As we say goodbye to an old year and hello to a new one, it doesn’t really mean that we have to bid adieu to our old electronic gadgets/electrical appliances, dump them, and replace them with something new. A toxics watch group is wasting no time in reminding consumers to think about public health and the environment before letting their old e-gadgets end up in the waste bin.
To promote e-waste prevention, reduction, and safe management, EcoWaste Coalition recently conducted a public outreach at Quezon Memorial Circle to inform the public about e-waste, described as “one of the fastest growing waste streams” across the globe.
Just last Dec. 13, the International Telecommunication Union, United Nations University, and the International Solid Waste Association came out with the Global E-Waste Monitor 2017 indicating the rising levels of e-waste and its improper and unsafe treatment and disposal through burning or dumping. According to the report, some 44.7 million metric tons of e-waste were generated globally in 2016 (that’s 6.1 kg. per inhabitant). The report notes that Filipinos produced 2 to 5 kg. of e-waste per inhabitant. The e-waste generation will have produced 52.2 million metric tons by 2021.
Thony Dizon, chemical safety campaigner, EcoWaste Coalition, gives this friendly warning: “Broken appliances, outmoded gadgets, busted lamps, and other unwanted electrical and electronic products that are improperly recycled, burned or disposed of can pollute the environment with health-damaging chemicals.”
Electrical and electronic equipment and their wastes are made up of heavy metals such as cadmium, hexavalent chromium, lead, and mercury, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDes) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), among dozens of other toxic chemical compounds.
Reckless disposal practices can result in the release of these harmful chemicals, some of which like mercury, PBDEs, and PCBs are covered by multilateral environmental agreements such as the Minamata Convention on Mercury and the Stockholm Convention on POPs.
The toxic watch group said that when e-wastes such as vinyl-coated cables are burned to get the copper wire, harmful byproduct POPs like dioxins and furans are formed and released to the environment. Dioxins are considered as among “the most toxic chemicals known to science.”
In addition, fluorescent lamps, when dumped with ordinary trash or manually dismantled to remove the metal parts for recycling, will release the mercury vapor out of the glass tubing and cause toxic pollution. We all know that exposure to mercury, a most potent neurotoxin, can damage the brain and the central nervous system.
Note, too, that when the plastic casings of cathode ray tube TVs and computer monitors are incinerated or landfilled, toxic PBDEs are released, contaminating the environment. PBDEs are among the new POPs targeted for global elimination under the Stockholm Convention.
How to solve this problem? The ideal solution, according to the leaflet “E-Waste ’to, Iwasto!,” is for e-wastes to be returned to their manufacturers for proper management. “Otherwise, e-wastes should be managed by accredited treatment, storage, and disposal facility. These can be effectively done by instituting appropriate drop-off or collection points for their safe and ecological retrieval/collection, storage, and recycling or disposal.”
The leaflet was prepared by the EcoWaste Coalition for the Safe PCB and E-Waste Management Project of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources with assistance from Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
So, this yuletide season (and the whole year through), to avoid and minimize the creation of e-wastes the EcoWaste Coalition gives consumers the following tips:
1) Instead of buying new gadgets, extend the life of your existing electronics. Think before rushing to buy the latest phone, for instance, if you really need it.
2) Have broken electronics repaired.
3) Have outdated component of an electronic product refurbished or upgraded instead of buying an entirely new replacement.
4) Never dispose of unwanted but still usable electronics. Pass them on to relatives and friends for reuse or donate to charities and schools. What might be of no use to you, might come in handy for some people.
5) Collect spent household batteries, cellphone batteries, fluorescent lamps, empty ink cartridges and the like, label and safely store them in a container with cover and keep out of reach of children and pets. These should be safely managed or disposed of in an environmentally-sound manner and not mixed with regular waste.
6) Visit the manufacturer’s website or call the dealer to find out if they have a take-back program or scheme for your discarded electronics.
7) If you really need to spend for new electronics, (after all, you worked hard and saved hard for it), choose items with less hazardous substances, with greater recycled content, with higher energy efficiency, with longer life span, and those that will produce less waste.
8) Take good care of your electronic device — whether it’s brand-new, refurbished or hand-me down — as sound maintenance will prolong its lifespan. Read the instruction manual carefully and get acquainted and trained on easy fix-it-yourself guide.
9) Make it a point to have your e-scrap properly recycled by authorized recyclers so that they don’t end up as e-waste to be thrown away or burned.
On the other hand, do you want to earn easy cash from e-trash? A group called eWaste Management Philippines shares this info: “We accept/collect/pay for most e-waste, ‘for dead or alive’ stuff, such as: old/phased-out cell phones (like those common Nokias from 2002); broken laptops/CPU; UPS, power supply, power bank; anything with lithium (dead Li-ion batteries); dead power tools.
Here’s the deal, “If it has a battery, we will pick it up. If it’s working, we pay per kilo. If it’s current technology, we pay market price. It’s win-win — easy cash for e-trash.
They add, “Every home has an average of seven old cell phones (or even more), two old laptops, and five “dead” power tools. Every business has 50-percent (one out of two) dead UPS power supply for each CPU. We pay by the kilo for dead e-waste like that.”
Contact: eWaste Management Philippines (formerly PisonetCafe). FB Page: m.facebook.com/eWastePhilippines. Website: www.eWastePH.wordpress.com. Or visit www.PisonetCafe.com; landline: 850-3949; mobile: Glen Sera 0949-994-9693 (manager) or Brad Lee 0947-990-9446 (English only); Soldiers Hills Village, Muntinlupa and BF Homes, Parañaque.