The Green e-waste Channel: model for a reuse and recycling system of electronic waste in South Africa

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Mémoire de Master of Science en Environnement Master Thesis, Master of Science in Environment Spécialisation : Dynamiques locales de développement, politiques territoriales et gestion des resources Specialisation : Local dynamics of development, territorial politics and resource management

The Green e-Waste Channel: model for a reuse and recycling system of electronic waste in South Africa

Bondolfi Anahide Jury: Prof. Suren Erkman (UNIL, IPTEH) Prof. Ronald Jaubert (UNIL, IGUL) Dr. Mathias Schluep (EMPA)

Soutenu le /Defended on 9.3.2007 Lausanne, Switzerland

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Picture on the title page: pile of about 12 tons of e-waste waiting to be processed at the dismantler Darkling Industrial Metal, Alexandra/Johannesburg, South Africa. November 2006. Source: author -2-

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to the eWASA team, Ray Lombard, Wayne Wermij, Suzanne Dittke, Alan Finlay, for their useful inputs and for the time they found to help me in spite of their busy schedules. Many thanks as well for their kindness to show me around, accommodate me, make me discover wonderful places in South Africa and the nice food…. Special thanks to Lene Ecroignard, besides the ever fast and helpful answers to all my questions, for contributing to make me feel at home in Pretoria. I’d like to thank all the informants of this study, especially Frans Dekker for his time and Leo Markson for being so open on difficult topics. Thanks also to the intern Jerome Laffely for introducing me to the project during my first week and helping adapting from the Swiss to the South African way of thinking. To my housemates in Pretoria as well, especially to Craig and Bertie for helping me with my English and for listening to my e-waste stories daily and Dona for joining when looking for people to fill up the questionnaire. I want to express my gratitude to many people in Switzerland as well, first to my supervisor Mathias Schluep for his support, recommendations and valuable feedbacks, and for having included me in this project, giving me the opportunity to discover South Africa. Thanks to my professors Suren Erkman and Ronald Jaubert, and to my tutor Yoann Fayolle. Thanks to David Rochat for having brought interest to me on that topic. Thanks a lot to Adithya Vasudevan for his help to correct my English in this thesis. I am grateful to the KFPE for financing my internship in South Africa through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). And last but not least, many thanks to my friends and family in Switzerland for encouraging me in the long process of writing this thesis, especially my brother Constantin for supporting me during difficult moments. Un grand merci à tous!!! Anahide Bondolfi, February 2007. -3-

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

SUMMARY Electronic waste, or e-waste for short, is a fast growing waste stream, not only in developed countries but also in countries in transition such as South Africa. Although South Africa recycles some of its e-waste, most of it is in storage, mostly because there is no take-back system. Thus, the equipment looses value for second use. Furthermore, some processors and refurbishers import broken equipment such as old computers because there is not enough material easily available locally. This could be illegal according to the Basel Convention, which regulates the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes. There are many unsound processes in the handling of e-waste because there is no proper management system for e-waste. Many hazardous components are illegally dumped and informal recycling occurs such as open burning of wires and dumping of monitors. Health and environmental risks are associated with those activities. This study proposes a model through a Green e-Waste Channel by defining the role of possible stakeholders. The Channel is defined as the infrastructure and the processes needed to reuse and recycle e-waste. The main stakeholders are refurbishers, collectors and processors. Producers, the government and NGO’s can support the Green e-Waste Channel through a management, legislative and facilitative process. The potential role of each stakeholder is discussed. The viability of the model of a Green e-Waste Channel in South Africa was assessed through a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). The analysis shows that the model reveals many opportunities with advantages for all stakeholders: a) sufficient material can be provided to processors and refurbishers, b) safe jobs can be created, c) a convenient solution can be provided for the consumers, d) a solution for end-of-life equipment can be offered for the producers, and e) the channel helps respecting national and international regulations. In addition the current situation in South Africa is favourable for a successful introduction of a Green e-Waste Channel: the e-waste situation is relatively clean, with limited import and informal recycling, and there is a general move towards more sustainable waste management.

Keywords:

Green

e-Waste

Channel,

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e-waste,

refurbishment,

recycling.

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

GLOSSARY AIDS

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

ARF

Advanced Recycling Fee

BAN

Basel Action Network

BAT

Best Available Technology

BCRC

Basel Convention Regional Centre

BEP

Best Practice

BFR

Brominated Flame Retardants

CPU

Central Processing Units

CRT

Cathode Ray Tube

CTMM

City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality

DEAT

Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism

$

American dollars

EC

European Community

EEE

Electronic and Electrical Equipment

EMPA

Eidgenössische Materalprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research

EOL

End-of-life

EPR

Extender Producer Responsibility

EU

European Union

eWASA

e-waste Association of South Africa

GDP ppp

Gross Domestic Product Gross based on purchasing-power-parity

HDI

Human Development Index

HIV

Human Immunodeficiency Virus

IBM

International Business Machines

ICT

Information and Communication Technology

ISO

International Organization for Standardization

IT

Information Technology

ITA

Information Technology Association of South Africa

KFPE

Kommission für Forschungspartnerschaften mit EntwicklungsländerCommission for Research Partnerships with Developing countries

NEMA

National Environmental Management Act

NGO

Non Governmental Organization -5-

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne NWMS

National Waste Management Strategy

OECD

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

ORDEE

Ordinance on the Return, Taking-back and Disposal of Electrical and Electronic Equipment

PAH

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

PC

Personal Computer

PCB

Printed Circuit Boards

POP

Persistent Organic Pollutant

PRO

Producer Responsibility Organisation

Pty. Ltd.

Proprietary limited company

PWB

Printed Wiring Board

RoHS

Restrictions of Hazardous Substances

RSA

Republic of South Africa

SDC

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

Seco

Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

SENS

Stiftung Entsorgung Schweiz – Foundation for disposal Switzerland

SWICO

Swiss Association for Information, Communication and Organisation Technology

SWOT

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

UNDP

United Nations Development Programme

UNEP

United Nations Environment Programme

U.S.A.

United States of America

WEEE

Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment

WSIS

World Summit on the Information Society

ZAR

South African rand

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES _______________________________________________________ 9 LIST OF TABLES ____________________________________ Erreur ! Signet non défini. LIST OF APPENDICES __________________________________________________ 10 1.

2.

3.

INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________ 11 1.1

Global e-waste development_______________________________________________ 11

1.2

Global e-waste regulation _________________________________________________ 12

1.3

South African context ____________________________________________________ 15

1.4

South African e-waste context _____________________________________________ 17

1.5

Pilot projects for the “Green e-Waste Channel” _______________________________ 18

1.6

Objective of this study ___________________________________________________ 19

METHODS _________________________________________________________ 20 2.1

Stakeholders identification ________________________________________________ 20

2.2

Desktop study __________________________________________________________ 21

2.3

Meetings and workshops _________________________________________________ 21

2.4

Interviews and site visits__________________________________________________ 21

2.5

Questionnaire survey ____________________________________________________ 23

2.6

SWOT Analysis ________________________________________________________ 25

CURRENT SITUATION IN GAUTENG: ROLE PLAYERS________________ 26 3.1

Framework of the case study ______________________________________________ 26

3.2

Distributors ____________________________________________________________ 27

3.3

IT Rental Companies ____________________________________________________ 28

3.4

Corporate consumer _____________________________________________________ 28

3.5

Household consumer ____________________________________________________ 29

3.6

Refurbishers ___________________________________________________________ 33

3.7

Collectors _____________________________________________________________ 35

3.8

Collection points________________________________________________________ 36

3.8.1.

Drop-off sites ________________________________________________________ 37

3.8.2.

Buy-back centre ______________________________________________________ 38

3.8.3.

Scrap metal merchants _________________________________________________ 39

3.9

Processors _____________________________________________________________ 40

3.9.1.

Recyclers ___________________________________________________________ 41

3.9.2.

Informal recyclers ____________________________________________________ 45

3.9.3.

Refiners ____________________________________________________________ 46

3.10

Final disposers _________________________________________________________ 47

3.11

General for all role players ________________________________________________ 49

3.12

Generalisation for all South Africa __________________________________________ 50

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne 4.

5.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION AND OBJECTIVES______________________ 51 4.1

Storage _______________________________________________________________ 53

4.2

Reuse ________________________________________________________________ 54

4.3

Standards of recycling ___________________________________________________ 55

4.4

Amount recycled________________________________________________________ 56

4.5

Informal processing _____________________________________________________ 57

4.6

Final disposing _________________________________________________________ 59

4.7

Import of waste computers ________________________________________________ 60

4.8

Export of pre-processed material ___________________________________________ 61

4.9

Public awareness________________________________________________________ 61

4.10

National and international legislation ________________________________________ 62

4.11

Common and global vision on e-waste_______________________________________ 63

LONG TERM AIMED SITUATION: THE GREEN E-WASTE CHANNEL __ 64 5.1

Definition _____________________________________________________________ 64

5.2

Stakeholders ___________________________________________________________ 65

5.2.1.

Refurbishers _________________________________________________________ 65

5.2.2.

Logistics providers____________________________________________________ 66

5.2.3.

Collection points _____________________________________________________ 69

5.2.4.

Processors __________________________________________________________ 73

5.2.5.

Final Disposers ______________________________________________________ 74

5.3

6.

7.

Framework of the Channel ________________________________________________ 75

5.3.1.

System Operator _____________________________________________________ 75

5.3.2.

Government _________________________________________________________ 77

5.3.3.

Academics and NGO’s ________________________________________________ 78

SWOT ANALYSIS OF the AIMED LONG TERM SITUATION ____________ 80 6.1

Strengths ______________________________________________________________ 80

6.2

Weaknesses____________________________________________________________ 82

6.3

Opportunities __________________________________________________________ 86

6.4

Threats _______________________________________________________________ 88

CONCLUSION______________________________________________________ 90

REFERENCES __________________________________________________________ 95 APPENDICES__________________________________________________________ 102

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map of the Provinces and major cities in South Africa ________________ 17 Figure 2. Picture of a basement full of old computers, University of Witwatersrand _ 29 Figure 3. Number of electric and electronic equipment in use, stored and discarded. _ 30 Figure 4. Ways people surveyed used to discard their equipment ________________ 31 Figure 5. Ways people surveyed used to discard their recyclables _______________ 32 Figure 6. Principal ways for collection of e-waste in Gauteng: current situation ___ 35 Figure 7. Picture of collectors bringing scrap at a buy-back centre _______________ 36 Figure 8. Picture of rest of phones and other equipment from Telkom SA Ltd ______ 45 Figure 9. Summary of the current e-waste recycling situation and problems related__ 51 Figure 10. Current and aimed long term destination of materials after pre-processing_ 61 Figure 11. Frequency of Pick-up service for e-waste wished by the persons surveyed 67 Figure 12. Ways for collection of e-waste in South Africa: aimed long term situation_69 Figure 13. The South African Green e-Waste Channel: aimed long term situation.___ 79

LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Categorisation of the elements of the SWOT _________________________ 25 Table 2. Amount of e-waste processed in Gauteng____________________________ 42 Table 3. Summary of the problems of the current situation and objectives of the Green e-Waste Channel.______________________________________________________ 52 Table 4. Number of jobs depending on the type of activity. _____________________ 55 Table 5. Comparison of informal e-waste recycling in Asia and in South Africa ____ 58

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

LIST OF APPENDICES I.

