Transcript Document

WHERE DOES AFRICA STAND ON
THE GLOBAL E-WASTE ISSUE?
• By: Prof. Oladele Osibanjo, Executive Director,
BCCC-Africa In Nigeria
• Side event at Basel/COP Regional Centers Fair
May 1st 2013, CICG, Geneva.
• Organized by BCCC-Africa/BCRCs in Egypt, Senegal and
South Africa in partnership with the “e-waste African
Alliance”
Overview Of Presentation
• Introduction
• Global E-waste Challenge – Africa
Nexus
• E-waste generation and management
challenges in Africa
• Conclusion and recommendations
Introduction
• NEPAD
has
recognised
information
communication technology (ICT) as a critical
factor in Africa’s development.
• ICT explosion is faciliated by the importation of
new and secondhand or used computers and
mobile phones from
developed countries to
bridge the digital divide as majority of the African
population cannot afford new EEE.
• Near tsunami generation of E-waste from
unsustainable production and consumption of
electronic products is the dark side of ICT
revolution of modern day development.
• Africa is one of the destinations of such WEEE but
it lacks the capacity
and resources for its
environmentally sound management
Africa and ICT
Profile of Africa :
Internet hosts
Internet Users
Internet penetration
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Africa
World
Europe
USA
Sweden
•According to ITU, about 2
billion people are on the
internet, but too few in Africa.
• Internet penetration is low as
5.6% of the population (13%
of global population) use the
internet in Africa compared to
the world average of 26.6 %
• However between 2000 and
2008, the number of users in
Africa grew by a staggering
1,100 % compared to the rest
of the world’s 332.6 %.
• Thus Africa is estimated to
have one of the fastest if not
the fastest internet use growth
rate
Global E-waste Challenge –Africa Nexus
 BAN 2005 Film ‘’ Exporting Re-use and Abuse
to Africa ‘’ alerted the world about the dangers
of externalization ; as well as the potential
environmental
and human health costs of
uncontrollable dumping of E-waste in Africa
with Lagos, Nigeria as case study.
 BAN Film, Greenpeace outcry and international
media focus on the potential harm of unending
dumping of E-waste in Africa were probably
some of the drivers for the SBC E-Waste Africa
Project 2009 -2012.
 Financial support for the project was provided
by the European Commission, the governments
of Norway and the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland and the Dutch
Recyclers Association (NVMP)
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GeSI & StEP E-waste Academy
E-waste : Where did it all start and end up ?
7
Known Sources
GeSI & StEP E-waste Academy
GeSI & StEP E-waste Academy
Known and Suspected Destinations
Sources: CBS News, Abiresearch, US-EPA, BAN, SVTC
Countries involved: Benin,
Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt,
Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria,
and Tunisia
Project components
I.
A study on flows of used EEE and ewaste imported into Benin, Côte
d’Ivoire,
Ghana,
Liberia
and
Nigeria, from European countries
II.
National assessments and national
environmentally
sound
management strategy
III.
A socio-economic study on the ewaste sector in Nigeria and a
feasibility study of international
cooperation between African SMEs
and European recycling companies
IV.
Enforcement programme in Benin,
Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria and Tunisia
to prevent illegal transboundary
movements of e-waste
In 2005 Africa generated approx. 2% of the
worlds PC waste
Region
Mio Pieces
Tonnes
36,7
807
5,9
137
24,8
549
Middle East
2,0
45
Africa
1,6
39
Central Asia
0,9
22
East Asia
25,7
595
Total
97,7
2194
North America
Latin America & Caribbean
Europe
Presented at R’09: Mueller E., Schluep M. et al.(2009). Assessment of e-waste flows: a probabilistic approach to quantify e-waste based on world ICT and
development indicators. R’09 Twin World Congress, Davos/ Switzerland and Nagoya/ Japan, 14-16 September .
E-waste Generation in Africa
• In 2005 Africa generated approx. 2% of the worlds PC
waste.
• Africa’s consumption of EEE is growing fast: PCs x10 and
mobile phones x100 over the last decade. This will in turn
increase the amount of e-waste generated in the future.
• in absolute numbers, Nigeria dominates the region in the
total amount of used and new EEE imports, total number of
EEE in use and the subsequent total amount of e-waste
generated. E-waste generated in 2009/2010 were :Benin
(9,700 tonnes); Cote d’lvoire (15,000 tonnes); Ghana
(179,000 tonnes) and Nigeria (1,100,000 tonnes)
respectively
• In 2010, 50-85 percent of e-waste generated in Africa has
been generated domestically, equating to 650,000–
1,000,000 tonnes of e-waste per annum. By 2017 Africa
could generate more e-waste than EU.
… posing various challenges to Africa
throughout the material life cycle of EEE
EEE
Import
Consume
WEEE
Collect
Refurbish
Dismantle
Recover Lead
Recover Copper
Dump
Photos by Empa
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Major Challenges to Solving E-Waste
Problems In Africa
Absence of infrastructure for appropriate e-waste management,
 Absence of legislation dealing specifically with e-waste – only
Nigeria has E-waste Control regulations 2011
Non-domestication of Basel, Basel Ban Amendment and Bamako
Conventions and problem of near end of life EEE
Absence of any framework for end-of-life (EoL) product take-back
or implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR).
Lack of a regional approach since countries have different
approaches to the e-waste issue
Inadequate public education and awareness on the environmental
and human health problems associated with the uncontrolled
importation of near-end-of-life and end-of-life EEE as well as crude
processing of e-waste such as dumping on land or water as well as
uncontrolled burning.
GeSI & StEP E-waste Academy
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14
Structure of E-waste management in Africa : Social Factors
3. Dismantling /
pre-processing
1. Repair & refurbish
2. Collect
Refurbishers
GeSI & StEP E-waste Academy
Scrap metal workers (sometimes “scavengers”)
GeSI & StEP E-waste Academy
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Challenges in E-waste management in Africa:
Environmental Aspects

