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E-wastE casE study

Garbage in, cash out

A rural IT enterprise is using e-waste to tackle youth unemployment while teaching them a thing or two about life in
the digital world, reports dudley moloi.

Waste from electronic and electric reach their end-of-life cycle, as newer phenomenon as “delayed dumping”.
equipment (EEE), or e-waste as it is and better products replace them. In 2014, for example, an estimated
popularly called, is more than just the According to the 2016 report by the 41,8 million tonnes was “deferred” from
“harmless” files that end up under the United Nations Environment Programme developed to developing countries.
“trash” icons on computer screens. (UNEP), the world’s stockpile of e-waste The pattern also plays itself out within
Broadly defined, e-waste follows three is growing at some 40 million tonnes nations and neighbourhoods.
streams, with corresponding orders annually, much of it made up of waste
of profits. At the top, is the lucrative generated by households. In South How we deal with the mounting global
e-waste from information technology Africa, an e-waste assessment survey challenge that e-waste poses remains
(IT), followed by consumer electronics. undertaken by the e-Waste Association a tricky regulatory issue the world
The bottom of the pile is made up of of South Africa (e-WASA) in 2008 put over. Even more complex is managing
e-waste from the so-called white goods, the volume of e-waste produced by the moving target that is rising levels
such as fridges and washing machines. households at between one million and of e-waste when traditional methods
Bulky and cumbersome, e-waste from two million tonnes annually. of waste disposal, such as burying
white goods is the Cinderella of the it in landfill sites, burning it or even
recycling world. Typically, e-waste is mostly generated recycling, are barely coping with the
by the wealthy and technologically surge in e-waste.
a mounting problem advanced regions, countries and
households of the world, but often Although there are laudable private
ends up being the burden of the less sector-driven e-waste initiatives in South
A growing global environmental and affluent sections of society, who often Africa and abroad, their combined
health menace, e-waste is the product have less capacity to process e-waste. impact does not substantially and
of a throw-away-society. It rides on the Waste management experts refer to this positively tilt the e-waste scale. Largely
back of the faster rate at which products
28 SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW | Volume 11 No. 3 of 2018