• The average user replaces his or her mobile phone every 18 months.
• In the U.S. in 2010 more than 130 million mobile phones are trashed a year. This means every day users trashed or recycled over 17,000 tons of e-waste.
• Most users keep their old mobile phone as a spare (40%), or give it to a friend or family member (18%). Only 12% of old mobile phones are recycled.
• The EPA estimated that by the end of 2007, there were over 99 million TVs stockpiled or stored in the USA. The figure will keep growing.

And that’s just a start. The following infographic, prepared by FoneBank, has much more information. Check it out.

Article Source: http://www.intomobile.com/2013/02/09/ewaste-infographic/

Electronic trash, such as cell phones, computers and TVs, is often collected in dumps in developing countries and crudely incinerated to recover precious metals, including silver, gold, palladium and copper. The process is often primitive, releasing fumes with a range of toxic substances, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, a group of more than 100 chemicals.

PAHs, many of which are recognized as carcinogenic and linked to lung cancer when inhaled, were the focus of the study. Over the course of a year, researchers collected air samples from two rooftops in two areas in China.

One was in a rural village in the southern province of Guangdong less than a mile from an active e-waste burning site and not surrounded by any industry. The other was Guangzhou, a city heavily polluted by industry, vehicles and power plants but not e-waste.

In the village, people were recycling waste in their yards and homes, using utensils and pots to melt down circuit boards and reclaim metals

The scientists concluded that those living in the e-waste village are 1.6 times more likely to develop cancer from inhalation than their urban-dwelling peers.

“In the village, people were recycling waste in their yards and homes, using utensils and pots to melt down circuit boards and reclaim metals,” said Staci Simonich, a co-author of the study and a professor of environmental and molecular toxicology at OSU. “There was likely exposure through breathing, skin and food – including an intimate connection between e-waste and the growing of vegetables, raising of chickens and catching of fish.”

The researchers estimated that of each million people in the e-waste area, 15 to 1,200 would develop lung cancer on account of PAHs over their lifetimes, while the likelihood in the city is slightly lower at 9 to 737 per million. These approximations do not include lung cancer caused by smoking.

The study also found that the level of airborne carcinogenic PAHs exceeded China’s air quality standards 98 percent of the time in the e-waste area and 93 percent of the time in the city.

The e-waste come in the form of used electrical and electronic equipment such as TV sets, computers, control processing units (CPU), digital video recorders, microwaves, pressing irons, and stereo sets. Others are used tyres and cell phones, just to mention a few.

However, cases abound of e-waste which enter into Nigerian environment with impunity and with no regard to human health. In our recent experience, the first was the Koko Port shipment dump of 1988 in Sapele, Delta State, with over 3,500 tonnes of toxic/harmful wastes and the originating country was Italy.

Also in April 2010, the National Toxic Waste Dump Watch arrested and detained a vessel, MV Nashiville, also laden with toxic waste. In June, 2010, MV Gumel, a vessel with eight containers of e-waste was arrested and detained in Lagos port. By these occurrences, our country Nigeria is being turned into dump for toxic/harmful waste materials, contrary to BASEL Convention and Harmful Waste Act.

Nigerian port cities are a prime destination

However, despite sensitization/awareness efforts, some unpatriotic Nigerians in collaboration with their foreign counterparts still continue to ship toxic/harmful waste materials into Nigeria environment for selfish/material gains and gratification. It is very pertinent to note that these toxic e-waste materials, or used goods when dismantled contained heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, just to mention a few. These heavy metals when disposed improperly are very harmful to human health and the environment.

E-waste is dangerous to human health and man, fauna and flora. They can cause epidemics and eventually death. It can be in the form of cancer, abortion of the unborn child, kidney failure, deformities, distortions in body chemistry, blindness, and gastro-intestinal imbalance amongst other diseases and problems inherent with e-waste materials which slowly lead to death. The Zamfara lead poisoning and epidemic is a case in point.

Therefore, making Nigeria a dumping ground for these harmful e-waste does not do us any good. These activities of importers of e-waste into Nigeria should be condemned in the strongest terms and the offenders/defaulters should be punished appropriately. NESREA should be commended, encouraged, and supported in waging this war against illegal dumping and shipment of e-waste into Nigerian environment. All Nigerians should key into this idea and answer to this clarion call.