Questionnaire on household consumer behaviour regarding e-waste ____103

II.

Questionnaire analysis _______________________________________ 107

III.

List of site visits ____________________________________________ 113

IV.

List of Workshops and meetings attended________________________ 114

V.

List of Informants___________________________________________ 115

VI.

Summary of the SWOT _______________________________________117

VII.

Selection of definitions of e-waste_______________________________120

VIII.

Categories of e-waste_________________________________________121

IX.

Why e-waste is considered hazardous____________________________ 122

X.

Legislation in South Africa____________________________________ 123

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

CHAPTER I 1. INTRODUCTION The production of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is increasing rapidly, followed by an escalating amount of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste). South Africa, as most countries in transition and developing countries, doesn’t have a proper system to handle its e-waste. The objective of this study is to propose an infrastructural model for a future reuse and recycling system of e-waste in South Africa called “Green e-Waste Channel”.

1.1

Global e-waste development

The importance of information and communication technology (ICT) to the world economy has brought an increase in demand for electronic equipment. With the rapid pace of technology advancement and the quick drop in product-costs to support increasing demand, the production of EEE is one of the fastest growing fields in the world. In just fifteen years, the number of personal computers worldwide increased dramatically, from about 100 million machines in use in 1990 to close to a billion in 2005 (Computer Industry Almanac Inc., 2006). At the same time, accelerating obsolescence in computing technology shortens the useful life of electronic equipment with each successive generation (Macaulay et al., 2003). When those equipments become obsolete and need to be replaced, they generate a large volume of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), commonly called electronic waste or e-waste for short. According to Widmer et al. (2005b), there is so far no commonly accepted definition of “e-waste”. The term used in this study refers to any appliance using an electric power supply that has reached its end-of-life, according to the definition of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2001). This includes all kinds of obsolete items such as computers, fridges, toys or lamps. A selection of definitions and the different categories of e-waste can be found in appendix VII and VIII. The end-of-life of a product in this document refers to “the time point when the product’s - 11 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne functionality no longer satisfies the requirements of the original purchaser or the first user” (He et al., 2006). Compared to other waste streams, e-waste is accumulating rapidly (Sinha-Khetriwal et al., 2006). According to The Economist (2005), e-waste accounts for almost 8% of the European municipal solid waste. Disposal of WEEE is a growing concern due to rising volumes and toxic content: more than 1000 substances can be found in electronic discard, many of them being highly toxic including lead, mercury, arsenic and flame retardants creating dioxins emissions if burned (Widmer et al., 2005b). Heavy metal components are harmful to both human health and the environment. If ewaste is landfilled or incinerated together with household solid waste, “some heavy metals will remain in the environment for a long time and will damage the soil, groundwater, lakes, rivers, etc. The human body is seriously affected by bioaccumulation as the toxins gradually build up inside the body” (Huang et al., 2006). In the U.S.A., the origin of about 70% of heavy metals such as mercury or cadmium found in landfill sites is e-waste (Puckett et al., 2002). On the other hand, WEEE contains only 2.70% of pollutants and over 60% of valuable metals (Widmer et al., 2005b) including steel (made for 98% of iron, iron being 20% of the weight of a personal computer), aluminium (14%) and copper (7%) (EMPA, 2005). It contains as well precious metals such as silver, gold and palladium, that make recycling activities economically interesting. Parallel to the increase in production of EEE, the increase of e-waste led to the boom of a new industry: WEEE recycling. Recycling practices also pose a concern with respect to environmental damage and worker health and safety (Atlee et al. 2006).

1.2

Global e-waste regulation

Due to the risks associated with unsound final disposing as well as recycling, several countries recognised the need for legislation on the collection and disposal of e-waste. Those countries, mostly European but including as well OECD countries outside of Europe such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the State of California, implemented different legislations (Sinha-Khetriwal et al., 2006). The main objectives and regulations are the prevention of e-waste, the recycling and the reduction of the final - 12 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne disposing. The European Community introduced the WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC (The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, 2003b) in 2003. The directive has not been transposed by each European Union (EU) member state into its national legislation yet but it is in process. While the WEEE directive is based on an end-of-pipe approach, another European directive called RoHS for Restrictions of Hazardous Substances (The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, 2003a) seeks to reduce the use of several hazardous materials at the source, during the manufacturing of EEE: toxic substances such as lead or mercury should be replaced by safer components and shouldn’t be found in appliances entering the market from 1. July 2006. With less hazardous substances in EEE and therefore in WEEE, the environmental impact of recycling and disposal would be lower as well as the costs. The majority of the countries that possess legislations have placed the responsibility to implement it in the hands of manufacturers or importers (Sinha-Khetriwal et al., 2006), which involves, besides legislation, a proper management system. Switzerland, thanks an initiative of the IT industry, is pioneer in having a successful system for e-waste recycling: established in the early 90s, this system is presently controlled by two Producer Responsibility Organisations (PRO) - SWICO and SENS - depending on the category of equipment 1. The PRO finances the non-profitable part of the recycling and the logistics with an Advanced Recycling Fee (ARF). The legislation, the Swiss Ordinance on the Return, Taking-back and Disposal of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (ORDEE), supports the PRO, saying that the consumer has to return the end-of-life items, that producers and retailers must take-back e-waste- in the case of the retailer even if the customer doesn’t buy any new equipment - and that the producer is responsible to dispose of it properly (Federal Office for the Environment, 1998). As the PRO offers a convenient solution for producers, the number of free riders is minor (Sinha, 2004). Most of developing and industrialising countries don’t have a legislation that deal specifically with e-waste nor have a management system. Such a legislation would be

1

see www.sens.ch and www.swico.ch for each category.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne highly effective in these countries, because lenient environmental regulations, lower safety standards, high unemployment rate and cheap labour force, have lead to abundant informal recycling, resulting in environmental and health issues. According to Williams (2005), “Informal recycling of waste electronic goods (e-waste) in developing nations is emerging as a new environmental challenge for the 21st century”. The challenge is particularly essential in industrialising countries such as India and China, because the high population and the rapid growth and access to new technologies generate large volumes of e-waste. To the local production of electronic discards can be added even larger volumes of imported hazardous waste from developed countries, mainly through imports from North America and Europe. Owing to the high cost of e-waste disposal in developed countries, old products are shipped to developing countries as donations, most of them being unsuitable for reuse (Puckett et al., 2002). For example the Basel Action Network (BAN, 2005) reported that out of the estimated 400’000 units, mainly monitors and Central Processing Units (CPU’s), arriving each month in Lagos Nigeria, about 75% is “junk”: therefore a relevant amount of hazardous waste is dumped in developing countries. In response to numerous international scandals regarding other type of hazardous waste export in the late 1980’s, the 1989 Basel Convention on the control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal was initiated. This international treaty, set-up under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP, 1989), aims to construct a framework for controlling the “transboundary” movements of hazardous wastes. The convention entered into force in 1992 and has been ratified since then by all signatory parties except the U.S.A., Afghanistan and Haiti 2. But despite this international effort, developing countries, mostly India and China, still receive electronic waste from overseas. In 1995, an amendment known as the Basel Ban reinforced the Basel Convention by banning all forms of hazardous waste exports from developed to developing countries. This amendment has not entered into force yet.

2

Source: www.basel.int/

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

1.3

South African context

To understand e-waste in the Republic of South Africa (RSA), the economical and cultural context of the country must be explained. The information of this section is largely inspired from Widmer et al., (2005a). “ South Africa is a multicultural, middle income, developing country with abundant resources and well developed financial, legal, communications, energy and transport sectors.” South Africa has eleven official languages and important influences from European and Asian culture through numerous immigrants. Therefore, many South Africans consider themselves as belonging to a “Rainbow Nation”. The RSA is an upper-middle-income country, ranked 55th according to his Gross Domestic Product based on purchasing-power-parity (GDP ppp) per capita for the year 2005 (International Monetary Fund, 2006). The country is placed on 111th position according to his Human Development Index (HDI) for the year 2001 (UNDP, 2003). The HDI takes into account the life expectancy, the knowledge through literacy rate and education and a standard of living through GDP. The relatively low HDI can be explained by enormous inequalities such as education levels and quality of life. Those disparities, “ stemming in part from the shadowy legacy of the previous dispensation’s Apartheid policies, which segregated people on the basis of racial categories, discriminating against millions on the basis of their skin colour”, have not disappeared since the institution of the democratic government in 1994, although positive advances have since taken place. South Africa also has a very high Gini index (UNDP, 2003) indicating disparity in income distribution: quite a large proportion of South African households experience absolute poverty or vulnerability to being poor (May, 1998), similar to low income countries.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne The short life expectancy in the RSA due to one of the most severe HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world also contributes to the low HDI compared to the GDP 3. Besides AIDS, other problems that South Africa faces are crime, corruption and one of the highest unemployment rate in the world 4, that couldn’t be compensated through the important economic activity and numerous resources available in the country. The industrial sector contributes to about 30% to the GDP, while mining and energy resources such as gold, diamond, copper, nickel, phosphates, coal and natural gas under many others contribute to about 25% to the GDP. Thanks to those resources, South Africa plays a strategic role in regional and global markets. With high mining and industrial activity as well as the size of the country that requires long distance transportation, the carbon dioxide emission per capita is very high for a developing country (UNDP, 2003), but like in most developing countries, environmental awareness is low. There are nine provinces in the RSA (Figure 1). The province of Gauteng, meaning “place of Gold” in Sesotho language 5, has two major cities, Pretoria, the political capital, and Johannesburg, the economic centre of the country and major centre on the African continent. Gauteng houses about 20% of the 44,4 millions inhabitants of South Africa. The province has a very high density of population, with a level of urbanisation of 97%, 58% for South Africa (UNDP, 2003).

3

In 2005, the HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women was 30.2%. source:

www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm 4

36% to 42% since the year 2000 using the broad definition. According to the narrow

definition, which applies a job-search test, 25-30% of adults who wanted work and actively looked for it were unemployed. Source: www.gprg.org/themes/t2-inc-ineq-poor/unem/unempov.htm 5

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauteng . Indeed, the mining intensity is very high in

Gauteng (source: www.environment.gov.za/).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Figure 1. Map of the Provinces and major cities in South Africa Source: www.anc.org.za/lists/maplist.html

In the Gauteng Province, there are three metropolitan municipalities, Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. The first two are the more populated. However Ekurhuleni is also important for this study because most of the e-waste recyclers are based there.

1.4

South African e-waste context

Like in most developed countries, the use of electronic goods in South Africa increased dramatically, followed by the generation of e-waste. There is currently no management system of e-waste such as a PRO. At a national level, much legislation can be said to have an impact on e-waste, but none specifically on e-waste (see appendix X). At the international level, South Africa signed and ratified (1994) the Basel Convention 6.

6

Source: www.baselpretoria.org.za/

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Some e-waste is presently recycled, but there is no organised take back system, each role player having contact with their downstream and up stream clients without specific e-waste regulation.

