Green IT & Green Hosting

Dumping Grounds of Shame

24/08/10

Vast amounts of obsolete IT equipment are being dumped in countries such as China, India and some African nations. Urgent action is needed to tackle these shameful mountains of e-waste, says Green IT’s editor Brian Wall.

More and more countries are becoming dumping grounds for the electrical waste that nobody else wants. The attitude of 'not in my backyard' and 'out of sight, out of mind', is turning many parts of the world into giant dustbins for discarded equipment.

With the 'reuse-recycle' message still failing to hit home sufficiently hard and widely enough, India alone could see a 500% rise in the number of old computers dumped by 2020, according to a recent survey of 11 nations. Unless dealt with properly, the waste could cause massive environmental damage and threaten public health.

Globally, e-waste is growing at a rate of about 40 million tonnes per year as consumers, in both developed and developing nations, buy new gadgets and jettison their old ones, says a UN report.

Escalating Problems

Many of the older items end up in developing nations. By 2020, China and South Africa could see e-waste generated by old computers rise by 400%, compared to 2007 levels. In a decade, estimates the report, e-waste from mobile phones will be seven times higher in China and 18 times higher in India.

Sales of electronic products in countries such as China and India and across continents such as Africa and Latin America are set to rise sharply in the next 10 years. And, unless action is stepped up to collect and recycle materials properly, many developing countries face the spectre of hazardous e-waste mountains with serious consequences for the environment and public health, according to UN experts in a landmark report released by UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).

The report, 'Recycling - from E-Waste to Resources', used data from 11 representative developing countries to estimate current and future e-waste generation - which includes old and rundown desk and laptop computers, printers, mobile phones, pagers, etc.

In South Africa and China, for example, the report predicts that, by 2020, e-waste from old computers will have jumped by 200 to 400% from 2007 levels, and by 500% in India. By that same year in China, e-waste from discarded mobile phones will be about seven times higher than 2007 levels and, in India, 18 times higher. China already produces about 2.3 million tonnes (2010 estimate) domestically, second only to the United States with about 3 million tonnes. And, despite having banned e-waste imports, China remains a major e-waste dumping ground for developed countries.

Backyard Recyclers

Moreover, most e-waste in China is improperly handled, with much of it incinerated by backyard recyclers to recover valuable metals such as gold – practices that release steady plumes of far-reaching toxic pollution and yield very low metal recovery rates, compared to state-of-the-art industrial facilities.

Some nations, however, are more than happy to take in e-waste, in order to extract some of the precious materials and metals that go into making modern consumer electronics. For instance, in an average year, global production of mobile phones and computers uses 3% of the silver and gold mined, 13% of the palladium and 15% of the cobalt. "China is not alone in facing a serious challenge," says Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), which issued the report. "India, Brazil, Mexico and others may also face rising environmental damage and health problems, if e-waste recycling is left to the vagaries of the informal sector."

E-Waste Centres

On the plus side, the report singles out Bangalore in India as a good example of how local initiatives could reform the gathering and treatment of e-waste. And it urges nations such as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Morocco and South Africa to set up state-of-the-art e-waste treatment centres now, while the amounts they produce are relatively small.

"One person's waste can be another's raw material," points out Konrad Osterwalder, rector of the UN University. "The challenge of dealing with e-waste represents an important step in the transition to a green economy."

According to the UNEP, the appropriate handling of e-waste can both prevent serious environmental damage and also recover valuable materials, especially for metals. The recycling chain for e-waste is
classified into three main subsequent steps:

(i) collection,
(ii) sorting/dismantling and preprocessing (including sorting, dismantling and mechanical treatment)and
(iii) end-processing.

All three steps should operate and interact in a holistic manner to achieve the overall recycling objectives. The main objectives of e-waste recycling and basic considerations for innovation are:

- Treat the hazardous fractions in an environmentally sound manner 
- Recover valuable material maximally
- Create eco-efficient and sustainable business
- Consider social impact and local context.

Due to the wide lack of awareness over e-waste recycling in emerging economies, innovation hubs and centres of excellence have not yet been established, states UNEP in another report, 'Recycling - From e-waste to Resources'. However, some organisations are currently establishing their e-waste competence and have a great potential to develop into innovation hubs. The current situation in China, India and South Africa indicates that smaller and less complex economies, such as South Africa, improve faster in awareness and competence.

What is clear is that action to halt the threats developing countries in particular have to face from these harmful e-waste mountains has to be immediate and decisive. The routes to market for rogue traders have to be choked off. Closing our eyes to what is happening on another continent is not the kind of response any of us can be prepared to countenance

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