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Arts & Culture

FRONTLINE/World: Ghana - Digital Dumping Ground

FRONTLINE/World presents a global investigation into the dirty secret of the digital age — the dumping of hundreds of millions of pounds of electronic waste around the world each year. Pictured: In Ghana, a man sorts through electronics to be sold for parts.
EPA/Jane Hahn
FRONTLINE/World presents a global investigation into the dirty secret of the digital age — the dumping of hundreds of millions of pounds of electronic waste around the world each year. Pictured: In Ghana, a man sorts through electronics to be sold for parts.

Airs Tuesday, June 23 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV

As this month's digital television conversion makes tens of millions of analog TVs obsolete, and Americans continue to trash old computers and cell phones at alarming rates, FRONTLINE/World presents a global investigation into the dirty secret of the digital age -- the dumping of hundreds of millions of pounds of electronic waste around the world each year. Tracking "e-waste" to the slums of Ghana and the far-off provinces in China, producer/correspondent Peter Klein and his team of graduate journalism students fan out around the world to document the growing impact of this toxic trash on those who desperately scavenge it for precious metals. They also explore the potential threats to privacy, as criminal gangs attempt to harvest data from America's old computers and cell phones and exploit it. Also in this hour, a popular competition to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs in the Middle East, and a pioneering effort to make an affordable wheelchair for the developing world. Watch a preview.