#ampqamp14 – Weeek 1

Posted on by ivyasuo

First weeek =) of#ampqamp14 started at Hub Accra by a discussion of AMP’s objectives for the three coming weeeks: to co-design and build with AMP makers (comprising of STEAM students and graduates and eventually e-waste workers) a module of the spacecraft–AMP’s  makerspace–and share its progress with the community in Agbogbloshie.

Participants started discussing the design of the spacecraft, its frame and interior frame comprising of an octet truss system, prefab panels, soft and roof systems. We then developed a critical path for each system so to know what to do at each step of the way until we build the spacecraft. The brainstorming sessions were very intensive, with some of the participants sketching/drawing the various concepts related to the spacecraft.

 

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Participants designing the critical path
Participants designing the critical path

By the second day we enthusiastically produced fully developed critical paths,  identified and quantified in terms of duration and dependency of the various tasks

Critical path for AMPQAMP
Critical path for AMPQAMP

We also prepared for the first workshop ahead, the plastic workshop to be carried out at the Rex Cinema in collaboration with Brad Marley and Efya  from the POLY Bank GH organization. In preparation for the workshop, we conducted background research on the physical properties, melting methods and stewing methods. We sourced the plastic–shredded-PET (polyethylene therephatlate) old plastic bottles and stewed shredded-PP (polypropylene)–and a number of molds from Agbogbloshie. This was also a good occasion to share our process with the Agbogbloshie community. This is a picture of the tools we brought to the Rex Cinema to conduct our experiments.

Tools bought from Agbogbloshie for the experiment
Tools bought from Agbogbloshie for the experiment

The Rex is an open-air cinema, a wonderful space to experiment within. There, young Ghana makers were busy melting, stewing and molding different types of plastics and exploring the production of architectural parts, panels, brick or tiles, made of recycled plastic. Sam and Idrissou, Agbogbloshie community agents, helped with burning the charcoal.. They were far more skilled than us!

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Below are some of the observations from the experiment:

  • We observed that the PET melting process was very slow and began really late, also at temperatures slightly higher than 260◦c, which is the theoretical melting point value. PET began to char and thus underwent incomplete carbonation and changing color from a transparent blue color a marble brown colored plastic. PP however, started melting at a lower temperature and rather melted over a larger temperature range and also produced a smooth finish.

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    Marble brown colored tile made from PET
  • We may have over heated the PET plastics, which led to the formation of a brittle-porous tile.
  • Contributing factors to such brittleness of the plastic panel are associated to the cooling rate and media and this caused cracks.

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    Cracked tile made from PET
  • Also, the temperature of the charcoal flame could not be controlled and hence over heating ensued.
  • It was also observed that stewing of PET did not work. This is probably due to the fact that it has a high melting temperature and the oil doing not facilitate that phenomenon.
  • PP plastics however work well with stewing in oil. From the experiment, we formed a very strong mold which can be used for wall panels, table tops and many others.
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Brick made by stewing PP plastics

 

Find here the Lab report.

We were honored to host Prof. Kwadjo Osseo-Asare (AMP co-PI) and Dr. Victor Oteng-Atiemo (retired from MD of DOW chemical Ghana) who gave us advices on how to proceed and continue our experiments.

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Here is the link to Flickr photo set.

The Sound of Plastic

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

There is more than e-waste processing happening in the open-air recycling factory: plastic processing represents a significant portion of Agbogbloshie’s ecosystem and economy.

Woman in the plastics business
Woman in the plastics business

The plastic processing chain involves various actors (male and female — contrary to e-waste processing which does not employ female workers) and machines:

  • Collectors get plastic waste from all around the city and temporarily store them onsite. Dismantlers scrap plastic out of e-waste or other items.
  • Men and women sort out plastics based on empirical and heuristic approaches: they separate plastics according to their thickness, malleability (thermoplastics are malleable and can be recycled, while thermoset plastics are not), and by the sound plastics make when workers bang on them with a screwdriver!
  • In our interaction, workers in Agbogbloshie did not know about the resin identification code system. However, as observed many locally-made plastics lacked labels, as well as scrap pieces of plastic detached from primary parts in which the label is inset. Thus, if the processing is carried out in a hasty and crude manner, then having resin identification codes may not be overly helpful.