1.5

Pilot projects for the “Green e-Waste Channel”

Because there is currently no proper system for handling e-waste, the Swiss project from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) programme “Knowledge Partnerships in e-waste recycling”, which is run by the Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), supports the establishment of the local so called “Green e-Waste Channel”, an e-waste reuse and recycling system. The working group on the project, a multi-stakeholder group composed of concerned South Africans (independent researchers, IT business representative etc.) evolved into eWASA, the e-Waste Association of South Africa (Ecroignard, 2006), currently in the process of formalizing itself as a non-profit organization (eWASA, 2006). With help of the municipalities, pilot projects for the Green e-Waste Channel have been launched in October 2005 in the Western Cape Province and in October 2006 in Gauteng. A working group was created in November 2006 in Durban/eThekwini in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The focus of the pilot projects is to create business links between existing service providers. The concept of the “green channel” refers to the green pathway at the airport: one has nothing to declare. In terms of e-waste, it refers to a channel that the e-waste should go through, right from the collection of the equipment which the customer wants to discard, to the very last step in the process - raw material, through several intermediate steps including the take-back, the recycling and different loops to extend the lifespan. The name was invented during the project. EMPA also supports a project in China and in India, where the Green e-Waste Channel is called “Clean e-waste Channel”. Although pilot project of the Green e-Waste Channels have already been launched, there is currently no common definition of it or clear objectives to be achieved.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

1.6

Objective of this study

This study proposes a model for an e-waste reuse and recycling system in South Africa called “Green e-Waste Channel”. The aim is to define the role of each stakeholder within a Green e-Waste Channel in order to yield an infrastructural model for an ewaste recycling system that is environmentally sound and economically viable, while also playing a social role. The feasibility of the proposed system is evaluated in the following manner: Chapter 3

Situation analysis: as e-waste is a recent topic, there is very little archival data, therefore a case study seemed suitable to survey the current situation. The case study is done in the Gauteng Province, with attempt to generalize for all South Africa. The expectations of each stakeholder are studied as well.

Chapter 4

Summary of the problems identified. The reasons they cause environmental, economical and/or social nuisance are explained. The general objectives of the Green e-Waste Channel that can minimize those problems are set forth.

Chapter 5

General definition of the Green e-Waste Channel in South Africa and description of the elements that could be included in the design of the Channel using a stakeholder approach: the role of each stakeholder and the responsibility are discussed, considering as much as possible their expectations and the targets of the Channel.

Chapter 7

Critical analysis of the ultimate scenario of the Green e-Waste Channel proposed with a SWOT analysis (internal strengths and weaknesses, external opportunities and threats of the system)

Chapter 8

Conclusion on the Green e-Waste Channel in South Africa and role for other countries in transition or developing countries. Recommendations and propositions for further studies.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

CHAPTER II 2. METHODS The practical part of this research was carried out during three months, from September to November 2006, based at the Basel Convention Regional Centre (BCRC) in Pretoria. The practical part was completed by two months of analysis in Switzerland. The results, presented in chapter 3, are an aggregation of information collected through analysing the available literature, attending meetings and workshops, through site visits, interviews as well as questionnaires.

For confidentiality purpose, the information

source is mentioned only when derived from literature or from one specific person interviewed who doesn’t insist on confidentiality, but the complete list of people interviewed can be found in appendix V. Some results of the questionnaire on consumer behaviour concerning their opinion on possible future elements of the Green e-Waste Channel are presented in chapter 5.

2.1

Stakeholders identification

To conduct a situation analysis, all the stakeholders involved in the handling of the e-waste were identified looking at the different possible steps e-waste is passing through from its end-of-life stage to the end of the recycling process, while following the prescribed e-waste stream. Loops that extend the lifespan of the item through reuse were taken into account as well. Chapter 3 and 5 show the current situation and long-term aimed state through a stakeholders approach. “Collection points” are not by definition stakeholders, but are to be understood as people managing the collection points. Role players not directly involved in the e-waste context but that could influence the recycling process in the future such as the government or Non Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) have been investigated as well. - 20 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

2.2

Desktop study

The literature study helped inform about the case studies already done in Gauteng, to learn about problems in other countries, and finally, to know what had to be assessed in South Africa. Established e-waste collection and disposal systems in Europe, especially in Switzerland, were analysed as reference cases in order to find positive and negative aspects (useful for the SWOT analysis) of the proposed system. However these systems are only partially useful for comparison, since the situation and the targets are different in developed and in developing countries. Implemented models in countries in transition or developing countries do not exist and thus couldn’t serve as reference cases neither.

2.3

Meetings and workshops

The different problems that surfaced at meetings and workshops helped to formulate the requisite questions for future interviews. Meetings and workshops also favoured contacts to various role players who were interviewed personally later on. Meetings and workshops in other provinces - the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal - served as a springboard for comparisons with the Gauteng Province and the rest of South Africa. The list of workshops and meetings attended can be found in appendix IV.

2.4

Interviews and site visits

The research was mainly qualitative and involved mostly confidential interviews based on a set of open questions. The first stakeholders approached were identified through the eWASA-working group (names mentioned in the reports, persons met at the workshops and meetings etc.). Persons interviewed later were found in the yellow pages, as well through personal contacts from the role players which were interviewed in the first place. Interviews with e-waste collectors, refurbishers/repairers, processors, and final disposers were undertaken to assess the following: i. Their role, to understand the current situation ii. Their down stream and up stream partners, to identify other role players iii. The problems they personally encounter and they know of, (environmental, - 21 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne social, economical…), to find out what could be improved iv. Their expectation, to be taken into account in the design of the Green e-Waste Channel v. How they see their future role in the Green e-Waste Channel Most of the interviews were carried out during site visits. Site visits served to better understand the current situation and to assess the quality of the work, and shed light on many unforeseen aspects of the process. Often, interviews were completed with communication through e-mail or phone calls, especially when site visits were done with a group, because some person interviewed didn’t wish to answer certain questions in front of other people or just didn’t have the information at that point. Some stakeholders were called to determine whether they were dealing with e-waste and to decide if it was worthwhile to pay them a visit, but when it didn’t seem crucial for this study to question them further or if they were not willing to show their facilities or be interviewed, the only contact was through phone calls. Between one and three representatives for each type of role player were interviewed, except processors: As they are key elements, all the major agents handling e-waste who could be reached have been interviewed. On-site visits to other role players not directly involved in the Green e-Waste Channel but who provided useful information include an IT rental company, an IT distributor as well as informal discussions with independent researchers. The complete list of informants and their associated functions can be found in appendix V, the list of site visits in appendix III. Limitation of the method includes:



A majority of participants who were willing to communicate information for this study are contacts from eWASA, which means that they are often interested in finding a common solution for e-waste issues and don’t necessarily represent the real situation.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne



Informants who are aware that this study is supported by eWASA through the EMPA project might either completely refrain from communicating, or not express their real expectations because they have preconceived ideas of the Green e-Waste Channel. They might also avoid mentioning various negative aspects owing to their stake in the Green e-Waste Channel or be cautious when mentioning illegal activities. But at the same time, it would have been very difficult to contact certain persons without the help of eWASA.



The information assembled on small size or informal processors and collectors as well as on illegal activities mostly comes from bigger recyclers who admit what they’ve seen but didn’t wish to give contact details. Information on informal and illegal activities mentioned in this study originates from more than one source, but it is not certain that the person who confirmed the first-hand information was independent from the original source. Because of the crime situation in the country, it wasn’t possible to easily and safely investigate on the field on informal or illegal processing, especially on precious metal recovery.

2.5

Questionnaire survey

Consumer behaviour regarding e-waste has not been studied before in South Africa. Moreover, since consumers are the only stakeholders not already involved in the process of establishing a Green e-Waste Channel (pilot project of the Swiss e-Waste Knowledge Partnerships), they were given particular attention through a questionnaire. Thus this questionnaire (appendix I) is the first attempt to collect information on that topic. The target group for private consumers is the middle and upper class (people that might have end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment), possessing basic English literacy. A random sample was taken in shopping centres in Pretoria and in offices at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Respondents were asked to answer for the whole household. After completing the form, open discussions held with the respondents helped ascertain the reasons behind their responses. Quantitative results were obtained. The standard deviation was calculated.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne This questionnaire is limited to the middle and upper class, the first owner of EEE, and doesn’t give insight into what second users do. As people easily associate the recycling with environmental purpose, they might tend to exaggerate their environmental concerns thinking that this is what is expected from them. The questionnaire for corporate consumer is very similar to the one for private consumers. If the participation rate is sufficient, the objective is to conduct quantified analysis, similarly to household consumer. Other questionnaires were sent to different types of stakeholders involved in the e-waste handling since they were too numerous to be interviewed all personally. In that case, the questionnaire survey is an attempt to validate information coming from interviews and literature review. All the known major processors handling e-waste have been interviewed; hence, the questionnaire wasn’t necessary. Except for private consumers, all the questionnaires were sent by e-mail and had to be returned the same way. They were sent to:



Corporate consumers such as bank, schools, embassy, NGOs etc, all likely to have offices with computers (sent to 40, chosen randomly on a data base)



Refurbishers (sent to 10, all the companies that could be found)



IT suppliers (sent to 120 companies through the Information Technology Association of South Africa, ITA)

The risk associated with the use of email to collect data is that the answer rate to the questionnaire might be low.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

2.6

SWOT Analysis

The aim of any SWOT analysis is to identify the key internal and external factors that might have an impact on achieving the objectives (Srivastava et al., 2005) (Table 1). SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. Table 1. Categorisation of the elements of the SWOT

Factors

+

-

Internal

STRENGHTH

WEAKNESSES

External

OPPORTUNITES

THREATS

Although originally used for businesses, it can also be employed for a project, an organisation, a person, a product etc., here for the Green e-Waste Channel. The SWOT categorises the factors and shows them in a list. The important factors will be summarized through the conclusion. The list of factors is classified according to different levels in the recycling system. This method is subjective, especially regarding the importance for each factor, but it is useful because it allows seeing where strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats lie within the Channel. When implementing the system, the SWOT can help in a decision making process as follows 7: i. How can we Use each Strength? (Maintain, build and leverage) ii. How can we Stop each Weakness? (Remedy or exit) iii. How can we Exploit each Opportunity? (Prioritise and optimise), iv. How can we Defend/Destroy against each Threat? (Counter) This step will only be done partially through recommendations in the conclusion.

7

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

CHAPTER III 3. CURRENT SITUATION IN GAUTENG: ROLE PLAYERS Although it was difficult to contact role players not involved with eWASA, some of them were approached, which helped understand arguments from role players not wishing a holistic solution to e-waste issues.

3.1

Framework of the case study

E-waste contain a large number of different items and it would require more time than was available for this study to trace each of them and to understand the problems linked to them. The case study is focused on the communication and information technology sector (ICT), in particular desktop personal computers (PC’s). Reasons to concentrate on this type of appliances include:



The IT industry has given its available data on computer flows for previous studies; computers are therefore easier to track.



As the IT industry is involved in the process of implementing an e–waste management system, there are more willing to communicate information useful for this study.



A certain amount is already being recycled, which allows studying the way it is done to know what should or could be improved.



The reuse potential is large: the market for second-hand computers is less limited than for other electronic goods (schools are more interested in PC’s than in Televisions…).