The sanction on the ship will serve as a deterrent to others who do not adhere to the laws of the country on harmful e-waste. Nevertheless, one question still comes to mind. How does this toxic waste material escape from their destinations with all their advanced security network and technology here?

What is the work of the security agents/organizations at the ports in Europe and other Western nations if e-waste could escape into Nigeria and her neighbouring countries? The indication is that the countries borders, seaports and airports are porous, and should be condemned in the strongest terms. Efforts should be intensified to put Nigerian borders/shores in shape, and security agents should be at alert every time. NESREA and the National Toxic Dump Watch should be commended for their efforts to rid Nigeria of e-waste and harmful materials.

This article has been edited by Alive2green

Article source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/01/on-toxic-e-waste-shipments-to-nigeria/

A major obstacle to solving the problem is that manual handling of E-waste is a vital income source in parts of the world where E-easte is exported to. Shakila Umair of the Royal Institute of Technology comments “There are massive health problems in Pakistan which can directly be attributed to E-waste handling, yet it is an activity that supports thousands of people” To alleviate some of the most immediate concerns, small changes, such as the use of protective gloves and face masks, could make a big difference, but is something the workers can’t afford.

Re-use –an alternative to E-waste ?
Worldwide e-waste is a huge, and growing problem. In the US alone, over 112 000 laptop and desktop computers are discarded every day! That adds up to about 41 million every year, while the estimated amount of yearly E-waste worldwide is between 30-40 tons. What many IT-using companies and organizations don’t realize is that there is a strong second hand market for IT equipment they no longer need. “The life cycle of a computer can be extended by several years if companies and organizations were to take advantage of the re-use opportunities available to them,”, comments Jonas Carlsson, President of Inrego, which specializes in the refurbishment of IT products.

Other experts point to the practical challenges of computer re-use and increased E-waste, including data security measures and other company rules that make re-purposing or donating IT products more difficult. “Unfortunately, another challenge is the human factor”, says Jolanda can Rooijen, former manager of IT and Corporate Social Responsibility at a world leading IT company, now a researcher in Industrial Technology at Uppsala University. “A lot of people simply aren’t interested in an older product, even if it’s fully functional. Besides, the IT vendors encourage companies to replace their equipment every three years or so”

TCO Certified reduces the use of hazardous substances and makes recycling of IT products easier
“The environmental and recycling criteria included in TCO Certified reduce the risk of hazardous substances such as heavy metals occurring in IT products”, comments Emma Nolte, Environmental Expert at TCO Development. “This is an important step in helping alleviate the health risks for those dealing with electronic waste today in what is a largely uncontrolled environment. TCO Certified also requires that IT brands offer take back programs in areas where it is not currently required by law and that spare parts are available for all certified products for a full three years after it’s final production. We believe these are critical steps for increasing a product’s usable life as well as industry engagement in alleviating the worldwide E-waste problem. By asking for TCO Certified IT products, companies and organizations can help extend IT product life and value from a sustainability perspective”

References:

¹ http://cesc.kth.se/e-waste-recycling-at-whose-expense/

This article has been edited by Alive2green

Article source: http://tcodevelopment.com/news/e-waste-hazardous-to-the-environment-and-human-health/

The Newster medical waste steriliser, to be launched in South Africa soon, grinds potentially infectious waste into dry solid waste, and also sterilises it. The device, which resembles a small washing machine, can dispose of any kind of medical waste, from needles, syringes and small glass bottles to nappies, bandages and body parts.

Different sized models can incinerate waste from 15kg to 5 000kg within 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the device’s size. The equipment, which is used in Europe, is being imported by Cape Town company Alloro Promo.

Alloro Promo is a company managed by Stefano Lepore, right, and Carlo Bovetti. They are demonstrating their needle burner. Picture: David Ritchie

Carlo Bovetti, who imports the incinerator, said that as the machine ground waste, the friction generated caused heat of up to 151ºC, which not only sterilised waste, but also caused the waste humidity to evaporate. Unlike autoclaves, the steriliser was 100 percent green with no toxic emissions, he said.

