Read the passage below carefully and evaluate the statement that follows.
In recent years, the informal electronic waste recycling ecosystem of Agbogbloshie in Accra has undergone a subtle organizational shift. Historically, youth collectives operated autonomously, extracting scrap copper and aluminum through open burning—a process that yielded immediate cash returns but devastated local soil chemistry and respiratory health. When municipal authorities introduced centralized, non-thermal stripping facilities to curb environmental damage, initial adoption remained minimal. Workers resisted the initiative not out of aversion to cleaner technology, but because the facility’s rigid operational schedule conflicted with the unpredictable arrival of container shipments from maritime ports. Recognizing this friction, local scrap union leaders negotiated a flexible operational model that allowed cooperatives to manage facility processing hours autonomously while retaining collective ownership of recovered high-purity metals. Consequently, secondary market buyers began offering long-term supply contracts directly to the cooperatives, bypassing traditional predatory middlemen. This transition demonstrated that sustained technological adoption within informal urban economies relies less on providing state-of-the-art equipment than on aligning institutional workflows with the organic operational rhythms of the informal workforce.
Statement: The primary factor behind the scrap workers' initial rejection of the municipal stripping facility was a lack of awareness regarding the health risks associated with thermal extraction methods.
Answer: Answer