As we learned by watching the documentary film The Electronic Tragedy by Dannoritzer Cosima, in other parts of the globe where informal plastic processing also occurs, heuristic approaches include burning plastics with a lighter and smelling the burnt material – each type of plastic has a different burning temperature. This strategy is more dangerous for the workers’ health than local methods of differentiating between types based on the sound of plastic.

Plastics sorted by color
Plastics sorted by color
  • In Agbogbloshie, it is common knowledge that television cases (made of non-recyclable thermoset plastics) cannot be sold for recycling. And this is also the reason why the item is often used for storage or as a stool. The local workers separate plastics into three main categories (while there are seven identified categories of plastics. PET (bottles) and PVC (pipes) are in addition): “rubber” (e.g. polypropylene, PP), “gallon” (e.g. high density polyethylene, HDPE), and “plastic” (not recyclable). In all, they process Polypropylene PP, High Density Polyethylene HDPE, Low Density Polyethylene LDPE, Polyethylene Theraphalate PET, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), and other types such as PP-MD20, and PP-TD30.
  • Women remove labels and caps of PET containers (water bottles for example; water bottle c­­­aps are made of another type of plastic). Workers sort recyclable plastics by colors before (loud) shredding using locally fabricated shredding machines. They then sieve the shredded plastics before washing it. The plastic is now ready to be sold to industries – local and global!

Prices vary according to the type of plastic and depends on the market. For our plastic experiments, we purchased the Kg of shredded PET for 3 Cedis and the Kg of PP for 2 Cedis. The workers specialized in plastic processing were rather excited about the business opportunity afforded by our plastic experiments (bricks and tiles made with PP and PET) and we look forward to this knowledge transfer.

Find more pictures on Flickr.

A smokeless future for Agbogbloshie

Posted on by ivyasuo

In line with the intention to make tools for the remaking of the Agbogbloshie electronic landscape, the AMP team, in collaboration with Rafa Font of Recyhub, met at the Kokrobite institute to assemble the Hal Watts’ E-source– a man- powered copper cable shredder. The two day session commenced in high spirits with each person, contributing to the assembly. Slowly but surely, all the parts came together and the basic functions tested. At the end, a few observations were made about its applicability to Agbogbloshie, and these were recorded as notes for the designers to consider.

Hal Watt first design
Hal Watts’ first design of E-source.

First developed as a bicycle with cable shredding capabilities, this new prototype, still maintains the idea of pedaling as a means to power the machine. It however deviates from the initial literality of a bicycle. The design was inspired by the problem of burning copper cables in Agbogbloshie, which Hal visited, to gain firsthand experience of the situation. The AMP and Recyhub teams were joined by students from the college of engineering KNUSTs creativity group. These are engineering students with an interest in e-waste processing.

The AMP team started by unpacking and positioning the frame, and then the tubes for water were appropriately placed. The next in line was the turning wheel, which we placed in the part of the frame allocated for it. We then proceeded to hang the chains on the cassettes and connected it to the main shredder blades which sits at the centre of the frame. This was followed by the pedals which we bolted in place. After testing to see that the pedal functions as it should, we proceeded to install the processing trough and then tested once again to ensure that it moved when pedaled. We then adjusted the seat until it was in the right position and then bolted it. Following this, we placed the receptacle for the cables over the blades, filled a barrel with water and then proceeded to fill it with cables and began testing the entire set up.

The second prototype of the E-source assembled in Kokrobite by AMP and Recyhub
The second prototype of the E-source assembled in Kokrobite by AMP and Recyhub

On the second day of the workshop, the function and assembly process were explained and tested further in collaboration with students from the Ashesi University, who were in Kokroite to engage in various forms of maker workshops. They found the experience thrilling and enthusiastically asked a lot of questions. Among the questions that came up were:

  • Is it possible to find a low energy way of mechanizing the system?
  • How easy or otherwise will it be for people in Agbogbloshie to assemble the machine themselves?
  • Will the volumes of cables shredded by the machine compare favorably with volumes currently processed in Agbogbloshie by means of burning?
Students from Ashesi University learning about the Esource.
Students from Ashesi University learning about the Esource.

