(CNN) For Eric Nshimiyimanain, who owns two small electronic repair shops in Kigali, Rwanda, the startup chime of an old Windows laptop is the sound of a business opportunity.
He refurbishes broken PCs, laptops, phones and secondhand gadgets classified as electronic waste, or “e-waste” that would otherwise end up as trash in Nduba, Rwanda’s only open-air dump in the outskirts of the capital.
“Sometimes we even use computer screens as TVs,” Nshimiyimanain says. Converting those screens to televisions then becomes a cheaper option, he adds, for “citizens who have low incomes and cannot afford buying a brand-new TV.”
Eric Nshimiyimanain (right) owns two small electronic repair shops in Kigali, Rwanda.
In this age of scrambling for the newest high-tech phone, tablet or television, refurbishing broken and outdated gadgets might seem impractical. But for many countries, it’s an important link in the value chain of e-waste management.
According to the UN-affiliated Global E-Waste Monitor report, nearly 54 million metric tons of e-waste was generated around the world in 2019. It includes everything from phones and computer monitors to larger appliances like refrigerators and old fax machines. Together, it weighs “more than all the commercial airliners ever made,” according to the UN.
Rwanda is one of only 13 countries in Africa that have passed national legislation regarding e-waste regulation, according to the report. And it has led to the first official recycling and refurbishing facility in the country.
Workers sort e-waste using a system of conveyor belts across Enviroserve’s recycling facility near Kigali.
Operational since early last year, this public-private partnership between the government and Dubai-based Enviroserve became a source of pride for Rwanda. The state-of-the-art plant near Kigali can process up to 10,000 metric tons of e-waste per year.
Rwanda’s focus on local action
According to managing director Olivier Mbera, Enviroserve has already repaired and refurbished more than 5,000 computers, which were sold to public schools. To date, it has processed more than 4,000 tons of e-waste and created more than 600 jobs.
“We’ve also mitigated more than 2,000 tons (of carbon), equivalent to emissions from all the equipment we have recycled,” he says.
Conveyor belts sort plastics from metals, while plexiglass chambers collect phosphor fumes from old tube TVs. Circuit boards pile up in bags and lithium batteries are constantly being tested. Every piece of e-waste is meticulously collected, compacted or crushed.
The hazardous materials are separated from the valuable ones for two reasons, Mbera says. “There are approximately €55 million ($66 million) of resources in (Rwanda’s) e-waste, and if they are not recovered, they’re affecting our economy. Also, there are a lot of hazardous materials that can contaminate the environment.”
Even before lockdowns boosted sales of IT equipment to supply people working from home, the Global E-Waste Monitor report projected nearly 75 million metric tons of electronic equipment will be discarded worldwide each year by 2030. Yet less than 10 million metric tons of e-waste was recycled in 2019.
The report also estimated as much as 20% of all e-waste gets exported — some of which is arriving on the African continent.
In Nigeria, a 2017 study found that the country had annually imported between 60,000 and 70,000 metric tons of secondhand electric and electronic equipment (EEE) — mostly from developed countries such as Belgium, the UK and Germany — but that 19% of those devices were inoperable.
From soot to gold: Finding opportunity among hardship in Africa’s largest e-waste site
In Agbogbloshie, a district of Ghana’s capital Accra, at least 5,000 informal scrap metal workers come each day to burn electric and electronic equipment, or e-waste, extracting precious and critical metals from the material.
Fire has exposed these copper windings from old electronics. E-waste is defined as products with circuitry and a power supply or battery. The gamut of e-waste runs from toys and appliances to everyday home and office electronics, which end up at dump sites around the world when not properly recycled.
It’s estimated there is 100-times more gold in a metric ton of e-waste than in gold ore, according to the UN environment program, with more precious metals contained in discarded circuit boards like these.
E-waste, along with other waste, carpets the ground in Agbogbloshie’s scrapyard. The surrounding area is Ghana’s largest informal settlement, known as Old Fadama. A 2011 Amnesty International report estimated as many as 79,000 people live there.
Described by the UN-affiliated Global E-Waste Monitor (GEM) as a “well-organized scrapyard” — not just a dumping ground — the daily scrap burning in Agbogbloshie poses serious environmental and health risks to recyclers and nearby residents. Signs like these are posted to warn of the risks.
Burning e-waste is the easiest way for people to get paid for salvaging metals. Yet one study found informal scrapyard workers earn just $2 to $5 a day.
Although many second-hand appliances could be refurbished and repurposed across the world, they are often categorized as e-waste and exported illegally disguised as scrap metal, according to the GEM report.
Globally, as much as 20% of all e-waste is exported. On the African continent, much of it comes here to Agbogbloshie; a 2011 Basel Convention report found that Ghana imported roughly 150,000 tons of e-waste per year.
Discarded mobile phones may contain precious metals such as gold and copper. Initiatives to recycle phones even include the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games; in 2019, the organizing committee recycled 6.2 million mobile phones, among other small electronic devices — extracting 32 kilograms of gold — as part of its Tokyo 2020 Medal Project.
The amount of e-waste from screens and monitors decreased by 1% since 2014, according to the GEM report. Boxy CRT (cathode-ray tube) monitors have been replaced by flatter, lighter screens, which decreases the weight.
Copper, iron and gold contribute to the approximately $57 billion value of global e-waste that was generated in 2019. But only a fraction of the total e-waste is properly recycled, leaving billions of dollars’ worth of untapped precious metals.
And in Ghana, a 2011 Basel Convention report found the country imports roughly 150,000 tons of EEE per year. Its biggest dumping site is Agbogbloshie, which has attracted international attention for its sheer volume of e-waste intake. Described by the Global E-Waste Monitor as a “well-organized scrapyard,” there are more than 5,000 informal scrap workers extracting metals from burning the scraps every day.
A golden opportunity
Perhaps the biggest opportunity for sub-Saharan nations lies in extracting those valuable raw materials and metals. According to the UN, as much as 7% of the world’s gold is in e-waste.
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“Globally, waste is not only increasing in quantity, but also in its complexity and composition,” says Okechukwu Daniel Ogbonnaya, country representative for Rwanda at the Global Green Growth Institute, an intergovernmental organization for sustainable economic growth. “Within an electronic device, there’s gold, silver, platinum … and these sorts of elements could be extracted, providing new business opportunities for small businesses and even for municipalities in regard to generating revenue.”
“Rwanda (is) one of our earliest pioneer members and they’ve done really well when it comes to its transition to a green growth pathway,” he adds.
Mbera points to Enviroserve’s success in Rwanda as a potential spark for an e-waste movement, formal training and job creation across East Africa. “We’re negotiating and talking with different governments in Africa to also establish similar facilities in their countries,” he says.
One thing is certain: it will take all sectors to combat the growing e-waste crisis, whether on a large scale like Rwanda’s Enviroserve or from a local business like Nshimiyimanain’s repair shop.
“The world is tech-driven and everything we need is through the use of technology,” Nshimiyimanain says. “When equipment invented by someone else gets spoiled and I’m able to repair these gadgets, it makes me very happy.”
For more stories like this one, visit Marketplace Africa
Source link : https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/02/26/africa/marketplace-africa-ewaste-electronics-recycle-rwanda-spc-intl
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Publish date : 2021-02-26 08:00:00
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