E-waste - A national issue to be considered...

Electronic waste (e –waste) is one of the major environmental issues which are currently faced by the developing countries as well as the developed countries all around the world. With the rapid technological development, many innovative products arrive to the market. The demand for those innovative products is growing day by day and those innovative products replace the existing ones. Thus, that will create a hazardous situation regarding the disposal. In our country – Sri Lanka too, the current consumption of the new technological equipment is increasing in a considerable rate with respect to the past and the disposal of waste will be a huge issue, in the near future. So, it’s very much convenient to be aware of e – waste, its impact and the e – waste management system in Sri Lanka.

E –waste …

Discarded electrical and electronic appliances such as computers, mobile phones, batteries, bulbs etc…, can be considered as e – waste.
These e – waste consist of various harmful substances such as Lead (Pb), Nickel (Ni), Antimony (Sb), Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Mercury (Hg) etc…  Therefore, many environmental and health impacts can be occurred with the e – waste.

The main environmental issues associated with the e – waste are, most of the waste is not decayed, addition of harmful substances to the soil and emission of harmful gasses to the atmosphere because of the burning of the waste. The most common health hazards engaged with the e – waste can be described as follows.

How can we minimize e – waste?

In order to overcome the problem of e-waste, there exist several possible approaches as follows.
•    Use only the essential electrical and electronic equipment.
•    Get the maximum use of the equipment, throughout its entire life-time.
•    Forbid the transfer of used electronic and electrical equipment from developed countries.
•    Recycle the waste which is not suitable for usage.

If the consumers such as domestic, commercial etc use only the most essential electrical and electronic equipment, the contribution towards reduction of e-waste is enhanced. On the other hand, by getting the maximum use of equipment throughout its entire life time, consumers will not switch to the new equipment immediately. This fact will also be helpful to minimize e-waste. Most of the developed countries export their own e-waste to the developing countries for a cheaper price in order to get rid of those. Because of this action many developing countries have faced a huge problem in disposing e-waste. Therefore forbidding the transfer of used equipment is a must.

Recycling is the main step of reducing the impact of e-waste. In the process of recycling, the waste is sent for the extraction of substances. And those extracted substances can be used in manufacturing processes which contribute towards saving natural resources. Therefore recycling will reduce the air pollution, water pollution and emission of greenhouse gases.

Approach to waste management in Sri Lanka…

Sri Lankan government has already established the acts for e-waste management under the Central Environmental Authority (CEA). There are some companies who have engaged in e-waste collection and recycling under the inspection of CEA.

Though there exists an e-waste management concept in Sri Lanka, most of the people are not aware about that, as it is only limited to the Colombo city area. But as a result of technological development the usage of electrical and electronic equipment has spread all over the country. Therefore it is very much essential to implement a national level waste management program.

When considering the current situation, it is very much clear that people don’t have a proper knowledge on the harmfulness of e-waste. The foremost action of this e-waste management is to make people aware regarding this matter and impact on their lives. Then as an approach, establishment of waste collection centers in each area is a must. Also recovering and recycling material by safe methods are essential. If we can conduct such a national level e-waste management program from today itself, we will be able to win the battle of e-waste disposing which will appear in the near future.

Article By:  Harshani Bendarage
                  Tharangi Gunarathna

Posted in: Sustainable Energy and Policy