In terms of future steps, the AMP team hopes that, further studies in collaboration with stakeholders such as Recyhub,  the creativity group and Hal & Watt (inventors of the e-source) will help to advance this initiative until such a time that, all e-waste workers in Agbogbloshie have a version installed and the burning of cables no longer occurs.

See more pictures on Flickr

Archibots: Remaking Agbogbloshie (design workshop)

Posted on by ivyasuo

The AMP team guided Archibots: Remaking Agbogbloshie design participants through Agbogbloshie by first introducing them to the the executives of the scrap dealers’ association. We proceeded through Rauf’s shop, where large volumes of refrigerators are processed, to the National Youth Authority Building, through dismantling and processing sites, past the areas where copper cables are burnt and all the way to the plastics recycling sector near the International Central Gospel Church.

Back to Hub Accra (thanks for hosting us!), the fun could begin! After hearing a brief introduction about AMP (DK Osseo-Asare, AMP co-PI) and the objectives of the design workshop (Juliet Sakyi, TAP: Build founder), participants brainstormed about possible architecture robots for Agbogbloshie and its population. Sam Yusuf, who hails from Agbogbloshie and currently works with AMP on interviews and GPS mapping, also attended in order to share some of the ideas with informal sector community. MESH has prepared a video showing highlights of the event.

Smokeybot team, brainstorming.
Powersuit team presenting their work
Powersuit team discussing their work
Solarbot team presenting their work
Solarbot team presenting their work
Smokeybot team presenting their work
Smokeybot team presenting their work

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Amongst the multitude of ideas that emerged, participants chose to pursue investigating the following: SMOKEYBOT – a robot that reduces the smoke in Agbogbloshie by grinding and processing copper wires ; SOLARBOT – a mobile tent, with a capacity to harvest solar energy, detect light and intelligently self adjust to provide conducive working environments ; SPIDERBOT – a zoomorphic robot with the ability to collect, transport and process large volume of e -waste at a time and a POWERSUIT – an apparel for humans, with the capacity to read, interpret and transmit biological data to the wearer, boost physical performance and contain computing capacity.

 

Teams self-organized once more to each tackle one of the 4 ideas selected. In the future a swarm of similar architecture robots could be used to terraform the electronic landscape…

A sketch of Powersuit
A sketch of Powersuit
A sketch of Smokeybot
A sketch of Smokeybot
A sketch of Solarbot
A sketch of Solarbot
A sketch of Spiderbot
A sketch of Spiderbot

So the adventure isn’t finished yet… Participants have expressed their interest in following-up with M&D – Making and Development. AMP is actually formalizing a 3 week summer workshop, so stay tuned!

The turnout was awesome and we thank all participants for coming and our partner organisations MESH and Tap for their support and contributions.

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Post event group photograph

Call for Summer Internships

Posted on by ivyasuo

Are you interested in technology? Do you like making things? Does environmental pollution bother you? Have you ever imagined the future as something awesome?

Are you a student or recent graduate in the fields of science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics, planning, architecture and design, or environment and natural resources?

Apply today to be a part of this year’s AMP QAMP, a three-week camp for young makers in Accra.

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Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP) is a collaborative project to upgrade the quality of life and environment at Agbogbloshie, the largest e-waste ecosystem in Ghana. AMP is an experiment in design innovation and youth-led M&D (makers & development). The short-term goal is to design and build a makerspace for the hyper-local context of Agbogbloshie, together with an open-source technology platform to support its operation. The long-term goal is to rehabilitate the environment of Agbogbloshie and to help green the community’s current recycling practices. We believe this can happen through the site’s transformation into a network for more advanced materials processing and small-scale distributed manufacturing. AMP as a open-source project seeks to create an alternate convention that partners e-waste, scrap and recycling industry with the technical know-how and social entrepreneurial framework to remake the landscape themselves, over time.

