First, it is already profitable depending on which mess you're talking about. I'm defining the mess as the glut of used electronics in the world. The scrape yards aren't burning things and employing people to simply burn things and spend money. They get money from the scrap.

Second, if we define the mess as the act of burning things to mine the valuable minerals within, we have those already too. Recycling in US is about a 5 Billion dollar industry[1]. Sure some of that gets exported, but much of it doesn't. We refine the materials here in a regulated, probably safe way.

Third, the issue is more around developing countries pushing their garbage to Africa. That is a complex solution. The producing country has to see it as a problem (their problem). They have to be willing to create infrastructure to process the e-waste. They also have to adjust their present manufacturing capabilities to use recycled goods rather than transform raw materials.

There might be a market solution for the third point. Maybe? A lot of that comes with time and maturity. The US polluted a lot. We didn't really start to care until the '70s. It then took twenty years to get cleaner air, ground and water. That's from an already advanced economy. Developing markets will not likely put the money into that while they try to get their people out of the muck (literally).

[1] http://inhabitat.com/study-finds-that-the-us-electronics-rec...

It already is profitable, but all the reports from Africa concentrate on last stage performed by most desperate clawing at scraps in the dumpster. Its African version of a homeless man collecting aluminium cans.

If you make cleaning it up profitable, then it will attract more waste. What you want is to stop sending e-waste to Ghana in the first place.

That shouldn't be the first question you ask. Plenty of problems have market-based solutions. But some don't.

This is a matter of regulation and law enforcement.