Major environmental and human health impacts
result from dismantling, material recovery and
final disposal through release of hazardous
substances into soil, water and air

Impacts during collection, refurbishment and
repair of EEE are less significant

Cable burning is a major source of dioxin
emissions. Dioxin emissions to air arising from open
burning of e-waste in the 5 West African Countries studied
amonts to about 3-7% of total dioxin emissions to air in
Europe.

Environmental monitoring in Ghana and Nigeria
have provided scientific evidence of gross
contamination of soil, ground water, surface
water and sediments with heavy metals such as
lead, nickel, mercury and BFRs at levels higher
than threshold limits established in developed
countries

Portend risk factors to attainment of sustainable
GeSI & StEP E-waste Academydevelopment and MDGs
Challenges in E-waste management in
Africa: economic aspects
 Thriving scrap market in Ghana and Nigeria
 Reasonable good market price for e-waste in informal market
• Prices for non-reparable equipment in Lagos 2010:
• CRT-monitor
50 Naira (US$ 0.34)
• Fridge
100 Naira (US$ 0.67)
• Desktop PC
100 Naira (US$ 0.67)
 Thriving export market to Europe for printed circuit boards
widening entrepreneurship and economic opportunities
 Market opportunities for environmentally sound recycling
facilities in Africa leading to intra-regional trade, employment
generation and poverty alleviation
GeSI & StEP E-waste Academy
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Africa is moving forward - various activities and
initiatives to solve the problem are on the way
Studies
Recycling pilots
Etc., etc.
Guidelines, policies, etc.
Conclusion
and
Recommendations
• Yes Africa is moving on slowly in finding sustainable solutions
•
•
•
•
•
•
to the e-waste challenge.
Formation of ‘’e-waste African Alliance ‘’ grew tangentially out
of the project
However progress varies greatly and the biggest effort still lies
ahead in addressing Policy and Legislation including
enforcement; Business and Financial models, Technology and
Skills acquisition /capacity building, Monitoring and Control,
Marketing and Awareness.
EU-Africa Enforcement Network on the control of illegal traffic
in E-waste , an output of the SBC E-waste Africa project,
provides an excellent opportunity in networking in Africa , with
EU and the international community .
Since capacities are differentiated and variable in different
African countries a regional approach would be more efficient
and cost effective in developing and implementing solutions.
Capacity building acquired during E-waste Africa Project on Ewaste Inventory and Country Assessments can be leveraged
for sub-regional and regional projects
development and
implementation.
Africa should explore the economic opportunities in e-waste
but with adequate environmental and human health
safeguards.
Thank You
7/17/2015
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For more information visit
SBC website : basel.www.int and
BCCC-AFRICA in Nigeria website :
w
www.basel.org.ng