AMP contends that (domains of) architecture and electronics have converged. At such a moment—if we capitalize on this opportunity to make open, democratic and collective the capability of manipulating materials from the level of chemistry up, by means of digital technology, we can move beyond the notion of “e-waste”. Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE or 3E)—old or new—constitute a vital stream of raw material for the global production chain. Not only are such 3E-materials in reality the physical building blocks of electronic landscapes and digital space, but many are also recyclable, i.e. plastics, steel, aluminium, copper, glass or other valuable materials. If successful, AMP will amplify the economic potential of Agbogbloshie and Ghana’s makers.

AMP QAMP is a series of informal maker “camps” to build the future of Agbogbloshie. The primary session of QAMP for 2014 runs from the 1st to the 20th of July in Accra, Ghana.

Participants will work collaboratively as part the AMP makers collective to address key aspects of building an ecology of makers in and around the Agbogbloshie e-waste stream, from the ground up. We are interested in young people who are proactive, intellectually curious, open-minded, imaginative, detail-oriented and able to work in teams.

If interested, please submit a cover letter to qampnet@gmail.com by June 30th including the following information: Area of Specialization / Course of Study (year of graduation); Digital Media and Graphics Software (with level of proficiency); CAD/CAM and 3D Modeling Software (with level of proficiency); Programming Languages (with level of proficiency); and Fabrication Experience (sewing, cabinetry, furniture-making, jewellery, glass-blowing, welding, circuit board etching, breadboarding, etc.) Short-listed candidates will be scheduled for in-person interviews starting the week of June 23, 2014.

Archibots: Re-making Agbogbloshie (intro session)

Posted on by ivyasuo

The first session of the Archibots workshop came off as scheduled on the May 30th 2014. The event was well attended by people from various disciplinary backgrounds. There were engineers, architects, CAD technicians, business men & women and lecturers as well as from various nationalities, such as Spain and the Netherlands. This was the introductory session for Archibots, a design workshop to prototype architecture robots for Agbogbloshie.  As part of the event, all three collaborating organizations (tap, AMP and MESH) made presentations on what they do. AMP co-lead DK Osseo-Asare, introduced participants to Agbogbloshie E-waste circuitry, which is the context for the architecture robots to be designed and the key design concepts as far as AMP is concerned. Some of the videos that were selected to provide inspiration for participants can be found here . The team is eagerly awaiting the next phase which is the design session scheduled for June 7th 2014 at Hub Accra. This promises to be just as exciting as the May 30th event. Thanks to our friend and ally, media partners MESH Ghana for compiling footage of the event, which can be found at Archibots: Remaking Agbogbloshie.

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Archibots: Re-making Agbogbloshie

Posted on by Emmanuel K. Ofori-Sarpong

Re-making Agbogbloshie is a tap:Build design workshop conducted as part of the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform QAMP series of maker workshops. MESH Ghana is the media partner.

AMP approach contends that (domains of) architecture and electronics have converged. At such a moment — if we can make open, democratic and collective the capability of manipulating materials from the level of chemistry up, by means of digital technology, we can move beyond the notion of “e-waste”. Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE or 3E), old or new, constitute a vital stream of raw material for the global production chain. In particular, while there is fundamental overlap with the elemental “stuff” of digital space, it is equally important to note that the majority of EEE materials* are generally recyclable such as plastics, steel, aluminium, copper, or other specialized or high-value materials.

Re-making Agbogbloshie is a collaboration between Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP) and The Architects’ Project (tap:). The workshop seeks to design and prototype practicable architectural interventions — at the level of equipment — that can inform the discourse of industrial landscapes like Agbogbloshie scaled through kiosk-size 3E materials processing machines, i.e. micro-industrial digital fabrication bots.

Re-making Agbogbloshie design workshop is an exploration of small-scale architectural interventions that operate more than as kinetic micro- shelters — they additionally include “robotic” or electronic systems and tool/equipment functions. The workshop seeks to design “architecture robots” that could assist humans in processing 3E materials, phytoremediation of the contaminated landscape and actively supporting the Agbogbloshie lifecycle.