There is currently more literature available on computer waste than on other type of e-waste because of widespread use and the use by corporate consumers (for instance compared to toys or household equipment such as toasters or fridges).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne The study of the current e-waste situation was done in the Gauteng province. In addition to the fact that Gauteng is the economic and political centre of South Africa, the case study was possible because studies on the e-waste flows and issues in that province have been studied recently (Widmer et al, 2005a and Finlay, 2005). Furthermore, it is one of the three provinces where a pilot Green e-Waste Channel was launched. The problem identification is made for Gauteng, with attempt to generalize for all of South Africa, including major differences with the situation in other provinces. The ultimate vision of the Green e-Waste Channel, the definition and the SWOT analysis are made for all South Africa, taking into account lessons learnt from previous experiences in other provinces, especially the Western Cape, where the pilot Green eWaste Channel already has been in launched more than a year ago.

3.2

Distributors

Most of the major Information Technology (IT) manufacturers such as Dell, Sony, IBM etc. are present in South Africa. They import their products and distribute them in the RSA and some neighbouring countries but don’t manufacture locally. “Approximately 1.2 to 1.5 million computers enter the market every year in South Africa” (Widmer et al., 2005a). Distributors such as Axiz produce some IT components with imported parts but the production is not done on a big scale in South Africa. Distributors are the chief suppliers to businesses and retailers, while retailers in turn reach the personal market. Some distributors and manufactures play a role in e-waste recycling collecting IT equipment from clients when supplying them with new ones and paying for sound final disposal in hazardous landfill sites (Widmer et al., 2005a). Since the questionnaire sent by email to manufacturers and distributors (120 companies) through the ITA was not returned, nor for that matter the one sent to corporate consumers (one answer out of 40), this study couldn’t provide more detailed information on that part of the system. The survey on private consumer behaviour shows that 11% of the persons that discard their old items bring them back to retailers: this solution exists but is not widely used by private consumers.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

3.3

IT Rental Companies

IT rental companies provide businesses with computers: they supply them with new computers, taking care of their maintenance and discarding old items when swapping for new ones. The interviewed company Orange system provides about 50 companies with an average of 15 computers each (Van der Walt, Int., 2006). When upgrading for new ones, if the company doesn’t keep it for personal use, they are dumped at a garden site near Pretoria. At the present time, the volumes are not important because the company has been running for only about a year and hasn’t to date faced the problem of having to discard of all the provided computers. They haven’t thought of a solution yet but don’t even seem to consider it problematic to discard of the old equipment that way. Bigger companies such as the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) that provides government with computers have been approached but without any results because of lack of time and the difficulty to find the persons able to provide information on the end-of-life equipment.

3.4

Corporate consumer

Most of the IT equipment belong to corporate consumers, 60-65% of the IT equipment being sold to the government at local, regional, provincial or national levels, 20-25% to businesses such as banks, insurances etc. (Vermij, 2006. Int.): this means that only 10-20% goes to private households. It was estimated that “about 70% of the country’s e-waste is thought to be in storage - most of this held by the government.” (Finlay, 2005). The University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg for example had a basement full of old computers by June 2006 (Figure 2).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Figure 2. Basement full of old computers at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Source: Ray Lombard, Swiss e-Waste Knowledge Partnerships Programme.

Not enough corporate consumers answered the questionnaire in order to have quantified information, but according to recyclers, data protection is important to them: •

Universal Recycling Company says that companies give them computers because they can guarantee that it will be destroyed (Finlay, 2005).



The recycling company Non Ferrous Shredders Ltd indicates on its web site: “The materials are fully recycled and will not resurface into the market.” 8

3.5

Household consumer

The questionnaire to assess consumer behaviour regarding e-Waste was answered by 44 persons. Complete results can be found in appendix II. Most of the people encountered were ready to fill in the form and some of them took time besides the questionnaire to discuss the topic. It turned out that they had very little knowledge regarding e-waste issues but seemed interested to learn more. Out of a list of 13 electrical and electric equipments proposed 9, the respondents have on average 19.9 items in use and 3.3 in storage. They have discarded 6.5 items in the past

8

source: www.nfshred.com/

9

See appendix II: washing machine, dryer, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, toaster, PC, cell phone, telephone, fax Machine, printer, television, VCR/DVD/CD player, radio

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne (they have been asked to answer that question for the items discarded back to “as far as they remember”). It has to be noticed though that the standard deviation is high, showing that the number of items differs widely between respondents. The items that have been discarded the most are cell phones followed by PC’s and toasters (Figure 3). Cell phones and toasters are small appliances especially easy to dispose in the normal garbage bin, as already noticed by Darby et al. (2005) in a study on household recycling behaviour and attitudes towards the disposal of small electrical and electronic equipment.

Figure 3. Number of electrical and electronic equipment in use, in storage and discarded.

61% of the respondents store equipment at their house, the main reason for storage being the potential future use they could make of it: they keep the old equipment as spares in case the new ones break down. The second reason is the fact that they don’t know what to do with their end-of-life equipment; they have no information on how to get rid of it. Although the majority of the respondents do store appliance at their house, it seems that privates don’t store a huge amount of old equipment, on average 0.15 item per item in use; most of the storage comes from corporate users.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne 86% of the respondents discarded e-waste in the past, most of them using more than one way to do so. Ways to discard the items are presented in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Percentage of people surveyed that discarded their equipment in one or more of the above ways 10.

The way mostly mentioned is the donation, equally distributed between three groups: •

Domestic workers



Family and friends



Organisation, schools, charity

This shows that there is often a second user, and that this happen without passing through middle-man or without any change of the equipment: this direct reuse is the most common first disposition for personal computer (OECD, 2003) As the target population is the middle to upper class, no study has been done on what becomes to the e-waste after passing to the second user, especially domestic workers. The second way of discarding is to throw it in the normal garbage bin, which will afterwards be collected by the municipality or a contractor from the municipality and end up at the general landfill site. Adding to those the respondents who dump their

10

As some respondents used more than one way to discard their equipment, the total is more

than 100%.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne e-waste directly at the landfill, the number of items that go to the landfill sites is higher than the number of donations. Only 11% and 8% of the persons surveyed brought their appliance back to the retailer or sold it to scrap yards. Other ways mentioned include items stolen (and then certainly resold) or placed outside the house on the kerbside, where they will most probably be taken and sold to scrap metal dealers. Two persons having a secondary residence at a farm burn their end-of-life equipment or make a hole in the garden to bury all the waste, including e-waste. Almost all the persons surveyed used a collection site before (89%), mostly the garden site, followed by the landfill site, the buy-back centre being only seldom mentioned (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Percentage of people surveyed that discarded recyclables such as paper and glass in one or more of these above places.

About half of the persons that filled in the questionnaire gave reasons why they don’t use the collection site, which is more than the 11% that said they never use the collection sites: they use the site but not often 11. The main reasons mentioned were the lack of time to separate their waste and to drive to the collection site, as well as the fact that they never thought about it, the absence of knowledge on waste collection being of 11

Venter (2006, Int.) estimates that about 30% of the households in Johannesburg use collection

site regularly.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne less importance. This leads to the conclusion that the main reason seems to be laziness, consistent with the findings of Darby et al. (2005) on a study on consumer behaviour in England. To encourage reuse was of big importance for the consumers asked, even if the consumer doesn’t necessarily receive money: they seemed ready to give their old equipment for free to a collection system knowing that refurbishers/repairers might make money out of it. The main reason is that they wish to have something useful done with their computers. Indeed, as they paid a high price for the electronic device only a couple of years before, they still see it as valuable and might let it go more easily if it will be reused than simply destroyed. The possibility to decide if the equipment will be destroyed (for data protection) or reused doesn’t seem of too much importance for the households consumer asked. A solution to protect the data even if the computer is reused would be to erase the data with specific software. But if the consumer does care for data protection, 43% wouldn’t trust the refurbisher using such a software for erasing data. The expectations of consumers from a recycling system are: •

The consumer doesn’t have to pay for the recycling



Guarantee of sound environmental and socially responsible process with creation of a national consumer label



3.6

Have a system respectful for the environment and efficient

Refurbishers

With the rapid advances of technology, IT equipment becomes obsolete long before losing its capacity. After being used by private consumers, old devices can be given or sold directly to a next user. But when corporate consumers want to hand over a certain quantity of equipment for reuse, it is more convenient to go through an intermediate. Computers need to be checked, and then might need to be repaired or upgraded, which is called refurbishment, after which they can be re-sold or donated. If complete refurbishment is not economically profitable, some components can still be reused, for instance one personal computer (PC) can be made out of two (OECD, 2003).

- 33 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Estimates suggest that a third of all PC hardware sold in South Africa is second-hand (Finlay, 2005). This is a rather positive result, showing that the used computer industry exists and works, but there are still too many computers in storage or being recycled directly without having a second user. De Bruyn (2006, Int.) from Intelligent Computing put in doubt the estimation that 70% of the e-waste is in storage: most of the institutions he contacted already had a solution for their old equipment - sold to recyclers or other refurbishers - but he couldn’t find much material to refurbish. This would mean that there is less storage and more recycling than thought. To collect more computers, he wants to put stickers at the collection point to advertise for his company. Markson (2006, Int.) estimates that about 70% of what he currently receives at his dismantling facility could be refurbished, but it is not done because of the time required to sort and sell it. Another reason why some old PC’s are recycled or landfilled but not reused is data protection as wished by corporate consumers. Refurbishers know of many privates or corporate consumers that would be interested to buy second-hand computers such as students and other private consumers with limited resources, schools, NGO’s and customers in other countries in Southern Africa among others (De Bruyn, Int., 2006). As refurbishers see that they could have clients to sell second-hand computers, they want to find a way to have access to material to resell. It is often easier for them to find equipment abroad than in South Africa. It is difficult to estimate how much import is taking place, but many businesses do import from Europe or the U.S.A, or are looking for opportunities to do it in the future: the problem might become bigger than it is presently. A big refurbishment company such as Intelligent Computing, handling about 20 tons of computers per month, generates a lot of waste. According to De Bruyn (Int., 2006), about 50% of what they receive is waste. They have difficulty to find an economically viable solution for the waste, some of it being taken to the hazardous landfilled site, but other part being stockpiled as the about 100 monitors seen at the facility.

- 34 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne The expectations that refurbishers expressed are obvious: they want to receive more material to refurbish, if possible of quality and for free.

3.7

Collectors

E-waste is currently collected through many different ways (Figure 6). ______________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________ Figure 6. Principal ways for collection of e-waste in Gauteng: current situation (2006)

There is no official logistic provider specialized in e-waste collection - the two major role players acting as collectors are the consumers that bring back the old equipment and the processors, refurbishers and hazardous landfill site company that fetch it from consumers: they collect mainly from corporate consumers because they can receive enough quantity in order to compensate for the cost of transportation. There is currently no global logistic vision, some processors having to fetch scrap from clients far from one another and from their facilities. The municipality does some collection from privates when discarded electronics are thrown in the general garbage. After collecting, they bring it to general landfill sites. However, this collection is not specific to e-waste and most of the time it is not removed - 35 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne on purpose: the municipality prefers not to have e-waste at the general landfills but can’t afford to take the time to separate it nor to pay for the privately owned hazardous landfill site. The only stakeholders to organize the collection as major activity are street collectors who belong to the informal sector because they are not regulated. For this reason, their precise activity and their number are not documented. The information presented here comes from the role players that buy from them. At the buy-back centre visited and at Universal Recycling Company, many collectors can be seen with scrap metal and now and then with some e-waste. They use various means of transportation, pulling or pushing different sort of trolleys themselves or with horses (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Collectors bringing scrap at a buy-back centre. Soweto (June 2006). Source: Mathias Schluep, Swiss e-Waste Knowledge Partnerships Programme.

