‘3000 tons of IT discarded in Kenya last year’ - study

A baseline e-waste study conducted in Kenya estimates that about 3000 tons of PCs, monitors and printers were discarded in that country in 2007 - and the figure is expected to rise.

The study, conducted by the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTAnet), is one of three baseline studies that have been supported by a partnership between Hewlett Packard (HP), the Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF) and the Swiss Institute for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) - the others being in Morocco and Senegal. A pilot e-waste recycling project was also launched recently in South Africa by the partnership.

The study included nearly 40 survey interviews with industry vendors and retailers, refurbishers and informal recyclers, amongst others. It aimed to map e-waste volumes in Nairobi, develop a clear picture of stakeholders interested in e-waste in the country, analyse the policy environment and look at the environmental and social impact of e-waste. It also looked to develop a roadmap charting the way forward for Kenya to develop an e-waste management system.

Presenting the study results at a half-day workshop at the Jacaranda Hotel in Nairobi, Tim Waema, a researcher on the project, said that 2007 also saw significant growth in the import of IT into Kenya, and that this should raise concerns about future quantities of e-waste in the country. An increase in e-waste volumes is "likely" he said.

Muriuki Mureithi, also a researcher on the project, pointed out that e-waste was a new phenomena in the country. Nevertheless, the government had begun to think about policy considerations, and was in the process of developing a concept document on e-waste. It was also already a requirement of the Ministry of InfoCom's 2006 policy on information and communications technologies (ICTs) that discarded electronics are disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

Perhaps most significantly, Kenya's regulator, the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), had included a clause in its Unified Licensing Framework, requiring licensed operators to take responsibility for the safe disposal of their old technology. The framework would come into effect on July 1st. According to Alice Wanjira, a CCK board member, and KICTANet co-ordinator, the framework should have a trickle-down affect, and begin to shape policy decisions at the ministerial level in the Kenyan government.

While about 50% of the country's PC market is estimated to be made up of second-hand PCs, Muriuki said for many of the companies surveyed there was no clear strategy for the disposal of old technology. 70% of the study respondents suggested that they were aware of the environmental impacts of e-waste. However only 20% of respondents had an e-waste policy.

The research showed that ways of disposal included selling old equipment, cannibalising it for spare parts, or simply storing it. In some instances technology was returned to the seller, given to a recycler, or was simply thrown away in general waste.

When IT was disposed, it was generally "unfixable", suggesting it had little second-hand value. Encouragingly, a quarter of respondents suggested they were willing to pay to support the safe disposal of discarded technology.

On average, informal recyclers could earn Ksh6000, or US$3, per day. Muriuki pointed out that this was above the global poverty alleviation target of US$1 a day per person. "This means that those engaged in electronic recycling are UD$3 richer than 49% of the population in Kenya," he said. "There is an opportunity for some business activity on the ground. The challenge is how we make the US$3 a day sustainable." Discarded components found ‘downstream' amongst recyclers and informal collectors, amongst others, included capacitors, transistor, batteries, network cables, and printed circuit boards.

Some recycling capacity for metals and plastics was evident in Kenya, and refurbishers like Computer for Schools had developed recycling partnerships with credible local partners. Exported IT equipment included cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors which could not be locally recycled - a situation typical elsewhere in Africa. Printed circuit boards were mostly shipped out of the country, to destinations that included Europe.

Some ‘green' initiatives the government had already undertaken included encouraging the country's youth to focus on e-waste, actively discouraging open burning of old electronic products, and making a Ksh0.5-million donation to Computer for Schools. However Muriuki said that government representatives had also expressed concern about a lack of capacity to deal with e-waste in Kenya.

Proposals for improving e-waste management in Kenya included developing policies and licensing operators, and practical interventions such as separation of waste at source, skills development, leveraging e-waste as an opportunity for job creation, and a transfer of technology know-how. The final report for the study was due to be released mid-July.