The machine could also be used in a hospital environment, cutting costs of transporting medical waste in South Africa to incinerators, often situated on the outskirts of towns. Mark van der Heever, spokesman for the provincial Department of Health, said the total expenditure for medical waste removal in the Western Cape exceeded R18 million.

Bovetti said given the incidences of medical waste dumping, hospitals could now incinerate their own waste.

“You hear of medical waste in South Africa being dumped everywhere, including urban dump sites. Often hospitals hand over the removal of waste to outside contractors and they can never be sure whether that ends up incinerated or being dumped.”

Another device soon to be in use for medical waste  South Africa is a needle burner that destroys needles immediately after their use.

The Etna needle burner, which is a little bigger than a coffee mug, is battery-operated and can burn up to 600 needles before being charged.

Stefano Lepore, Bovetti’s business partner, said this device would reduce sharp injuries to medical staff who often prickled themselves with needles and exposed themselves to potential infections as a result. -

This article was edited by Alive2green

Article Source: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/news/green-solution-for-medical-waste-1.1453501#.UPjxS6G4Fbs

In our modern society, we have come to rely heavily on information technology and computers for everything from work and production, to information and entertainment. It is hard to imagine life without the electronic equipment that is characteristic of our way of life in the Western world.

However, the increased production of electronics has lead to a rapid growth in electronic waste which, when improperly disposed of, is associated with health risks and environmental pollution from toxic components like lead and mercury found in most computers and monitors.

According to the EPA, 47.4 million computers were ready for end-of-life management in 2009. In the U.S. alone, 315 million computers became obsolete between 1997 and 2004 and about 100,000 every day since. Only 25% of the products sold in 2009 were recovered for recycling.

Environmental impact of e-waste

The electronics industry is often perceived as safe and clean, when in reality the industry is one of the most polluting. As a result of free trade mechanisms and globalization, most of this industry is located in Asia, which has a comparative advantage for low-cost production of high-quality electronics, in large part due to extensive work-hours to increase output, along with low wages and lax environmental regulations.

Developing countries taking on the role of both producers and waste managers of the world’s electronics has had severe consequences for their environment and human health. Most industry in Asia is powered by coal, and large-scale industry causes extensive local air pollution in addition to being one of the greatest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions.

Further, with the increasing global legal and illegal trade of e-waste comes the concern that poor recycling techniques in developing countries, such as dumping, dismantling, and inappropriate shredding, will be incapable of preventing severe strain on ecosystems and people living near the main recycling areas.

Development impact of e-waste

In an attempt to further develop and achieve modernisation, fast-growing economies like China and India have embraced information technology, leading to an enormous growth in computer density. The growth in ownership of personal computers per capita in India was 604% between 1993 and 2000, compared to a world average of 181%.

As a result, the total PC base during this period has grown from an estimated 450,000 to 4,200,000.

While this has greatly contributed to India’s economic growth, creating benefits in the form of productivity, information flows, and connectivity, the addition to the total stream of e-waste has profound consequences for ecology and social welfare.

Transfer of e-waste

While it costs $20 to recycle a computer in the US, the same product can be sold for $4 in India, due to its valuable metal components. This works as a driver for a global market for e-waste, which in effect creates a massive transfer of hazardous waste products from rich nations to nations of the global South.

Low labor costs, lax environmental regulations, and the fact that it is legal in the US, despite international law to the contrary, to allow export of hazardous waste with no controls whatsoever, ensure that most global e-waste is transported to recycling facilities in Third World countries that often are plagued with environmental degradation from producing the very same objects.

However, both production and recycling is profitable, and contributes to economic growth that oftentimes is higher valued than environmental protection. In impoverished countries, it is hard to deny people poverty alleviation in order to protect the environment.

Jim Puckett (Basel Action Network) put it well when he said that global trade in e-waste is problematic, and that it “leaves the poorer peoples of the world with an untenable choice between poverty and poison.”

To address the problem of global trade in e-waste, the Basel Ban Convention prohibits hazardous waste exports from OECD countries to non-OECD. Unfortunately, there is still a large illegal market in which authorities are omitted by mislabeling e-waste as “metal scrap”.