The collectors receive for free or buy for cheap from users or landfill sites different waste products such as paper, glass, and scrap metal and recently as well e-waste. They sell it at buy-back centres, scrap metal merchants, refurbishers or processors. As some components have a high resale value and others don’t have value at all, only a part will be sold and recycled or reused. The rest seems to disappear, most probably ending in a general landfill site or is dumped illegally. Another concern associated with street collectors is that they can resell stolen material, acting as intermediates and thus hiding the origin of the material.

3.8

Collection points

Gauteng offers many types of collection points for different kinds of waste, principally drop-off sites, buy-back centres, scrap metal merchants and landfill sites. Landfill sites - 36 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne are used for final disposing but some sorting is done on the site by informal collectors or at buy-back centre next to the landfill sites. The function of final disposing of the landfill site will be discussed later on. 3.8.1.

Drop-off sites

The municipal drop-off sites, also called garden sites/refuses if they handle essentially green waste, currently receive waste such as glass, paper and plastic. Waste is separated on the site by subcontractors of waste recycling companies

12

, also called

“entrepreneurs” or “reclaimers” and resold to those waste recycling companies. The employees from the site are there only to monitor the sites and handle the garden refuse. The drop-off sites are managed by the municipalities or, as in Johannesburg, by Pikitiup13, a waste management company having a contract with the city to handle its municipal waste. In Johannesburg, some garden sites have been receiving e-waste unofficially for a couple of years, which is then informally sold by the employees of the site or subcontractors to processors. As e-waste represents a potential high income source for the person present on the site and doesn’t officially belong to anyone, there is a mafia effect between the employees of the site, the subcontractors and sometimes even other not authorized workers (or “scavengers”): they all want to have control on this material received for free and easily sold for a good price. According to Markson (2006, Int.), the employees from Pikitup use the company’s truck to sell material, changing from their normal route to stop at scrap metal dealers or processors without the Pikitup’s supervisors really knowing about it. To tackle this situation, 25 official collection points for e-waste were launched in October 2006 at garden refuses together with help of the Green e-Waste Channel Gauteng core group. Two middle tier processors collect the e-waste from the sites, including Darkling Industrial Metal that had been doing it for many years. The containers currently used belong to the Rose Foundation, which collects used oil: this is not an adequate solution because the e-waste is mixed with oil. As they have windows, it is easy to steal from it. But at the site visited, the container was not used because there 12

such as MONDI for the paper

13

see www.pikitup.co.za

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne was nobody responsible for it and some employees from Pikitup, subcontractors or scavengers were putting some e-scrap aside to sell it. The e-waste can’t therefore be stored and the processors have to collect it very regularly, often small amounts on a daily basis, which makes the price of the collection very high. If they don’t collect it directly, it might be sold to someone else. Nothing similar has been done at the moment neither in Tshwane nor in Ekurhuleni, but the Municipalities are slowly getting involved as well. In other provinces, the municipality of the City of Cape Town is implicated: there are two collection points in Cape Town, the municipal drop-off site in Wynberg and the community project at Footprint Environmental Centre (Dittke et al., 2006). In the first three months since the launch, 4 tons of e-waste have been collected in Wynberg. The proportion of monitors collected increased since the launch of the collection point: Newson (Int., 2006) suspects that material has been stolen, mostly CPU’s, monitors being left over because of the lesser value. The expectations of the municipalities that manage the sites are along the line of waste minimization. Landfills are closing and they don’t want to reopen new ones. They don’t want to make money out of the e-waste, but they don’t want to spend because of e-waste either. If the consumer brings back the e-waste and it is then collected by a refurbisher or a processor, they avoid the landfilling costs, and especially the transport that can make up to 75% of the cost (Lombard, 2006, Int.). They also want as side effect that the consumers get to know the site to have new customers, as they are the same as for other waste. 3.8.2.

Buy-back centre

Unlike public drop-off sites, buy-back centres are often privately owned, although sometimes publicly financed. They buy the material that is brought back. The users of the site are consumers and informal collectors that sell material there. The collection of paper, glass and scrap metal generates income at buy-back centres. The contact person at the drop-off site visited said that they don’t receive electronic discards but some e-scrap such as Printed Circuit Boards (PCB’s, or PWB’s for Printed Wiring Boards) or copper yoke from monitors has been seen on the site. Apparently, - 38 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne they don’t identify it as different from other scrap metal or don’t receive enough quantity to handle it separately. There are also buy-back centres next to landfill sites: the one visited had about 220 workers (Dekker, Int., 2006), not belonging to the official staff of the landfill. They collect different kind of waste on the landfill, sort it and sell it. Very little e-waste has been seen. 3.8.3.

Scrap metal merchants

The scrap metal dealers are businesses that buy all kind of metals that they sort, accumulate and resell to bigger scrap metal merchants or processors. 18 scrap metal merchant out of the 200 plus found in the yellow pages for the Gauteng Province were called in to find out if they accept e-waste and under which conditions. 14 answered the questions but none were keen on being visited, arguing that their clients that sell them material wouldn’t appreciate being queried on the origin of the material. The list of the scrap metal dealers interviewed is not referenced because they didn’t wish to have their name mentioned. No scrap metal merchant asked buys e-waste as a whole, but more than half of them accept PCB’s. The one that agreed to say who they sell the PWB’s to gave the name of known big recyclers, Desco and Universal Recycling. When asked about what is done with the rest of the equipment, they didn’t reply or simply guessed that it is dumped. All the scrap metal merchants interviewed buy copper from electric wires. Only two of them agreed to give the name of the refinery they sell it to. More than half of them buy the copper only if the plastic around has been removed. They explained that the plastic has been removed by burning most of the time and they still accept it, although open burning of cables is illegal and has associated environmental and health concerns because of the dioxin and furan produced. Even the ones that buy cables with plastic around burn the cables themselves to recycle the copper. Those who don’t do it themselves explained, that the main reason was the fact that they are situated in town and couldn’t do it discretely, but they explain to their supplier how they should burn it themselves.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Only one scrap metal dealer said that another method sometimes used is the stripping of cables with a knife if the cable is thick enough. This technique is unlikely to cause any environmental or health impacts but is not viable, especially for small cable because of the time required for the striping. Although burned cable has a lesser market value 14, this practice is widely used and encouraged by scrap metal dealers who are buying it. Contrarily to other role players, scrap metal merchants weren’t open to discussion on e-waste issues. The insight on their activities showed a certain tendency not to respect the legislation, as for example regarding origin of the material they buy. To avoid the resell of stolen goods, they should perform an identity check when buying material from their clients and have a certificate showing the origin of the material for big quantity, what they don’t seem to do systematically: only two scrap metal dealer said that there where firm on that point. One scrap metal firm called Envirometal had closed because his activity wasn’t profitable anymore, owing to competition from firms sourcing copper from burned cables and the high cost of stripping cables, especially compared to costs in China.

3.9

Processors

Processors are all the stakeholders doing a step in the recycling process. Recycling in the broad sense includes all processes which close the material flow loops and bring it back into circulation (Sinha, 2004), for instance reprocessing material into new products. Here, the process will be studied from the original appliance until its transformation into the clean raw material. Most of the transformation into new products takes place outside of the country and involves industries not specific to electric and electronic equipment. Processing in South Africa includes sorting and dismantling, which is done manually or/and mechanically, different methods of separating such as shredding, pulverisation or granulation. Those are the steps commonly called “recycling” although it is just a part of it. 14

By treating the cables with a granulator rather than burning them, the value increase more

than 5 times (Dittke, 2004).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

It has been difficult to have all the desired information from processors. They were seldom willing to give names from their partners, with answers to questions such as what is done with the plastic for instance: “there is apparently somebody that takes it…” which makes it hard to follow the e-waste route. They realise that some of their processes are not environmentally friendly or don’t respect the legislation and don’t wish to draw attention on it. The big companies have a website, but a lot of information is missing or incomplete. However, the general impression is that processors were much more open for discussions than scrap metal dealers and seem to be more environmentally and ethically concerned. The expectation of the processor it to receive more e-waste, especially the valuable, for instance more CPU’s than monitors. 3.9.1.

Recyclers

In Europe, because of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), the recycling process is regulated by producers, processors being mostly limited to the activity of recycling. As EPR has not been implemented yet in South Africa and the recycling is not really regulated, processors play a larger role, for instance taking care of a portion of the logistics as well. Because of the preponderance of storage and some dumping, not enough e-waste is recycled, between 10% and 30% depending on the source:



“Only a fraction of the estimated retired electronic goods find their way to the recyclers (10% of more than 50 000 tonnes/annum)”



15

“Mr Dudley Bradford of Desco Electronic Recyclers estimates that around 30% is recycled (Cape Town e-waste workshop, 25 February 2004)” (Widmer et al., 2005a).

Table 2 shows the amount of e-waste that currently goes through processors in Gauteng. 15

Source: www.iwmsa.co.za/nrf_information.htm

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Table 2. Amount of e-waste processed in Gauteng

Name of recycling company

Tonnage of e-waste recycled per year

Universal Recycling Company

2000

Desco Electronic Recyclers Mixed e-waste

2500

Printed Circuit Boards

400

African Sky

1000

Non Ferrous Shredders cc

2000 16

Darkling Industrial Metal

200

Source: interviews and Widmer et al. (2005a) for the Printed Circuit Boards from Desco.

It is difficult to estimate how much e-waste is recycled in South Africa: adding the numbers of the above table will result in a overestimation because of the high level of interdependence between the recyclers, for instance the majority of Universal’s e-waste coming from Desco (Finlay, 2005). Furthermore, some e-waste recycled by Universal Recycling Company comes from Mozambique and Zambia (Van Rensburg, Int., 2006) 17. On the other hand, although most of the big recyclers are known and mentioned, they are probably many small processors who dismantle material and sell the metal to scrap metal dealers which will then go to refineries without going through e-waste recyclers. Darkling Industrial Metal is the only middle size dismantler that was visited, but the likelihood of similar facilities is high.

16

17

Estimation from Lombard (Int., 2006). 1000 more are processed in Port Elisabeth. Desco imported PCBs in the past from other Southern African countries such as

Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia (Int., 2006). Southern African countries have very limited recycling facilities.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Processors in South Africa could recycle more: African sky would like to pre-process 3000 tonnes per month in the future (Werth, Int., 2006). According to their website 18, Non Ferrous Shredders has a capacity of eight tonnes per hour, which makes about 18 000 tonnes per annum, six times more than currently process in the country. A new recycling company, African Ressource (AamR) wants to open a new plant to process 2000 tonnes of PWB’s per year, not dumping the rest (Green e-Waste Channel Gauteng, 2006c). As African Sky and Non Ferrous Shredders currently don’t receive enough e-waste to process, they are looking for imported material. Universal Recycling Company advertises on the Highway N1 near Midrand, the heart of the business activities in Johannesburg, with the first point on the board being that they collect and recycle electronic scrap. Recycling facilities in South Africa are described as sophisticated (Widmer et al., 2005). This concerns the big recyclers that seem to process the material with modern technologies and in an environmentally sound way. It should be assessed more deeply and with technical competence, especially because some questions were not answered and processors sometimes showed only what they wanted to be seen. The major concern of processors is that not everything can be recycled, mostly because the cost would make the process non-viable. The principal problem is the recycling of monitors, owing to the presence of Cathode Ray Tube (CRTs) screens. “Due to their lead content, existing glass recyclers cannot include CRT screens in their process and an environmental sound and financial feasible recycling process is not available in South Africa so far” (Zumbuehl, 2006).

