Joseph Awuah-Darko sits on a stool at one of the world’s largest electronic waste dumps, watching polystyrene and insulation cables burn on the blackened ground.
the 21-year-old British-born Ghanaian, surveying the stretch of wasteland around him as dense plumes of smoke rise into the air.
Awuah-Darko and his university friends have ambitious plans for the sprawling Agbogbloshie dumping ground in Ghana’s capital, Accra.
“We are suffering here because the heat is there, the smoke, too, it disturbs us. If we find a good work we will go and join it and leave this place,” Mohammed Abdul Rahim, a dump site worker said.
Awuah-Darko’s first upcycled work is a grandfather clock, made from a galvanized car axle, aluminium and part of a discarded wall clock.
Two high-end hotels in Accra are currently vying to buy the unusual timepiece, he said, and with such interest he has plans to create more and expand operations.
He hopes that his initiative will not only improve lives but also the planet, as waste from the site is given another life.