In the European Union, a WEEE directive based on a market mechanism called Extended Producer Responsibility, seeks to deal with the increasing e-waste stream by incentivising manufacturers to design products that are easier to recycle. The use of market mechanisms to deal with the rapid growth in the consumption of electronics requires functioning markets and perfect information in order to be effective, a tall order for a global trade that is currently plagued with illegal exports and mislabeling of waste.

Conclusions

While computers and monitors are considered a necessity in developed societies, the waste stream generated from obsolete electronics is detrimental to both local ecosystems and the global environment. Policy decisions and market mechanisms designed to deal with the growth of this sector can help dealing with the associated consequences of e-waste, but it does nothing to address the root cause of the problem, namely, the growth itself.

This article was edited by Alive2green

Article Source: http://sustainablebusinessforum.com/sbtoolkit/75111/impact-global-electronics-consumption-and-e-waste-trade

According to a recent study from the CDC that tracked the demographics of landline phone usage (the study was designed to help the organization adapt its data collection programs), over half of the households in the U.S. either don’t use their landline for phone calls, or don’t have one to begin with.

This trend of going wireless for phone service is certainly handy for the users, but if those figures from the CDC are accurate, they could spell an increasing problem for e-waste disposal in this country (and the rest of the world), because the average replacement/upgrade interval is just 18 months, which adds up to a whole lot of cell phones that will end up in landfills or incinerators.

The EPA estimates that less than 10% of mobile phones are getting recycled, and only about 25% of all e-waste (by weight) ends up being collected for recycling. And because all of these electronic gadgets contain not only precious metals that could be reused (which would cut down on the environmental impact and social injustices associated with many “resource extraction” and refining methods), they also contain substances that are toxic to both humans and wildlife (such as lead, dioxins, mercury, cadmium, plastics, and fire retardants), finding appropriate end-of-life solutions for these products is an important part of the sustainability puzzle.

There have been campaigns from mobile providers to take back their devices for recycling, such as the recent effort by AT&T (which set a Guinness World Record), and some other third-party recycling or reselling services, but the unfortunate truth of e-waste recycling is that an estimated 50-80% of collected electronics end up getting exported to developing nations. This trend of exporting our e-waste means that we’re also exporting all of the toxic effects of the materials to places with extremely lax regulations for health, safety, and the environment.

One rather obvious solution is to encourage or require (either through tax breaks or other incentives, or through more strict regulation) that makers and sellers of mobile devices, or even all electronics, implement programs for both the collection and recycling of their products. This could be designed with incentives for the end user — such as cash or credit or a charitable donation in their name — to easily return their old device, as one study found that 98% of people who haven’t recycled a device are willing to do so if there is a reward involved.

What other possible solutions do you see as viable for making the mobile industry more sustainable?

This article was edited by Alive2greeen

Article Source: http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/our-mobile-addiction-creating-big-e-waste-problem.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29

Shakila Umair, researcher at KTH Centre for Sustainable Communications, made two field trips to Pakistan to study how e-waste is actually taken care of. She conducted a “social life cycle assessment” (s-LCA) on the social impacts of informal e-waste recycling in Pakistan.

“There are massive health and social problems connected to e-waste recycling in Pakistan. At the same time it is the only source of livelihood for thousands of people”, says Shakila Umair.

The assessment showed that the informal processes have a number of negative social and environmental impacts. Workers manually dismantle old equipment, burn wires to get copper and dip old circuit boards in acid to extract precious metals such as gold and silver. They inhale toxic fumes every day and lack awareness of the health risks.

“Relatively small protective measures such as gloves and masks would easily make a big difference on the workers’ health. But they cannot afford it themselves”, says Shakila Umair.

Men, women and even children are working with e-waste up to twelve hours per day, six days a week, without social security or benefits. Their income is low, approximately 2.7 dollars per day (or less than 1.4 SEK per hour).

There are international regulations preventing the transfer of hazardous waste, such as e-waste from developed to less developed countries. But there are loopholes which result in a growing illegal trade in e-waste. About 80% of all e-waste is shipped to developing countries where poor people recycle it manually at much lower cost than if it were recycled in more developed countries.

Recently, the regulations around e-waste have become stricter in both India and China. This means that more e-waste will end up in countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with weaker legislation and authority control.