18

www.nfshred.com/

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne CRT’s are currently dumped (by informal recyclers), landfilled (Universal

19

),

stockpiled (Desco 20) or exported oversees (Non Ferrous Shredders and African Sky). Another problem is the plastic, which makes 23% of the weight of desktop personal computer (EMPA, 2005). Because it contains Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR’s), the usual plastic recyclers can’t include it in their process, e-waste recyclers having therefore difficulties to find a buyer. The plastic is currently dumped, landfilled or exported to China. The Chinese company that exports the plastic from Desco and other processors couldn’t give information on what is done with it oversees (Lee, Int., 2006 ). Non Ferrous Shredders use the plastic in fences for game parks (Smit, Int., 2006) and it was discussed to incorporate it in furniture such as chairs (Green e-Waste Channel Gauteng, 2006c). Because of this difficulty associated with recycling some components, recyclers tend to accept the rather valuable parts and encourage the collectors to dismantle themselves and get rid of those unwanted components. There is a particularly high illegal dumping from some opportunist recyclers that buy scrap on a tender basis. The companies that want to get rid of their equipment sell it through auction houses, looking for the recyclers offering the highest price but no guarantee of sound processing: the best offer doesn’t always come from the most responsible recycler. During a site visit, piles of waste abandoned were seen, some of them hazardous such as batteries: only the valuable part had been processed (Figure 8). As the “recycler” has spent much money to obtain the material, only the profitable part of the recycling occurs because there is no money left to pay for proper final disposing or export for recycling oversees.

19

As all the e-waste is pulverised, the fraction landfilled contains part of the monitors, the rest

being recycled. 20

According to Widmer et al. (2005a), at the time of their study, Desco had 25 tonnes of CRTs

stored.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Figure 8. Rest of phones and other equipment from Telkom SA Ltd. Pretoria North (October 2006). Source: Frans Dekker.

Some big recycling companies have a rather clean process, but they encourage illegal dumping and informal recycling upstream buying scrap from informal collector and dismantlers. On the other hand, the recycler African Sky doesn’t follow this “cherry picking” attitude: “As a one-stop recycling service provider, we purchase the complete electronic product. Contrary to other recycling providers. Which only purchase or accept the relevant electronic components for recycling and extraction of precious metals, the bulk of e-waste left is dumped or burned. Also, our customers need not dismantle the electronic products we purchase.” 21 3.9.2.

Informal recyclers

Informal recycling has been studied in Asia (Puckett et al., 2002) and some of the activities taking place there also happen in South Africa, principally the burning of computer wires and breaking of CRT screens. Open burning of plastics or old electronics has also been mentioned (Green e-Waste Channel Gauteng, 2006a). This is

21

Source: www.ewaste.co.za

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne part of a general problem of open burning, with for instance tyres burning being of concern. Although no site visit has been done to confirm it, many informants said that some recyclers set up electrochemical processes on their backyards. Similar activities have been noticed in the Western Cape: “small acid bath setups seem to be common in most scrap yards” (Dittke, 2004). This process is extremely lucrative because it allows to extract precious metals rather easily: a computer of old technology can contain up to for gram of gold (Hilty, 2005). As long as it is done under highly regulated conditions, as is doing for example Precious Metal Recovery System, it doesn’t cause to much of environmental and health hazard. But some people might be envious of the fast money and start their own back yard recovery. If the process is not done under controlled conditions, toxic chemicals might be disposed of inappropriately and cause risks for the environment and the health (Lombard, Int., 2006). 3.9.3.

Refiners

After being sorted, the various metals contained in electronic scrap have to be refined. The steel is partly processed locally, but most of the other metals pre-processed from big recycling companies are exported, to Europe or Asia, because the price offered is more advantageous oversees 22. According to Van Rensburg (cited in Finlay, 2005), “as much of 80% of cleaned material is exported”. Companies such as the Reclamation Group collect the copper, sort it in different grades and ship it oversees but don’t refine it themselves. Widmer et al., (2005a) mentioned that Rand Refinery processed hundreds of tonnes of recovered material per annum. When contacted for this study, Griffiths et al. (2006, Int.) said that they don’t accept e-waste anymore because they would produce dioxin when extracting the gold mixed with plastic from the PWB and they are certified ISO 14001 23. Therefore they currently only deal with mining gold.

22

There are different metal in the fraction obtained after pre-processing. The price offered can

differ according to the numbers of metal that will be extracted from those fractions. 23

International Organization for Standardization: Environmental Management Standards.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne No refinery processing precious metal from e-waste on a big scale could be found. According to Schluep (Int., 2006), there is a market for about five precious metal refineries in the world. However, some precious metal recovered through “backyard” activities is most probably sold and processed locally. It seems as well that people steal gold from mines and smuggle it saying that it comes from e-waste, which would indicate that some refineries do buy gold from e-scrap. Similar to recycling companies, refineries are relatively clean, most of them certified ISO 14001 (Widmer et al., 2005a), but they don’t necessarily choose clean upstream clients, such as a refiner that admitted openly that he is aware that the copper he buys is stolen or cleaned through open burning but doesn’t care as long as it is not done at his facility.

3.10 Final disposers The part that cannot be recycled has to be disposed of. The two solutions for final disposing are landfilling and incineration with or without energy recovery. Since no incineration takes place in South Africa owing to pressure from NGO’s that fear uncontrolled incineration, the final disposing is landfill. As seen before, not all parts are recycled locally. When the invaluable part is not exported to be processed oversees nor stockpiled waiting for a solution, it is landfilled or dumped. This section tries to estimates how much is landfilled, and in which type of landfill sites, general or hazardous. Pikitup, representing the Municipality of Gauteng for the waste management, couldn’t provide numbers on amount of e-waste at the landfill sites, but said that equipment such as cell phones, toasters etc., definitely find their way to landfills (Venter, Int., 2006). When starting to raise questions on the topic for this study, they didn’t seem aware that e-waste is hazardous. The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, which currently operates five waste disposal sites, reported that “on average 2.2 tonnes of e-Waste per month are disposed at the Weltervreden Landfill site in Brakpan. No e-Waste was recorded from any of the other landfill sites” (Widmer et al., 2005).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne In the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM), when customers call the municipality to find out about the landfill, they are told that the landfill doesn’t accept electronic discards and that they should dispose of it at the hazardous landfill site. There is almost no e-waste at the general landfill site (Dekker, Int., 2006). It has to be noticed though that there is almost no e-waste compared to other waste, but 1 or 2 tonnes per month can be found. As there are seven landfill sites in the CTMM, it might total around 100 tonne per year just in Tshwane (less than one forth of the population of Gauteng) assuming that all landfill sites have the same amount of e-waste. The study on consumer behaviour regarding e-waste, done in Pretoria, Tshwane, shows that a lot of e-waste discarded by consumers go to the general landfill sites. The fact that, according to the landfill manager, there is almost no e-waste at the landfill site can be explained through lack of information about that precise waste stream, but as well because scavengers at the site recover it. Some household consumers who filled in the form said that, when bringing waste at the landfill, scavengers used to run to the truck to help unloading and take most of the interesting material, especially outside of the official hours when there are not under control. The same has been seen at a garden site visited. Thus, the material going to the landfill site doesn’t necessarily stay there, the valuable parts are taken to be resold to processors through salvaging activities. In the Western Cape Province, scavengers have been seen taking monitors by the cable, smashing it on the ground on the landfill to extract the copper (Newson, Int., 2006). This might as well happen in Gauteng. The glass is then completely broken and therefore all over the place. It is then hard to identify it as e-waste. E-waste might be dumped also outside official landfill sites, as seen previously with the scrap from Telkom SA Ltd abandoned on the site. In the CTMM, of the 2.2 million m3 of solid waste disposed annually in landfill sites, it is estimated that approximately 180 000 m3 of waste is illegally dumped within the CTMM area, which makes about 12% of the landfilled waste (City of Tswhane, 2004). There are currently no data available specifically on e-waste 24.

24

Personal communication with Bradley Sauls, Department of Environmental Affairs and

Tourism, Customer Service Representative

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne The amount of PCB recycled by Desco raises questions on the extent of illegal dumping. Desco processes about 400 tonnes of PCB per annum (see table 2). The weight of a PC board is about 200 g. With a PC containing two to five of them, the average weight of PWB per computer should be under 1kg. Thus, 400 tonnes of PCB’s mean that at least 400 000 computers have been dismantled. With an average weight of 27 kg per PC (EMPA, 2005), more than 10 000 tonnes of computer have been dismantled, which make more than 2000 tonnes of plastic and 400 000 monitors. Desco purchases PWB’s from scrap metal dealers that buy it from street collectors/stripper. After dismantling and selling the PWB’s, some collectors might sell the rest to other recyclers, but because of the long distance to recyclers and the few interest for monitors, a lot might be dumped. Besides general landfill sites, there are hazardous landfill sites for toxic waste. The Holfontein hazardous landfill site is the only hazardous landfill site in Gauteng. They receive as well hazardous waste from other provinces. According to Havinga (Int., 2006), of the 35,000 – 40,000 tons of Hazardous waste they receive a month, the e-waste makes up a relatively insignificant portion of the total, less than 1%. He couldn’t give more precise numbers because e-waste is not recorded separately as a specific waste stream. Like drop-off sites, the general landfill sites are managed by the municipality or by contractors, who have expectations to reduce final disposing. Beside the environmental aspect, landfilling is very expensive.

3.11 General for all role players Except for scrap metal dealers, most of the stakeholders met seemed concerned by environmental and social issues. They are aware that they lack information, showed interest and asked questions such as why a certain process is dangerous for the health of the workers, what should be done with that specific hazardous waste etc. They clearly hope that the Green e-Waste Channel will provide them with information regarding those issues. Informal recyclers are also very keen to learn about how to handle e-waste (Green e-Waste Channel Gauteng, 2006a).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne The need for more knowledge on sound e-waste management was noticed from big recycling companies and municipalities as well as from smaller refurbishers and processors, although the needs are not similar. Bigger companies have a fairly good knowledge on hazardous waste management but are looking for partners providing them with the necessary service, such as a recycler looking for an economically viable solution for plastic. Smaller bodies on the other hand, have a need to be informed on Best Practices and their reasons, for example why monitors shouldn’t be dumped. Their knowledge comes from practical experiences, as for example a dismantler realising that monitors don’t have much economical value because the glass industry doesn’t want to buy it but not knowing the reason, namely that it contains lead. E-waste is a new waste stream, and some of the processes that are currently environmental unfriendly are so mostly because of lack of understanding. A common expectation from all role players above is to make money out of the handling of end-of-life devices. The only exception is for the managers of drop-off sites and general landfill sites, paid by the municipalities (although most of the workers there have a second income through selling waste).

