Fifty years ago, the Korle Lagoon was a thriving fishery. Now, the former wetland outside Accra in Ghana is a place where old electronics go to die.

As part of a book called Living on a Dollar a Day, photojournalist Renee C. Byer visited the e-waste dump–now part of a sprawling slum that locals call Sodom and Gomorrah, and one of the most polluted places in the world. There, she met the children who work trying to make a living from the metals they can extract from old computers and cell phones.

“They’re burning plastic to collect metal, and they’re using magnets to dig through this toxic waste to earn maybe a dollar or two a day,” says Byer. “I don’t think anyone really envisions this when they buy a computer.”

© Renée C. Byer

Nor do most people think of dumps like the one in Ghana when they drop off a laptop or phone for recycling. But recyclers don’t always recycle: Since labor costs and environmental laws make electronics expensive to process in a place like the U.S., companies can often make more money by selling old gadgets to waste traders who ship to Asia and Africa. The majority end up in China, followed by India, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, and Liberia.

Many of those electronics are still working and sold for use. But for others–which might last a year or two after repairs, or just not turn on at all–it’s a quicker path to the dump. Others may end up there five or ten years later. The site in Ghana processes hundreds of tons of e-waste each month.

A handful of U.S. states have e-waste laws that require certification for recycling companies, and those certifications can help address the question of whether waste is ultimately handled responsibly. But managing the waste stream is an incredibly challenging problem, and even the certifications aren’t an absolute guarantee that electronic waste won’t ultimately end up in an unregulated dump. As people go through electronics faster and faster, the problem gets harder to solve: By 2017, the world may be producing around 65 million tons of e-waste every year.

© Renée C. Byer

The U.S. has yet to sign on to the Basel Convention, an international treaty that makes it illegal for rich countries to send hazardous waste to poorer countries unless the poorer country specifically consents. But even EU countries that have signed on still manage to get around the regulation and export e-waste anyway by changing how it’s labeled. Most of the e-waste at the Ghana dump originally came from Europe.