Encouraging emerging models for safer, more sustainable electronics recycling in Africa & India
Fifty-five percent of the world's 2.3 billion mobile broadband subscriptions are in developing countries, with Africa leading the growth with 20% mobile-broadband penetration, up from just 2% in 2010.
By 2020,
the number of subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to exceed half a billion according to a November 2014 report released by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA),
which represents many of the international mobile phone operators.
Increased investment in wireless networks and the availability of affordable cell phones and other mobile devices (many of which are second hand) are largely responsible for Africa's surge in electronics growth. While this is good news for the region on many fronts, such as improved access to healthcare, banking services, education, agricultural markets, government services, and e-commerce opportunities, it has also presented the region with a serious and increasingly urgent challenge.
|
Assessing current electronics recycling operations
in Agbogbloshie, and laying the ground work for
a safe and sustainable alternative. |
While there has been vibrant growth in the repair and refurbishment industry which is rarely mentioned in conversations about "what is going on in Africa" (an important topic for another article), the region lacks facilities that can safely and sustainably manage the growing volume of end-of-life electronics. This has resulted in an informal electronics "recycling" industry that utilizes a range of practices that in many cases, pose serious health and safety consequences to workers, communities, and the environment. Methods such as open air burning as a means to recover the metals found in discarded electronics are utilized. Despite the known dangers of such practices, the immediacy of supporting families trumps worker concern over future health and environmental risks.
This unfortunate dilemma has contributed to Agbogbloshie, located in the West African nation of Ghana, being named one of the 10 most polluted places on Earth. Efforts over the past decade to shut down or ban informal recycling operations in economically disadvantaged regions have been met with resistance by workers, and have proven to be ineffective at stopping this dangerous, and often illegal, rudimentary "recycling" of used electronics. Policy makers and others are beginning to propose a different approach for solving this global problem. One such person is Eric Lundgren, CEO of IT Asset Partners (an R2 Certified company in based in California). As Lundgren points out: "make good practices profitable, and people will naturally gravitate to them."
Last spring, Lundgren spent a month in Agbogbloshie building relationships and grass roots support for a safer, healthier and more financially beneficial alternative to some of the more dangerous practices. Meetings with Ghana's Vice President Amissah-Arthur, other ministry officials, community leaders and workers proved promising, and Lundgren has started laying the groundwork for developing a safe and sustainable electronics recycling facility Ghana.
"My goal is to help workers understand that better methods mean better profits-and better health," says Lundgren. "Burning cable to remove the plastic coating from the metal not only imposes a tremendous cost to the health of workers and the community, it also carries a significant economic cost by eliminating the resale value of the plastics and degrading the value of the metals that are recovered in the process."
A safer and more sustainable approach is possible, one that does not cut out the informal sector but instead redefines its roles. The informal sector can safely and efficiently collect and manually dismantle end-of-life electronics which can then be sold to a safe and sustainable recycling facility for "downstream" processing. Using safer and more sustainable processing methods, this facility will also have the capacity to maximize the recovery of materials and value from the recycled electronics. According to Lundgren, such a facility should be able to pay the informal sector significantly more than what they earned processing the materials on their own.
Partnerships between certified facilities and the informal recycling sector offer a promising solution to a very complex global problem. A similar model is already bringing change to parts of India. E-Parisaraa, also an R2 Certified company, provides informal collectors with protective masks, gloves and training, and purchases the e-scrap they collect. This arrangement moves the processing of e-scrap from backyard operations to E-Parisaraa's certified processing facilities that employ 180 workers - many of whom were previously engaged in the informal sector. It also doubles the amount of precious metals and other valuable resources that are recovered from the processed materials. (See Recycling Today Global Edition for full article).
The most sustainable solutions to the global e-scrap challenge will be found using a holistic approach that addresses not only the health and safety issues for workers and the environment, but the economic, geographic and cultural challenges as well. SERI, along with R2 Leaders and R2 Certified recyclers and refurbishers, are paving the way for positive and sustainable changes in the electronics recycling industry around the world.
- The Ghana e-waste Country Assessment (produced with the support of the Secretariat of the Basel Convention) http://ewasteguide.info/files/Amoyaw-Osei_2011_GreenAd-Empa.pdf
- Rankings were compiled by The Blacksmith Institute and the Green Cross after surveying more than 2,000 sites. http://www.worstpolluted.org/projects_reports/display/107