3.12 Generalisation for all South Africa The current situation can differ between provinces, the major differences being the advance stage of the recycling system and the scale in which the recycling is being done. All major recyclers are based in Gauteng (Finlay, 2005), with some smaller processors or branches from big recyclers based in Gauteng along the cost between Durban and Cape Town. In rural provinces, the recycling might be very low, with more storage and more unsound final disposing such as waste buried in a hole at the farm or burnt because of lack of adequate municipal support. Transport challenges might be of bigger importance in less densely populated regions. There are only few hazardous landfill sites in RSA, remote from most rural area. More than half of the landfills in South Africa are not permitted, mostly in rural area, and therefore not so well protected against leaching.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

CHAPTER IV

4. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION AND OBJECTIVES This chapter summarizes the problems identified in Chapter 3 (Figure 9) and the corresponding objectives proposed, that could be achieved through the Green e-Waste Channel (Table 3). The objectives of the Green e-Waste Channel are set in order to answer the three main aspects of the sustainable development, be environmentally friendly (“green”), economically sustainable and socially responsible, which also includes creating jobs, extremely needed in South Africa. ______________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________ Figure 9. Schematic overview of the current e-waste recycling situation in South Africa. Source: adapted from EMPA (2006).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Table 3.

Summary of the problems of the current situation and corresponding proposed

objectives for a future Green e-Waste Channel.

Problems 1.

Proposed Objectives

Too long storage

Have a take-back system to collect the e-waste

2.

Not enough reuse

3.

Sub-optimal

Encourage reuse

environmental

and Improve the environmental standards, the

social quality of recycling

working conditions, the safety standards etc.

4.

5.

Not enough recycling

More recycling



Insufficient amount

Also recycle the invaluable parts (mainly



Cherry picking

the plastic and the monitors)

Informal activities, including:

Train,



Open burning of wires



Breaking monitors



Dissolving of metals with

inform

and

formalize

the

processors

acids from Printed Wiring Boards 6.

Unsound final disposing •

Illegal

dumping

No dumping, less landfilling, at least use from hazardous landfill sites

opportunist “recyclers” •

General

landfills

used

instead of hazardous landfill sites 7.

Import of broken computers and Collect, reuse and recycle the local e-scrap

by

refurbishers

and e-waste before importing!

processors 8.

Export of pre-processed material

More local processing

9.

Lack of public awareness and Awareness raising information

10.

Difficulty to respect national and Respect/implement regulations international laws

11.

No global and common vision on Take the good parts of the current system e-waste. No proper system to and help improve, formalize, strengthen handle it

and monitor it, as well as reduce the unwanted processes.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

4.1

Storage

The total recycling efficiency is determined by the weakest step in the chain. If the recycling itself is efficient but most of the equipment stays in storage, the recycling efficiency is clearly limited by the storage. The average lifetime of a computer is decreasing, which means that there are more and more computers that are replaced. The old computers can’t be stored forever because of lack of space but there is as well a loss of their functional and material value. The potential value for second use decreases with the time of storage, as the equipment becomes increasingly obsolete. In the United States for example the first owner uses his PC for on average time span of three years (Widmer et al., 2005a), after which most of the equipment could still be reused instead of being directly recycled. As a private consumer, it can be convenient to store the computer for some time, or dispose it of in the municipal solid waste collection system. But when we speak of many hundreds or even thousands of computers, the need for an adequate solution seems obvious. In the city of Cape Town, a proposal for an e-waste policy is being made. The awareness about the e-waste problem grew mainly because the government itself realised it didn’t know how to deal with its own end-of-life equipment 25. Because of storage that makes the material non available, processors and refurbishers have to advertise in order to receive equipment. They sometimes even import material from oversees. The equipment in South Africa is partly kept by consumers for future use, but one of the main reasons is that there is no proper take-back system. The lack of an appropriate take-back and collection system causes the loss of control on recycling activities, allowing informal recycling and illegal dumping. When processors or refurbishers have to collect material, it is time consuming for them and they don’t necessarily have the adequate means of transport for the amount that has to be transported, causing financial loss on an inefficient system. As seen in South Africa, recycling is mainly limited by lack of sufficient collection, the market being currently corned by present recyclers. The Green e-Waste Channel should therefore provide a collection system.

25

“By way of example, the IS&T [Information System and Technology] directorate manages

over 10,000 desktop computer systems” (City of Cape Town, 2006).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

4.2

Reuse

From an environmental perspective, it is important to encourage the practice of reuse before that of recycling, because reuse allows more material and energy savings. In the waste management hierarchy, the 3 R’s principle says to first Reduce, second Reuse and third Recycle. Encouraging more reuse has many advantages for the environment. The manufacturing of one desktop computer requires 240 kilograms of fossil fuels, 22 kilograms of chemicals and at least 1,500 litres of water (Williams, 2003). According to Williams et al. (2003), the energy savings potential of reselling or upgrading a computer is some five to twenty times greater than recycling it: “The origin of this dramatic difference between reuse and recycling lies in the fact that much of the energy investment in the life cycle of a computer is in producing its complex form rather than its physical substance. Thus, the environmental payback of recycling materials is poor compared to many goods. This strongly suggests that management strategies for waste electronics should emphasize extension of lifespan”. With reuse, less raw material is used, which economizes resources on earth. The pollution arising from raw material extracting, the manufacturing and the recycling/disposal is reduced (BAN, 2005). Encouraging reuse also has social advantages. Refurbishment activities present low risks for workers: “A personal computer can, for the most part, be disassembled and reassembled using hand tools, e.g., a screwdriver, and there are no special environmental concerns with such repair and refurbishment” (OECD, 2003). In 2002, there were 7.26 personal computers per 100 inhabitants 26 in South Africa, which confirms the fact that many households still don’t have computers. The final declaration of the first World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) included, among others, the obligation of its participants to close the “digital gap”

27

and to

26

source: www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/cs/index.html (International Telecommunication Union).

27

The “digital gap” separates the information rich from the information poor, those with regular,

effective access to digital technologies and those without. (WSIS, 2003).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne promote people’s access to new communication technologies (WSIS, 2003). Refurbishment offers disadvantaged people cheap computers, thus helping reduce the digital gap. The reuse also has social advantages, creating a lot of jobs through refurbishment activities (Table 4). Table 4. Number of jobs depending on the type of activity.

Process Refurbishment Dismantling Partly manual recycling Mechanical recycling only

Workers/ton/month 1.65 0.30 0.26 0.04

Ton for 1 worker 0.61 3.33 3.86 26.04

Estimated from the number of workers handling the e-waste and the tonnes of e-waste processed per month. One facility has been assessed per process. Source: interviews

Since only one company per type of processor could give the required information, the above table only indicates that there are more people needed to process the items at the refurbisher than at dismantler/manual recyclers, and that the number required for mechanical processing is very low. This shows that the work creation potential follows the e-waste stream that one should encourage: reuse the function first and only then recycle.

4.3

Standards of recycling

Big recycling companies have rather clean processes, with modern facilities, but many elements can still be improved, for instance regarding safety standards and work conditions. Another point is that the consequences of the recycling of some components are not always considered in the long term. To put the plastic from e-waste into products such as chairs has negative environmental and health consequences. As Brominated Flame Retardant (BFR’s) contained in the plastics is a Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP), it might have similar effects as hormones, acting as an endocrinal disruptor. During its lifespan, the plastic looses some material: “Instead of staying put, they [BFR’s] have been found to migrate into the surrounding air and are soluble in water.” (Environment Victoria 2005). If inhaled - 55 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne through dust in the ambient air, they can raise health issues: “Exposure may cause increased risk of cancer, endocrine disruption and/or neurodevelopmental problems.” When going further down the process, from refurbishment to refining through dismantling, the environmental and health risks increase (OECD, 2003): thus, higher standards must be set and controls need to be stronger for the last steps of processing.

4.4

Amount recycled

The quantity of e-waste recycled is low and some components such as the plastic and the monitors are seldom recycled. A life cycle assessment of Hischier et al. (2005) on e-waste recycling concluded that, although it is not possible to recycle e-waste without causing any environmental impacts, “ a take-back and recycling system for WEEE as established in Switzerland has clear environmental advantages, compared with the respective baseline scenario assuming a complete incineration of all WEEE “. It is assumed that recycling carried out in South Africa is better for the environment than disposal and extracting new resources, but the environmental benefit has to be controlled in detail depending on the process and the product. It is important to set recycling goals on environmental factors rather than on amount, because of the different environmental weight of each component. With collection targets solely based on weight, the objective might be achieved rapidly through heavy items such as fridges, but some products have more value in terms of toxic components (Huisman, 2005). Furthermore, each recycling option has different environmental effects. According to Atlee et al. (2006): “Because of the complexity of the waste stream and diversity of processing options, the most environmentally friendly strategy for dealing with EOL [end-of-life] electronics is not always readily apparent and may differ by product, location, and markets.” To set quantitative targets is beyond the scope of this study, but when done, environmental criteria such as toxicity and energy use have to be considered. Besides the environmental impact, recycling has economic and social advantages, creating jobs:

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne “Recycling is estimated to create nearly five times as many jobs as landfilling. The jobs created by recycling businesses draw from the full spectrum of the labor market, ranging from low-skilled to highly-skilled positions. Materials sorters, dispatchers, truck drivers, brokers, sales representatives, process engineers, and chemists are just some of the people needed in the recycling industry.” (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 1997).

28

Therefore, when reuse is not possible because the equipment is too old or unwanted because of data protection, end-of-life equipment should be recycled.

4.5

Informal processing

Most of the informal collectors and processors do “cherry picking”, selling the valuable parts and dumping the rest. In order to separate the valuable parts from the less valuable, collectors have to dismantle the discarded electronics: basic manual dismantling mainly involves opening the computer casing with a screwdriver. This activity in itself doesn’t pose many environmental and health issues except the risk of cuttings, but it opens the door to further dismantling such as the breaking of the whole monitor to extract the copper yoke, with a high risk to inhale lead from the glass and dissemination of the laid containing glass in inadequate places.

At this stage,

dismantling becomes “informal recycling”, which is of concern because as these collectors are informal and work independently, it is complex to control and monitor them. Hence, it is considered that any dismantling should be done professionally and under control. Table 5 shows potential environmental and health risks with informal activities observed in Asia and which of those recycling processes are carried out in South Africa, the potential risks being similar.

