40 million tonnes of e-waste created each year globally
With technology advancing and everything squeezed into a mobile device that controls human activities and reactions, vehicles are turned into battery power while solar panels have become the source to generate electricity. The fastest growing waste stream in the world has become the electronic waste (e-waste). It is estimated that about 40 million tonnes of e-waste is created each year globally.
These remarks were made by Central Environment Authority, Deputy Director (Hazardous Waste and Chemical Management), Tissa Gamage during The Sunday Times Business Club (STBC) meeting held on Monday at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo. The event title was “Management and Disposal of Hazardous Waste including e-waste.” INSEE Ecocycle Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, General Manager, Sujith Gunawardhana was another speaker at the event. The sponsors for the event were Shangri-La and the NDB Bank.
Mr. Gamage said hazardous waste poses danger to living organisms and environment due to its characteristics such as toxicity, reactivity, flammability, corrosivity, infectiousness and radioactivity. “There is domestic or household hazardous waste and industrial hazardous waste that can harm people, animals and plants whether it ends up in the ground, streams or even in the air. Some toxins such as mercury, lead and persistent organic pollutants remain in the environment for a long period passing through food chains and food webs and accumulates over time. Humans and wildlife often absorb these toxic substances when they eat fish or other prey. Sudden explosions or fire, immediate health impacts, immediate death and environment pollution are the impacts of improper management of hazardous waste,” he stressed.
Mr. Gamage noted that e-waste contains toxic components that are dangerous to human health such as mercury, lead, cadmium, barium, lithium and persistent organic pollutants such as polybrominated flame retardants. The negative health effects of these toxins on humans include brain, heart, liver, kidney, skeletal and neural disorders or damages. Open burning of e-waste can form carcinogenic gases such as dioxin and furans as well.
Currently available hazardous waste disposal facilities in Sri Lanka for industrial hazardous waste are INSEE Ecocycle Lanka (Pvt) Ltd and a few other companies that collect healthcare waste. E-waste and mercury bulbs are collected by the Ceylon Waste Management (Pvt) Ltd and 17 e-waste collectors island-wide.
INSEE Ecocycle Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, General Manager, Sujith Gunawardhana in his presentation highlighted, “We need to get into a circular economy where we can dispose our own waste in an environmentally safe manner and reap benefits from the same at later stages.”
He also mentioned that segregation of waste is a practical issue in households. “Phone batteries that are thrown into the waste leads to fires and there is no technology to track such batteries in the tonnes of waste collected. You have to manually segregate it. Also, there is no designated place to discard e-waste in Sri Lanka,” noted Mr. Gunawardhana.
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