By: George Kurzom
https://www.maan-ctr.org/magazine/article/3605/
E-waste is everywhere
Exclusive to Environment and Development Horizons (Afaq magazine):
E-waste is increasing worldwide at an annual rate that ranges between 3% and 4%. This rate of increase is more than any other type of waste.
In 2020, the amount of e-waste was estimated to be about 57 million tons, and in the last five years it has increased by about 20%.
E-waste contains large quantities of toxic substances that endanger water sources and large areas of land, and are sometimes disposed by incineration, causing life-threatening air pollution.
The Increase of consumption in developing countries is a major factor in the growth of this waste, accompanied with the short life of the product and limited maintenance possibilities.
The efforts that are put into expanding the recycling of e-waste have been partially successful. In Europe in particular, there are legislations that oblige the production and marketing companies to collect the e-waste and transport it to recycling facilities. Still, the percentage of the actual recycling in Europe is only 20%.
Due to the shift towards renewable energies, the issue of waste generated will exacerbate. The production of these energies requires the use of many components of electronic equipment, especially energy storage batteries and magnetic components used in electric trains and turbines to generate electricity from wind energy.
The production of this equipment involves the use of large quantities of minerals and metals which are extracted from large mines.
The demand for metals such as lithium, copper and manganese is expected to increase by 20 times, and even more, in the next three decades.
A significant increase in demand is also expected for some "critical metals" (defined as such because of their importance and rarity), such as dysprosium and neodymium, which are used in wind power facilities and electric vehicles.
Exploration and extraction of minerals cause severe damage to natural areas as well as emission of greenhouse gases. According to a research published in 2020, about 82% of the world's mines are designed to produce minerals for renewable energies and components for electric vehicles, and a significant portion of the mines are located in areas of high ecological importance.
The next destination for mining companies is the deep ocean, where serious damage to the marine environment is expected. Many workers in regions like Central Africa work in the mines in very bad, humiliating working conditions and are directly exposed to pollution.
Therefore, when considering mining activities, it is required to consider the effects on the environment, the improvement of working conditions and equal distribution of profits for the developing countries from the mines on their territory.
Mining operations can be reduced by increasing the efficiency of using minerals when designing products, reusing products and recycling the minerals in waste. The more minerals are extracted during the recycling process, the fewer natural areas are destroyed due to the construction of mines.
The situation in Palestine:
In West Bank and Gaza Strip, there are no specialized companies that are responsible for collecting electronic waste and transporting it for recycling.
With the lack of an organized sector for collecting and recycling e-waste in Palestinian Territories, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is not ready to deal with the expected increase in e-waste, if the shift towards renewable energy and the use of electric cars is achieved.
PA areas also lack infrastructure for sorting and recycling facilities that meet professional standards. Worst of all, huge amounts of Israeli electronic waste and scrap are smuggled to random sites in the West Bank, and awareness activities to encourage people to recycle are limited and non-effective.
In addition, there is still no clear regulations or legal handling of components of electronic equipment related to renewable energies and electric vehicles.
Sooner or later, it will be required to establish suitable infrastructure for sorting and recycling facilities and assistance in this regard must be provided, including incentives provided by the government. E-waste collectors may be required to search for global markets in which the accumulated electronic waste can be sold.
In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a large segment of informal workers and private sectors workers work in the collection of scrap, electronics and large waste, whether on an individual level from collectors, processing workshops, factories, and commercial and industrial companies, but this sector is still unorganized.
Workers in this field (in the West Bank and Gaza Strip) generate an annual movement of capital estimated at hundreds of millions of shekels. This sector is a large economic market, but it lacks arrangement and organization, noting that the most organized areas are Jenin, then Nablus, followed by Tulkarem. It is clear that this sector needs a process of "legitimization", in the sense of legislating laws to regulate the process of waste collection, separation and recycling.
The work with solid waste and electronic waste in the official and private sectors, in terms of its collection, separation, and sometimes sorting, recycling or manufacturing, has created significant job opportunities for the unemployed.
It is noted that there is no interest in collection and treatment of some hazardous electronic waste, such as cell phone batteries, while there are large quantities that reach the landfills annually, and they contain significant amounts of toxic cadmium that pollutes the environment and negatively affects the public health.
In summary, we can say that waste collectors in general, and those who collect electronic waste in particular, carry out important environmental work in the field of cleaning the Palestinian environment from solid inorganic waste, especially in agricultural lands, roadsides, valleys, and residential areas, although that the reason behind their work is primarily their financial needs.
In addition, there is no direct and clear intervention, monitoring, follow-up or regulation of the work and activities of solid waste collectors, especially electronic waste, by the related government parties (Ministry of Health or the Environmental Quality Authority), noting that many children work in the excavation of landfills, resulting is some serious health problems and environmental damage.
The truth is that the solution to the increasing quantities of e-waste and its dangers to the environment and public health, must start from controlling ourselves and our desires that leads to exploitation and depletion of natural resources, and by reducing the consumption to the minimum and to raise the efficiency by reusing and finding less damaging alternatives.
Otherwise, we will live in an economy that contains less carbon and fossil fuels, but which is increasingly polluted by toxic metals and the continued destruction of ecosystems.
Translated by: Rasha Abu Dayyeh