Representatives of Central American governments, private companies, universities and non-governmental organisations have set a 20-point agenda aimed at advancing the handling of waste from electrical and electronic equipment in the region.
This is expected to have a multiplier relief effect on Nigeria and other developing economies where e-Wastes are dumped on a regular basis.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, there will be focus on the application and identification of business models that leverage recycling opportunities and create new employment.
The new agenda was agreed upon by the 86 participants in the ITU/United Nations Environmental Programme Workshop for Capacity Building on Environmentally Responsible Management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, which held in San Salvador.
The agenda emphasises increased collaboration among all parties, as well as the development of online learning programmes and workshops aimed at policy-makers.
It calls on ITU and UNEP/PACE to assist Central America and the Caribbean in the development of regulations, legislation and international standards to mitigate e-Waste’s potentially damaging effects on the environment, health of local populations and beyond.
According to the ITU, electronic devices can contain up to 60 different chemical elements. But deficiencies in collection methods, recycling technologies and illegal dumping mean the majority of these valuable resources are lost when equipment reaches end-of-life.
The failure to close the loop on e-Waste leads not only to adverse environmental impacts, but also to the depletion of a potentially valuable resource base of “secondary equipment.”
The Secretary-General, ITU, Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, said, “The e-Waste challenge will be met by combining effective legislation with incentives to develop business and employment opportunities to maximize the lifespan of these valuable finite natural resources.
“Capacity building and technology transfer to developing countries, along with the implementation of international standards, will be key to reducing waste and pollution, in parallel with the creation of sustainable business models.”
According to the ITU, stakeholders reaffirmed their commitment to the implementation of the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions, while also recognising the importance of ITU Resolution 79 on “The role of telecommunications/information and communication technology in handling and controlling e-Waste from telecommunication and information technology equipment and methods of treating it adopted by the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly.”
This resolution urges ITU to develop activities relating to capacity building and the implementation of recommendations, methodologies and other publications on the responsible management of e-Waste.
Also speaking on the move, the Vice-Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, El Salvador, Ms. Lina Pohl, said, “WEEE is a topic of high relevance to this region and the world. We need to act now before it becomes an ‘unstoppable waste tsunami’ that causes irreversible damage to our health and environment.
“The Central American Commission on Environment and Development is very thankful for this important contribution and happily offers to promote this agenda and its model of cross-cutting integration of efforts amongst environment, health and telecommunication authorities, private sector and civil society,” said Nelson Trejo, Executive Secretary of CCAD at the inauguration of the workshop.
“If we tap into the potential of wide public-private sector partnerships to promote environmentally sound management of WEEE, we will be able to create a vibrant green economy, while reducing poverty, health hazards and risks, climate change and the pressure on our non-renewable resource base,” said Miguel Araujo, Director of the Basel Convention Regional Center for Central America and Mexico.
Recently, the Executive Director, UNEP, Achim Steiner, said managing e-Waste had become not only important, but absolutely urgent, owing to the fact that e-Waste contained a veritable cocktail of toxic materials.
This enormous waste stream contains billions of pounds of hazardous materials, including lead, mercury, beryllium, cadmium, brominates (flame-retardants), and more than 1,000 different toxic substances harmful to human beings and the environment if not disposed of properly.
Experts, however, say with a country like Nigeria with a very large population (which presents a massive market for electronics like mobile phones, computers, and television, among others, there is a serious e-Waste threat on the environment and people.
The Regional Chairman, International Institute of Risk and Safety Management, Nigeria Region, Mr. Eugene Itua, in a report, said old electronics were often lumped into municipal waste, and when burnt, released toxic and carcinogenic substances into the air.
Chemicals such as beryllium, found in computer motherboards, and cadmium, used in chip resistors and semiconductors, are poisonous and could lead to cancer. Chromium in floppy disks, lead in batteries and computer monitors, and mercury in alkaline batteries pose severe health risks, he explained.
An average 15-inch personal computer or TV monitor contains as much as five pounds of lead; many old laptop batteries include cadmium, one of the most toxic chemicals known, according to him.
Generally, experts agree that exposure to toxic chemicals from e-Waste, including lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium and polybrominated biphenyls – can damage the brain and nervous system, affect the kidneys and liver, and cause birth defects.
Thrown into landfills, these substances leak and can eventually pollute groundwater. Studies by the Federal Ministry of Environment suggest that basic components like lead are being recovered and then smelted in people’s backyards, which poses a huge risk of lead poisoning.
Studies have also indicated “excess heavy metals in the soil, as well as in plants and people who eat vegetables.”
A research at the University of Ibadan had also warned of a “chemical time-bomb scenario,” with children highly susceptible to toxic substances, which could lead to long-term cancers affecting the lungs and all parts of the body.
According to a White Paper by Techturn, a company in the forefront of clean tech recycling, while the technology to safely refurbish or recycle used electronics is available in the developed world, the majority of e-Waste ends up in developing countries where it is often disposed of in a manner that damages human health and the environment.