Remember the day you got your first television? Most probably purchased during the 1980s, is it lying around in your storeroom now? Even if you had given it away, all of these first generation TV sets have by now outlived their lifespan becoming what is now known as Electronic Waste or e-waste.
The boom in electronic and electrical equipments in the 1980’s has created this new form of waste. Every year, hundreds of thousands of old TV sets, computers, mobile phones, refrigerators, radio equipment etc. become unusable, making e-waste one of the fastest growing waste streams even in a developing country like Sri Lanka.
 |
| E-waste related health issues are on the rise and there is a need for careful disposal. In a way, keeping them is better than carelessly dumping such goods. - Charitha Herath |
But unlike normal day-to-day household garbage which can sometimes be sold as trash to rag-pickers, such e-waste should be disposed of with utmost care, since they can contain an alarming range of toxic materials. These electronic gadgets contain thousands of components made of deadly chemicals and metals like lead, cadmium, chromium, mercury, polyvinyl chlorides (PVC), brominated flame retardants, beryllium, antimony and phthalates which can cause environmental and health hazards.
Long-term exposure to these substances can cause damage to the nervous system, kidney and bones, as well as to the reproductive and endocrine systems. Primitive recycling or disposal of e-waste to landfills can also cause irreversible environmental damage by polluting water and soil, and contaminating air.
But in Sri Lanka, we still tend not to throw away our old electronic items even after they become unusable. Most of these items were purchased at a high price and hence people are reluctant to dispose of them, even after their lifetime is over. “After it is broken beyond repair, an electronic item like any other product becomes garbage which requires it to be disposed, no matter how much you’ve paid for it,” affirms Chairman of the Central Environment Authority (CEA) Charitha Herath. Sometimes parents tend to give old cellular phones to their children to play with, oblivious of the hazards.
E-waste related health issues are on the rise and there is a need for careful disposal, Mr. Herath points out. In a way, keeping them is better than carelessly dumping such goods.
Understanding the need to act before e-waste becomes another garbage time bomb, the CEA has started a programme together with other stakeholders to address the issue in Sri Lanka. Public awareness is only the first step of this initiative. The solution to the impending e-waste crisis lies in prevention rather than its management. The CEA has begun talks with manufacturers, importers and brand owners of the e-waste to now start the second step towards a solution, which is setting up a collecting mechanism under ‘take back’ programmes. This is known as the principle of Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR), where sellers of electronic items bear responsibility for financing the treatment of their own-branded e-waste, discarded by their customers. The CEA is working on preparing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under which the brand owners or manufacturers of electronic products will set up these collecting centres in Sri Lanka.
“The private sector companies’ response in this regard is really encouraging,” said the CEA chairman who is in discussions planning the country’s e-waste management strategy. Considering its toxic nature, recycling of e-waste is indeed beyond the means of a consumer or local government
bodies.
This is where e-cycling- a new term which refers to the process of recycling the components or metals contained in used or discarded electronic equipment comes in. Manufacturers of electronic items would also have e-cycling techno abilities.
Mobile phones, that have a rapid rate of obsolescence are the latest addition to the e-waste bin. Though your trusty cell phone may not contain as much toxic material as larger electronic devices such as TVs, its shelf life is only about 18 months for the average consumer. Cell phone coatings are often made of lead; hence if unusable phones are disposed of in landfills, it will result in lots of lead released to the environment which is indeed harmful.
The most hazardous component of the cell phone is the battery. Cell phone batteries were originally composed of nickel and cadmium (Ni-Cd batteries). Cadmium is listed as a human carcinogen that causes lung and liver damage. Alternatives contain potentially explosive lithium or toxic lead. The Sri Lankan market is also flooded with new funky Chinese phones which have a short lifespan and could be manufactured under questionable standards.
However, the good news is that all mobile phone companies have agreed to setup collecting centres for unusable phones, some having already set up collecting facilities.
Like the TV and the mobile phone, the computer has become a part of our lives; a fixture in our offices and increasingly in our homes today. A computer also has a short lifespan and can become obsolete with the invention of new faster models becoming e-waste quickly.
Lead is present in CRT computer monitors together with other toxic elements. Many laptops have a small fluorescent lamp in the screen that contains mercury, which is toxic when inhaled or digested. Mercury is also found in computer circuit boards, along with lead and cadmium. Circuit boards can also include batteries made of mercury, as well as mercury switches. While toxic materials comprise only a small amount of e-waste, it doesn’t take much lead or mercury to contaminate an area’s soil or water supply.
To educate the public on the e-waste threat posed by computers, the Federation of Information Technology Industry in Sri Lanka (FITIS) has organized an awareness campaign at the INFOTEL exhibition to be held from October 3 . Event manager of INFOTEL – Shammi Maithreepala says they had arranged a double-decker bus and distributed coupons to Colombo households aiming to collect information and compile an e-waste inventory.
The INFOTEL team has also made this coupon available in their website, so anyone in Sri Lanka can register their e-waste. Register your IT e-waste at this address to support the survey conducted online with INFOTEL. http://www.fitis.lk/register.php.
“Understanding the gravity of the problem is the key to finding a solution to it,” says FITIS CEO Damith Hettihewa. All hardware vendors in Sri Lanka are part of the Federation of IT Industry in Sri Lanka organization, so they can also play a bigger role in managing IT waste. FITIS too is working with CEA to come up with a plan to collect these registered e-waste items.
“After this e-waste is collected, then comes the next step of managing it,” CEA Chairman Herath said, outlining their plan to have such e-waste imported for use in e-cycling plants in other countries or dumped in a controlled environment. However, as they feel the volume of e-waste in Sri Lanka is still not too high, sending it out would be the best available option available.
Environment Ministry sources said China which has the technology to e-cycle, has already agreed to import our e-waste. The Hazardous Waste Management division of the CEA is managing these operations and has already issued a licence to one company to export the e-waste under controlled conditions.
While the international treaty on hazardous waste called the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal regulates e-waste disposal, it has however, become a practice for developed countries to send their e-waste to developing countries. Sri Lanka is a signatory of the Basel treaty and hence it is illegal to send any e-waste to Sri Lanka without declaring it. But there are other means by which developed nations transfer their e-waste to countries like Sri Lanka, for example under the guise of humanitarian reasons, that even old technology can still help.
Public awareness is no doubt the first step and then action to tackle the e-waste issue before it becomes another garbage time-bomb. |
E-mail
