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Old mobile phones cause toxic waste issue in Africa
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Nov 17, 2014
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Old mobile phones cause toxic waste issue in Africa
As we rush to upgrade and get the latest gadgets, what happens to all our old phones? Many of them are finding their way to Africa - and the environment is suffering as a result.
A Pakistani cell phone user browses YouTube on his mobile phone in Quetta on December 29, 2012. Pakistan briefly unblocked access to the popular video sharing website YouTube before Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf ordered the plug be pulled again. AFP PHOTO/Banaras KHAN
A Pakistani cell phone user browses YouTube on his mobile phone in Quetta on December 29, 2012.
(
BANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty Images
)

As we rush to upgrade and get the latest gadgets, what happens to all our old phones? Many of them are finding their way to Africa - and the environment is suffering as a result.

Now to that iPhone or, really, any mobile phone.

Prices of these devices have dropped in recent years and more and more people all over the world are now able to get their hands on them.

But as we rush to upgrade and get the latest gadgets, what happens to all our old phones?

The answer is, many of them are finding their way to Africa - and the environment is suffering as a result.

The BBC's Tamasin Ford reports from Abidjan in Ivory Coast.