Where did you throw that old phone?

The old tiny-screened phones with yellow and orange lighting used barely five years ago have over the years been replaced by sleek, slender, bright and wide-screened smartphones that a majority of Kenyans now own.

This replacement has been steady as smartphones have become quite cheaper to acquire — and replace — but what happens when they die?

Or what happened to your old analogue television set when you replaced it with the flatscreen LED during the digital migration? Or that old and noisy fridge that was replaced with the shiny, non-frost double-door smartfridge? What happens to your electrical gadgets when they cease to be of any value to you?

The fast-growing use of technology, particularly in Kenya compared to other countries in  East Afric, has seen improvement in the size and computational capacity of electronic and ICT products, which now also have a shorter life span. This contributes to the steady rise in e-waste despite the limited recycling capacity.

E-waste is defined as non-biodegradable electrical and electronic equipment that are old or have ceased to be of any value to their owners. They include computers, air conditioners, printers, mobile phones, refrigerators and television sets, among others.

A study, E-Waste Management in Kenya: Challenges and Opportunities, shows that not only do Kenyans not know how to dispose of such e-waste, but are also not aware of the harmful effects of such waste on the environment, their health and safety.

This is despite e-waste being known to pollute soils, air and the environment when burnt or disposed as it discharges harmful heavy metals such as mercury, barium, sulphur, and lead. These metals can poison organs such as lungs, skin and eyes as well as the nervous, digestive and immune systems. Such waste also emits gases which deplete the ozone layer, while others block water drainage channels, causing harmful effects, including cancer to living organisms in an ecosystem.

The problem is escalated by the inability of consumers to purchase brand new electronic equipment and resort to second-hand or refurbished products which are cheaper but have a shorter life-span and in turn end up as e-waste.

Kenya imports most of its ICT products from Britain, United States, China and Malaysia, and old products are discouraged. However, there is a considerable chunk of old or refurbished products that are brought in through NGOs as donations to schools and other government institutions.

The Public Procurement and Disposal Act, which governs disposal of goods and services in public institutions, does not consider the end-of-life effects of electronic equipment such as computers or printers. This is because public institutions have to bond and invite competitive tenders for disposal of computers and other equipment as scrap, in line with procurement procedures. This slow bureaucratic process results in huge stocks of obsolete computers and other items held in public institutions.

Waste found in households and other private areas, the study shows, is disposed through the informal sector where it is reused, recycled, disposed in landfills and burnt in open fields, further exposing Kenyans to risk from the resultant pollution.

This is because there is inadequate infrastructure for e-waste management, absence of frameworks for end-of-life product take-back, and implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility.

Also, government agencies dealing with waste management have limited capacity to deal with e-waste management and are not working in a coordinated manner that could build synergy.

The National Environment Management Authority has developed guidelines on e-waste management, but “these guidelines and regulatory frameworks are not effective without proper national regulations and policies,” the study by scholars Ibrahim Otieno and Elijah Omwenga from the University of Nairobi adds.

“Government should therefore, as a matter of urgency, formulate and enforce policies at a national level for effective management of e-waste. These should govern the  e-waste management process from storage, collection to disposal and licensing of key players.”

The study calls on the government to take initiative to amend public procurement and disposal laws to take cognisance of the emerging environmental and safety issues associated with e-waste management.

But e-waste also presents an economic opportunity through the recycling and refurbishing of discarded electronic goods and the harvesting of the precious metals they contain, something the Guidelines for E-Waste Management in Kenya takes note of as an opportunity to stimulate entrepreneurship.

Consequences on...

ENVIRONMENT

•  Air pollution, especially when e-waste is burnt

•  Waste management problem of non-biodegradable equipment

•  Toxicity and radioactive nature of e-waste to the human, water, soil and animals

•  Blockage of water runoff channels

•  Increased amount of waste

•  Waste management disposal problem

ECONOMY

•  Substantial public spending on health care

•  Investments in complex and expensive environment remediation technologies

•  Loss or waste of resources that can be recycled for re-use

•  Opportunities for recycling industries and employment lost

•  Ozone depletion has led to unpredictable weather conditions. Prolonged droughts and floods demand the use of resources which should be deployed for growth and development in other sectors

SOCIETY

•  E-waste affects people’s health (lead poisoning and cancerous mercury).

•  Growth of informal waste disposal centres in the neighbourhood

•  Informal trade and management of e-waste

•  Loss of appreciation for ICT

***

In 2010, United Nations Environment Programme estimated the e-waste generated annually in Kenya at 11,400 tonnes from refrigerators, 2,800 tonnes from TVs, 2,500 tonnes from personal computers, 500 tonnes from printers, and 150 tonnes from mobile phones.

Kenya is a signatory to international conventions on waste management including:

 The Basel Convention on control of trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes and their disposal.

 The Bamako Convention on the ban of the imports into Africa and the control of trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes into Africa.

 The Nairobi Convention which provides a mechanism for regional (East Africa) cooperation, coordination and collaborative actions on solving pollution problems.

 The Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants.

 The Rotterdam Convention on the prior informed consent procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade.

Some of the entities involved in e-waste management:

 East African Compliant Recycling in Mombasa and Machakos.

 Computers For Schools Kenya has opened the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Centre  in Embakasi, Nairobi

 The E-waste Implementation Toolkit in Kisii seeks to define the conditions and actions necessary to implement effective electronic waste management systems in African urban areas.