Shakila Umair does not want to see a stop of e-waste treatment in Pakistan, since it is the livelihood for thousands of poor people. But e-waste treatment needs to be formalised, at least partially. What she asks for is that both local authorities and global ICT manufacturers take responsibility for the health and social situation of the workers in the informal e-waste economy.

“Why not include the conditions of these ‘distant workers’ in the Corporate Social Responsibility policies of global ICT suppliers?” concludes Shakila Umair.

Read more

Umair, S., Björklund, A., Ekener Petersen, E. (2013) Social Life Cycle Inventory and Impact Assessment of Informal recycling of Electronic ICT Waste in Pakistan. Conference paper to be presented at the First International ICT for Sustainability Conference (ICT4S), Zurich, 14-16 February 2013.

Article Source: http://cesc.kth.se/e-waste-recycling-at-whose-expense/

Technology firm HP has set up the first E-Waste plant in East Africa to help address this problem.

The East Africa Compliant Recycling was designed as a scalable model for e-waste recycling. It was established in Mombasa in October 2011 as a pilot project with funding from HP. The EACR was the first facility of its kind in East Africa to test a practical approach to e-waste recycling. The objectives were to:

• Analyse and measure volumes of e-waste returned

• Establish the process to safely separate the products into parts

• Identify facilities and markets to process all the resulting dismantled materials

Since beginning official operations, the EACR remains the only recycling facility in Kenya to accept, dismantle and separate all e-waste components, not just the valuable resources. Plastics, glass, batteries – everything – are all disposed in accordance with the highest international criteria while generating local income and employment opportunities.

And In June 2011, in large part due to the presence and services of the EACR centre, HP expanded its free hardware recycling service for commercial and enterprise customers to Kenya. This is the same convenient service that HP provides in more than 50 countries; customers can simply go online and request the service, which includes the recycling of hardware from any vendor and isn’t dependent on the purchase of HP products (with respect to Kenya).

In April 2012 HP announced that this facility, operating to international health, safety and environmental standards, would expand under new ownership and with a broader mandate. The renamed East African Compliant Recycling facility (formerly East African Computer Recycling), which was previously managed by an NGO, is currently at a transition phase, and its running has been taken over by a UK-based professional recycler named Reclaimed Appliances Ltd., which plans to open a Nairobi facility in the near future.

Applying the professional recycling expertise of Reclaimed Appliances, the EACR is broadening its mandate to handle all classes of e-waste, not just IT, including refrigerators, televisions, and coffee makers – anything with a plug or battery. The establishment of the new facility and network reaffirms HP’s commitment to leading industry in addressing the e-waste situation in the East African region. The facility will continue to involve the informal sector and facilitate the management of e-waste as a resource in the region

During this transition period, HP customers can still arrange for the collections of their e-waste via the HP website, and the informal sector workers in Mombasa can make arrangements for the e-waste they have collected.

The expansion of the EACR recycling facility in Kenya demonstrates that the proper management of e-waste in Africa is achievable. E-waste is a resource and properly managed generates local income and employment while fully addressing current health, safety and environmental impact issues.

Creating a sustainable solution for e-waste in Africa requires a number of factors, including a policy that encourages investment and infrastructure building, while taking into account local conditions; plus a collaboration among governments, NGOs, academics, OEMS and importers of new and used products and recyclers is essential to address the e-waste problems in Africa ; and it’s also important that the above is facilitated by a change in mindsets, an approach that stimulates drivers for sustainable business models to recover value from all e-waste and creating markets for fractions of e-waste which currently have no market.

According to Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority, each year the country generates 3,000 tonnes of electronic waste. E-waste is a growing challenge in Kenya and other parts of Africa, and an issue that businesses, NGOs, the public sector and IT vendors need to work together to address.

The establishment of the EACR is a milestone in HP’s efforts to introduce a new approach to e-waste recycling in Africa that considers the environmental, health and economic benefits that can be derived from the correct processing of e-waste.

The initiative provides Kenya with an opportunity to be at the forefront of developing new standards for IT e-waste recycling and proper care for the environment. HP also works closely with other electronics manufacturers and invited them to join an Alliance to work together on solving the problems of e-waste.

Finally there is also the opportunity for Kenya to become a recycling hub for the East Africa region bringing further economic benefits to the country.

Article Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201212170576.html?viewall=1