e-Waste Recycling - How to Approach the Subject Systematically

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The pictures and dispatches are rather alarming: In Africa, exposed computer scrap dumps of no sale value can be found in many places – often causing serious health and environmental risks. Giving credit to governmental and development organisations, even well-meant PC donations miss their target if there is no strategic and systematic approach for their use and recycling. Gradually, companies, governmental and scientific institutions are starting to come to grips with the problem effectively. Numerous efforts to limit the flow of e-waste to developing countries are under way, even as export volumes continue to grow.

The dumping of old PCs in Africa is a flourishing trade. Recycling in industrial countries is quite expensive, and this has made disposing of European and American scrap in African lands a lucrative activity for many racketeers. Despite the Basel Convention’s prohibition of international waste transfer, untold numbers of containers stuffed with old computers and components are shipped to the Continent daily – with the majority unfit for service and thus destined for dumping alleys, rivers or rubbish heaps. This IT trash may subsequently leach lead, mercury and cadmium into the environment and if burned, may release carcinogenic dioxins and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. According to a report of the UN Environment Programme, around 100,000 computers a month enter the Nigerian port of Lagos alone; it is Africa’s best-known IT dumping ground. In the customs documents, these computers are fraudulently described as being "shipped for re-use."

But it is not only this kind of shadow trade-and-disposal economy that takes its toll: Even the numerous computers donated with good intentions often cause serious problems. ”What are we to do with this junk?” is the bitter retort to many public-spirited endowments. For example, Allen Nansubuga from SchoolNet Uganda wrote to eLA news, “In 2005 we started receiving containers full of some of these PCs, which are fast becoming e-waste”. Hence, for SchoolNet Uganda, e-recycling is an issue that demands serious attention.

Although the enormity of the e-waste problem is real and –at least for the time being – still growing, numerous initiatives are taking shape whose intention is helping to solve it. In the United States, for example, a number of voluntary e-waste export-reduction efforts are under way. In 2003, the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) created the “Plug-In To eCycling” programme, which promotes safe domestic recycling of electronic equipment by consumers and businesses. Some weeks ago, the UNESCO also started to prepare guides on computer recycling. The UN organisation gathered a group of partners to produce two guides to encourage the development of sustainable computer recycling plants. In yet another effort, governmental representatives from African countries are discussing how to label old-but-functional PCs correctly with representatives from lands in other regions.

Also, leading hardware and software companies like Microsoft and Hewlett Packard want to help facilitate the reuse and recycling of old electronics. Microsoft, for instance, recently announced an expansion of its worldwide Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher (MAR) programme, which accepts old equipment from companies that need to dispose of it. It reconditions donated machines, complete with software, for donation to schools or nonprofits in need.

In September 2007, HP and the Swiss State organisation Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research) and the Global Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF) initiated a programme for e-waste management in Africa. The aims are quite ambitious: Empa researchers are charged with developing a concept to assess and meet specific local needs. The project will support local stakeholders in managing computer-equipment waste. The team will start to build up best practices in Morocco, Kenya and Tunisia. HP will also finance a pilot in South Africa in which people learn how to collect and strip down computers properly. This pilot should serve an exemplary function for other African countries.

What also seems recommendable is to introduce strict regulations for donated computers. In Kenya, experience shows that this approach has worked well, and people can henceforth profit from old PCs. For instance, the initiative “Computers for Schools Kenya” stipulates that no donated PC should be older than six years, the estimate being that it will serve for another four. When the machine ultimately breaks down, selected parts will be recycled locally. The rest will be sent back to the point of origin – at the donor’s expense.

By Nina Wittrock, ICWE

October 30, 2007

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