Agbobloshie: Every year, tons of electronic waste arrives on the shores of Ghana. A huge proportion of this deluge of e-waste flows through Agbogbloshie, where a vibrant community of e-waste workers and makers reuse, recycle and upcycle end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment. However, some of the crude methods used for dismantling e-waste and processing scrap (such as burning wires and cords to recover the copper) are highly polluting: they negatively impact the health of e-waste workers and have led to Agbogbloshie’s notorious position as “the most polluted place on Earth” for 2013, according to Green Cross Switzerland and the nonprofit Blacksmith Institute (USA).

E-waste: E-waste or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is typically portrayed as highly toxic old computers, televisions, etc. that are “dumped” in poor countries by rich countries, in violation of the Basel Convention (an international treaty which expressly prohibits such forms of international transhipment of WEEE). While it is true that e-waste contains hazardous materials, and that improper handling and disposal of these materials can greatly pollute the environment and compromise public health, it does not negate the fact that the materials embedded within e-waste are incredibly valuable. In fact, e-waste — considered pound-for-pound as a “raw material” of the global production chain — is among the most valuable on the planet: one ton of old mobile phones has 100X the concentration of precious metals like gold and silver than does an equivalent amount of ore mined from the earth.

Architecture: Usually when most people think about (the practice of) “architecture”, they think about high-end residences or large-scale projects. In Africa, these are typically the only kind of construction projects (along with smaller interventions by the government and NGOs) that have large enough budgets to pay the professional service fees of architects. This leaves the majority of workers and construction works on the continent, which occur in what social scientists call the “informal sector”, outside the design domain of architects, or the scope of formal architecture. The point of departure for this workshop is to propose that this default strategy for Africa’s built environment misses the point. If to date architecture has had limited success in re-configuring the African terrain, perhaps it is time to invert the approach: try to introduce innovation at the bottom, and let it spread.

* EEE- or 3E-materials: Consider electrical and electronic equipment, at all condition levels, as a raw material for global production chain. 3-E materials are a broader and more inclusive range of materials compared to e-materials, e.g. electronics materials based on silicon or other semiconducting materials, and such materials in aggregate, i.e. a circuit board.

Video highlights:

Q&A session with the AMP team in Ghana!

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

Find below a couple of pictures of the Q&A session organized for the Makers & Development (M&D, aka QAMP) seminar at l’ESA this past Wednesday. Marie Aquilino’s seminar Make joined the session. Thank you for making this collaboration happen !!! The conversation that took place revealed the many dimensions of the AMP project, social, environmental and economic, how for example e-waste was brought to site and how did we map the ecosystem of e-waste and deeper insights into current e-waste handling practices as observed during these months of fieldwork. Thank you Dk Osseo-Asare and Emmanuel Kusi Ofori-Sarpong for taking the time to answer the many questions that students had. We look forward to share with you the progress of the class !

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Afrimakers tour Agbogbloshie

Posted on by Emmanuel K. Ofori-Sarpong

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The AMP team proudly hosted Afrimakers-Ghana at their Agbogbloshie site on the 13th of March 2014. The guided tour of the e-waste dump and maker community turned out to be highly informative for both groups, as it occurred amidst casual conversation and exchange of ideas. Among the Afrimakers group were, Stefania Druga (founder of HacKIDmedia, a global network, that gives kids hands-on problem solving skill through play centered workshops and tools), Victor Ofoegbu (organiser of Afrimakers-Ghana workshop – pics on qampnet), Ahmed Bastawy (entrepreneur, facilitator, and engineer).

The AMP team is excited about the visit and the prospects of future collaboration that it promises.

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Arduino bot Afrimakers Ghana Maker Faire at Ghana Technology College

Mapping Agbogbloshie

Posted on by Emmanuel K. Ofori-Sarpong

The past few weeks have been full of amazing new discoveries as the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP) team continues to learn from and with the e-waste recycling and scrap dealers community, on site. Check out our Flickr map which will serve as a tool for documenting and better understanding this ecosystem within Accra’s urban ecology.

Looking for a good option for sorting and sharing image pool on maps with better zoom and options for aerial imagery overlay, either on OpenStreetMap or another platform. Please let us know if you have any thoughts/advice

 

FLICKR map