya Friji), a small and informal scrap recycling workshop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Waste collectors Calvin and Dinho hold long neem sticks, which they use to turn burning electricity cables as dense smoke fills the air. They are vigilant of harmful smoke and constantly alter their positions to avoid direct contact with and inhaling the fumes. Their focus is on the red flames that melt the plastic castings covering the shiny copper threads. ‘That’s money,’ they tell me. Meanwhile, keeping his distance, George is pressing a grinder blade as it penetrates a refrigerator compressor. The refrigerant liquid drips to form a small pool on the dark soil around him as copper wires coiled in two yokes emerge from inside the compressor. Copper and other metals mined at this workshop end up in containers trav- elling upstream back to the beginning of the production cycle in electronics production located in East Asia and Europe. Meanwhile, scavenged aluminium and iron plates are turned into charcoal stoves supplying the local market in Dar es Salaam. The Refrigerator Court and other informal recycling workshops in Dar es Salaam are located downstream of the electronics value chain. They receive the afterlives of the commodities in late capitalism and are vital nodes in the value chain and return flow upstream to produce new commodities. Based on ethnographic fieldwork from October 2018 to June 2019 at the Refrigerator Court workshop and following electronic scavenging and recycling across the city, this essay explores the toxic exposures workers face and how these are embedded in daily work and livelihoods. Taking up Edelstein’s con- cept of ‘lifescaping’ (Edelstein 2003), I pay attention to the micro-adjustments (some) workers deploy to avoid or minimize exposure to toxins. A headline in The East African, a leading regional news- paper, reads, ‘E-waste: An increasing threat in the region’ (E-waste 2019). The article describes growing local con- cerns about the hazards surrounding electronic waste. It reports that a lack of policy frameworks and infrastruc- tures for handling e-waste has led to a mushrooming of informal e-waste recycling in East African cities, as it has at the Refrigerator Court. The same assertion is put forward in a New York Times article, ‘Electronic marvels turn into dangerous trash in East Africa’ (Yee 2019). Both articles condemn informal recycling as the source of haz- ardous compounds in the city´s landscapes. However, the articles show one side of the story and do not discuss the complex roles of informal e-waste recyclers in the value chain or the local value of their quotidian labour. They do, however, underline a general perception of informal recycling workshops shared by many Tanzanians. People working with e-waste are regarded as matter out of place (Douglas 2003 [1966]), and recycling work is assumed to be unskilled, marginal and precarious, regard- less of its potential in global and local value chains. Yet e-waste sites, common throughout Dar es Salaam, are stable features of low-income neighbourhoods and fill the enormous gaps left by the city’s waste management systems. Moreover, as I discovered during fieldwork with workers, informal e-waste recycling offers a skilled voca- tion, with a sense of stepped progression, secure revenue and entrance into a social support network that sustains and enhances local lives. This level of ‘upscaling’, ‘recy- cling’ or ‘repurposing’ waste, as it is known in the Global North, is already normalized as part of ‘modern’ Tanzanian work practices and provides the men who informally work on the e-waste sites with capital, reputation and opportuni- ties to create a livelihood and life. There is no denying that these e-waste sites release haz- ardous chemical compounds. Electronic devices contain carcinogenic toxicants such as persistent organic pollut- ants (POPs) that can damage DNA and disrupt hormonal functioning when released. The same chemical compounds that help our electronic devices function have detrimental effects on our environment and health when poorly han- dled (Grossman 2006). The workers on these sites often have no way of knowing the exact chemical compounds and their associated effects or the risks associated with the materials they are touching or inhaling. Information on toxins and pollution is confined to circles of experts, NGOs and government institutions. Even when discussed in local media, the language and channels hinder access to those working directly with e-waste. Additionally, there is no systematic testing of toxicity levels or exposures, and there are no mandated health and safety regulations for workers in the informal recycling sector. As a result, many workers ignore or belittle their exposure to toxins in these situations. Others try to miti- gate their exposure to toxic chemicals by adopting specific ‘lifescaping’ initiatives, making adjustments and seeking to counteract toxic effects. ‘Lifescaping’ toxicants Locating and living with e-waste in Tanzania Fig. 1. E-waste dismantling in front of John and Mkali’s warehouse. SAMWEL MOSES NTAPANTA