Improper e-waste disposal: Nigeria’s time bomb

NIGERIA’s Minister of State for Environment, Alhaji Ibrahim Jibril, sometime ago, enlightened the public on the consequential effects of improper and informal handling of e-waste on health and environment. The minister said: “The challenge that e-waste poses to the environment and Nigeria as a nation can no  longer be ignored: at the same time, e-waste is an economic opportunity that can be exploited to generate wealth”. Alhaji Jibril pointed out that e-waste is a real challenge and environmental hazard. He further said that there was a concerted effort by major players in electronics all over the world to tackle these challenges. Some electronics manufacturing companies have come together to take the initiative, knowing they have the responsibility of recycling these products which they initiated in the first place.

E-wastes are electronic wastes. They include used or discarded electrical or electronic devices like mobile phones, computers, and TVs that have reached end of their useful life. It is a fact that we cannot do away with e-wastes because of technological advancement in the world of electronic gadgets. After short years of usage, some electronics become obsolete, and turn to e-wastes which are either reused or refurbished, while others are recycled. The volume or quantity of e-wastes increases as technology advances with new inventions and innovations of gadgets. Some devices do not reach their end-of-life span before they are replaced with new ones. Old or near end-of-life gadgets are sold as second-hand or as scrap to be dismantled and burnt in order  to obtain valuable precious metals(gold, silver, copper) for sale. This bare-hand dismantling and open burning of e-waste is regarded as informal e-waste handling. Another informal e-waste management practice is by dipping dismantled electronic pieces into acid to wash off the valuables. Some toxic substances are released to the environment in the process.

The informal recycling of e-waste has caused untold harm to air, soil and water components of environment, and indirectly on health of Nigerians. E-wastes contain some hazardous heavy metals which include Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, Cadmium and brominated flame retardants. Household batteries are potentially hazardous forms of e-wastes because they contain some heavy metals too. These batteries, when improperly disposed or recycled, become toxic to the environment. An e-waste dumpsite is a one-way ticket to the grave for the scavengers and dumpsite workers. Metallic toxins released during the open burning of the dismantled gadgets are regularly being inhaled by these people. Exposure to these heavy metals by contact or ingestion may cause various forms of cancer, damage to body organs and brain, and sometimes death.

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The Managing Director of Hinckley Associates Nigeria, a Lagos-based e-waste recycling firm, Mr Andrian Clews, recently said, “Some of those electronic wastes contain harmful substances. All of them are safe when in use but when you start breaking or burning them, they become harmful, especially by touching these metals people expose themselves to danger”. It may interest you to know that the e-waste scavengers and dumpsite workers are not the only ones at risk of health problems, those who stay in that vicinity are also at risk. The soil and water bodies around e-waste dumpsites are contaminated. Burning of plastic-coated components of e-wastes is responsible for this and may portend imminent health hazard to unprotected recycle workers and people living within the vicinity. It is expedient to state clearly here, especially to the scavengers and those directly involved in informal e-waste recycling, that: the business feeds you first and then it kills you!

The Director-General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Mr Lawrence Anukam, while speaking on ‘Solution to the growing e-waste problem facing Nigeria’ on a Channels TV programme, ‘Earthfile’, said the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) will help solve the e-waste problem. The EPR program, he said, involves the manufacturer of a product taking the responsibility for what happens to the end of life of that product – to be returned to producer or to be recycled. He added that the EPR program would be effective if all stakeholders (manufacturer, user and recycler) are involved.

To address this growing challenge in Nigeria, three stakeholders are principally involved: the government, manufacturer and the user.  The government must ensure increased sensitisation of the general public. It must carry out periodic and regular review of legislations, guidelines, standards, policies and regulations through its environmental and health ministries. Law enforcement agencies are also not left out in the fight against e-waste menace. The EPR program checks the manufacturer’s role in the area of end-of-life product take-back by the producer through proper recycling. Manufacturers are advised to use less hazardous chemicals to reduce inherent health risks in handling and recycling these e-wastes. Product users must channel their used or old electronics to recycling companies only, not to dumpsites where open burning is done.

The onus to keep the environment safe also lies on the user by handling and disposing e-wastes properly. So, when it comes to gadgets, think before you throw or dump!

• Ojewale writes in via [email protected]