How to manage e-waste responsibly while bridging the digital divide

Posted on | June 17, 2009 | No Comments

Around 50 million tons of electronic waste is generated worldwide annually. In many developing countries, more and more electronics are used – and discarded – every year and, adding to that, it is not uncommon for developed countries to dump their own electronic trash in other parts of the world, reports a New York Times article.

In February, electronic products manufacturer Hewlett-Packard announced the findings of a study on responsible e-waste processing in African countries. The study was based in part on a pilot facility that H.P. has helped build in Cape Town, and looked at e-waste management in South Africa, Morocco, and Kenya. A similar plant has since been set up in Durban, without any subsidies either from H.P. or the government and H.P. now hopes that the idea will spread around South Africa.

The export of hazardous waste from the developed to the developing world has to stop immediately, according to many environmentalist organizations. One of them is the Basel Action Network (BAN) whose efforts in 1995 led to a treaty banning this practice. However, the United States has not signed the treaty and both the United States and Europe actually allow the export of materials that are categorized as “reusable”. Of course, reuse could be great – for example, it can give many people, who can’t afford new products, access to different kinds of information technology. But studies show that up to 75% of these “reusable” electronic goods are not working or are sometimes destroyed during transportation.

There are also some worries about the Cape Town facility from some environmentalists who fear that it will attract even more exports of eletronic waste from abroad, and that it won’t be able to function safely in the long run due to the lack of safety regulations and enforcements. Ultimately, the best solution to the problem would be better, cleaner products with fewer hazardous materials, that are designed to generate less waste. And new models are on the way – for example, cathode ray tubes in old computer monitors contained leaded glass, while newer ones are made using light-emitting diodes which are less hazardous to recycle. And new regulations from the EU have forced manufacturers to clean up their products by restricting the amounts of dangerous materials that can be used in electronics for the European market.

Source: The New York Times.

Written by Fanny Johansson

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