28

By way of example, “Collect-a-Can” (joint venture between Mittal Steel South Africa and

Nampak, beverage can producer) estimates that their initiative has provided a enormous number of jobs: “Approximately 37 000 collectors sell cans to Collect-a-Can, about 82% of whom would otherwise be unemployed.” Source: www.collectacan.co.za

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Table 5. Comparison of informal e-waste recycling in Asia and in South Africa

Computer/ e-waste component Cathode ray tube (CRTs)

Chips and other gold plated components

Plastics from computer and peripherals, e.g. printers, keyboards… Computer wires

Miscellaneous computer parts encased in rubber or plastic, e.g. steel rollers Secondary steel or copper and precious metal smelting

Process witnessed in Guiyu, China

Potential occupational hazard

Breaking, removal of -Silicosis copper yoke and -Cuts from CRT glass in dumping case of implosion -Inhalation or contact with phosphor containing cadmium or other metals Chemical stripping -Acid contact with eyes, using nitirc acid and skin may result in hydrochloric acid permanent injury along riverbanks -Inhalation of mists and fumes of acids, chlorine and sulphur dioxide gases can cause respiratory irritation to severe effects including pulmonary oedema, circulatory failure and death Shredding and low Probable hydrocarbon, temperature melting brominated dioxin, and to be reutilized in heavy metal exposures poor grade plastics Open burning to recover copper

Open burning to recover steel and other metals

Furnace recovers steel or copper from waste including organics

Brominated and chlorinated dioxin, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) (carcinogenic) exposure to workers living in the burning works area29 Hydrocarbon including PAHs and potential dioxin exposure

Exposure to dioxins and heavy metals

Potential environmental hazard Lead, barium and other heavy metals leaching into groundwater, release of toxic phosphor -Hydrocarbons, heavy metals, brominated substances, etc. discharged directly into river banks -Acidifies the river destroying fish and flora

Similar process in South Africa Medium scale

Small scale (can be of less hazard because doesn’t necessarily go to rivers)

Emissions of brominated dioxins and heavy metals and hydrocarbons Hydrocarbon ashes including PAH’s discharged to air, water and soil

Small scale

Hydrocarbon ashes including PAH’s discharged to air, water and soil Emissions of dioxin and heavy metals

Small scale

Large scale

Small scale

Source: Puckett et al., 2002 for Asia. South African part, based on interviews from processors and open researchers and personal observations.

29

It has to be noticed though that no serious health effects have been found in a study from

Steiner (2004) concerning cable burning in India.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Investigations from Widmer et al. (2005a) have shown that “very little informal e-waste recycling occurs”. The present study demonstrates that more informal recycling might be taking place, partly because it might have been underestimated in the previous study, but as well because it is increasing: the amount of discarded electronics is rising and much attention is given to the topic, which has as positive but also negative effects: realizing the financial potential, some people start back yard processing.

4.6

Final disposing

Since e-waste is considered hazardous waste, it has to be disposed in an authorized hazardous landfill site. It has to be noticed though that according to Finlay (2005), there are differences in opinion concerning the extent of the problem of disposing e-waste on general landfills (non hazardous). This point has also been noted by Williams (2005): “Surprisingly, there is a significant lack of risk assessments addressing leaching of heavy metals from electronics from landfills, despite the fact that this concern has been a major driver of legislative activity around the world to curb the use of landfills as an end-of-life option.” Even if e-waste doesn’t cause environmental hazards in authorized landfill sites that may be well protected against leaching and strictly controlled, the risk is higher in more than half of the general landfill sites in use in South Africa that are not permitted (Lombard, 2006, Int.): “Dumping of computers in landfills represents what has been called a ‘toxic time bomb‘. Even landfills constructed to the highest of standards are not completely impermeable and a certain amount of chemical and metal leaching occurs over time; for older or less well-maintained sites, the potential for leakage is even greater.” (Environment Victoria, 2005). According to the precautionary principle and the fact that e-waste is considered as hazardous waste in any case, the fractions not recycled should be landfilled in a hazardous landfill site. This solution is not sustainable, because of the exponentially increasing amount of e-waste and the cost of hazardous landfill sites: it should be considered as the ultimate option after reuse and recycling.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

4.7

Import of waste computers

The refurbisher FreeCom Group (Pty) Ltd in the Western Cape imports rather new computers from Europe (Dittke, Int., 2006 and questionnaire), which is positive because otherwise they would be recycled without being reused. According to the Basel Convention, the import of a working computer is permitted (the computers must be tested, certificated and labelled), but if they are broken, they are considered as waste and therefore fall into the jurisdiction of the Basel Convention 30. When refurbishers import non-working computers, only part of the equipment or some components can be reused, generating a lot of waste that will stay in the country. When the e-waste is imported to be recycled, waste is generated as well, because it’s not possible to recycle 100%. According to Puckett et al., (2002), the two fundamental reasons for banning the economically motivated trade in hazardous waste are: i. “Downstream Impacts: Hazardous waste trade is fundamentally unjust and environmentally damaging since it victimizes the poor, burdening them with toxic exposure and environmental degradation. (…)” ii. “Upstream Impacts: Hazardous waste trade allows waste generators to externalize their costs, creating a major disincentive to finding true solutions upstream for the problems they create. (…)”

South Africa is often referred to as “a world in one country” because of the fusion of many cultures as well as the presence of many income classes: it has rich as well as poor people, and therefore people who want to get rid of brand new computers as well as people who can’t afford new ones and would make good use of old but working computers. South Africa should then try to take advantage of what the country has and needs; there is a lot of material in the country that should be handled before importing.

30

As the U.S.A. have not ratified the convention, imports from them are illegal regarding the

Convention only from the recipient country’s point of view (South Africa), but not from the exporting country.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

4.8

Export of pre-processed material

South Africa is not a producing country, but imports most of its EEE. At a certain step, it is therefore normal that the material obtained by the recycling goes to producer countries, but this should be done as late in the chain as possible and only for the materials not needed in South Africa. This problem is not specific to e-waste. South Africa is one of the richest mining countries in the world but there is no local smelting and almost no manufactures, except for gold (Newson, Int., 2006). In the optimal situation, material would be exported only if there is no market in South Africa, in order to encourage local economy, to create jobs and to minimize the environmental impact of transport (Figure 10). ______________________________________________________________________

Figure 10. Current and aimed long term destination of materials after pre-processing of e-waste.

4.9

Public awareness

Many consumers encountered never thought of what happens to their end-of-life equipment. The lack of knowledge on e-waste issues can explain the fact that the answer rate to the questionnaire for corporate consumer behaviour was very low: the - 61 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne person receiving the questionnaire doesn’t necessarily have information on what the company does with end-of-life computers nor does he/she know who to ask. As discussed above, e-waste is hazardous and shouldn’t be dumped in a general landfill site. Private users don’t see the problem with putting it in a normal garbage bin, apparently more because of lack of consciousness. Consumers need a common understanding of what happens when the electric and electronic devise becomes waste. NGO’s have shown interest to encourage awareness rising, but at present, not much has been done. Even if users were conscious that they shouldn’t dispose of their end-of-life equipment in the municipal waste, there is currently no environmentally friendly and convenient solution. They could look to recyclers to recoup their equipment, but they would have to drive long distances themselves, as it is not viable for most of the processors to fetch little amounts of discarded equipment. As South Africa imports a lot of electrical and electronic equipment from Europe, EEE are labelled saying that they shouldn’t be thrown in a normal dustbin 31: users only know what they shouldn’t do, not what they should!

4.10 National and international legislation Although South Africa doesn’t have a specific national legislation on e-waste, many can be read to impact on e-waste (see appendix X). Some govern health and safety at the workplace, others the waste management such as the Polokwane Declaration (Government of South Africa, 2001) that aims to “Reduce waste generation and disposal by 50% and 25% respectively by 2012 and develop a plan for ZERO WASTE by 2022.” This legislation is currently not fully respected. The Green e-Waste Channel would help develop better working conditions, encourage more refurbishment and reuse and avoid landfilling. All these aspects help approach the targets of much of the national legislation.

31

The proper marking is required by the WEEE Directive (article 21) (The European Parliament

and the Council of the European Union, 2003b).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Regarding international legislation, transboundary movements of e-waste have to be regulated according to the requirements of the Basel Convention, which is difficult to achieve presently because there is a lack of information on the current handling. One of the aims of the Green e-Waste Channel would be to possess the necessary knowledge permitting the respect of international agreements.

4.11 Common and global vision on e-waste Although reuse and recycling is currently happening, this situation analysis shows clearly that there are still many problems. There is no proper system to handle the situation, each stakeholder taking care of his/her own interests without a holistic vision. The Green e-Waste Channel aims to connect all the stakeholders playing a role in the recycling and reuse of e-waste, similarly to Huisman’s findings (2005): “Basically, one has to realize that recycling of electronic products requires multi-stakeholder cooperation to actually meet the societal goals of electronics recycling” The Green e-Waste Channel doesn’t intend to create a new system but to take the good parts of the current one and help improve, formalize, strengthen and monitor it, as well as reduce the unwanted processes.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

CHAPTER V 5. LONG TERM AIMED E-WASTE CHANNEL

SITUATION:

THE

GREEN

This chapter won’t show the process South Africa is now going through in order to implement an e-waste management system, but instead shows a desired end state, how the situation could be in the long term, based on the gathered knowledge from the case study and problem identification. The proposal is that the desired long-term situation be achieved through a Green e-Waste Channel. The Channel can start with only a small amount of e-waste going through it as a pilot project, but in the medium or long term, the objective is to have the majority of South Africa’s e-waste going through it. The goal is not to have a clean Green e-Waste Channel but only on a small scale and with all the unsound processes still happening outside the Channel.

5.1

Definition

The “Green e-Waste Channel” is a concept that represents the infrastructure and the processes e-waste should go through from the discarding of the end-of-life equipment from private households and corporate consumers to the clean raw material to be reprocessed or to the final disposing. The infrastructure and the processes, including the take-back, the refurbishment or recycling and the final disposing of e-waste should be environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically sustainable, which includes: minimizing landfilling, encouraging, firstly, more reuse and secondly more sound recycling and maximizing the value adding along the chain, principally with the creation of risk free job opportunities. In the optimal situation, to ensure that nothing goes out of the system uncontrolled, once the consumer decides to have his/her e-waste handled by the Green e-Waste Channel, only authorized stakeholders of the Channel should handle it. When material goes out of - 64 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne the Channel, the different participants should try to choose a partner who respects, as much as possible, the ideals of the Channel: “recyclers are responsible also for the proper processing of their downstream fraction mainly those critical items as mentioned in the Annex of the EU WEEE directives” (Rochat, 2006).

5.2

Stakeholders

The role players that could be included in the Green e-Waste Channel are the stakeholders handling the discarded equipment: collectors and collection points, refurbishers, processors and final disposers. The consumers are not part of the Channel, because although they play a role bringing back their e-waste, it is not their main activity and they can’t be regulated. The stakeholders handling the e-waste are almost the same as in the current system, but some of them might play a more or less important role. The only stakeholder identified as waste managers in chapter 3 not included here are scrap metal dealers: as they accept only PCB’s, the rest being dumped and they didn’t seem willing to communicate and participate, I suggest that they shouldn’t be included in the available collection points. One collection point not discussed in chapter 3 but proposed here are retailers. 5.2.1.

Refurbishers

There are two ways the refurbishers could receive equipment: directly from the consumers or through collection points. If they receive it directly from users, the flow is not part of the Green e-Waste Channel, the Channel being in that case only used to communicate information on where to find refurbishers. 64% of the private consumers questioned said that they would go to the refurbishers to sell their computers if they wanted to dispose of still valuable devices, but as only 2% of the surveyed people currently know where to find a refurbisher, information has to be made available. Big refurbishers should receive as much equipment as possible from collection points. They are therefore partners of the Channel. Since some goods would be older and not entirely suitable for resell or reuse, they would generate a lot of waste. For this reason, a - 65 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne possible solution would be to require of refurbishers the same standards as processors regarding hazardous waste handling. As they receive material from official collection points for free or for low prices, they could have a contract stipulating that, in exchange, they must give a free repaired computer part to a disadvantaged person through organisations 32. The situation is different for small businesses that repair a customer’s computer, generating only little waste: there is no need to control their activities from a waste management perspective. Their names could be listed to inform customers and therefore encourage reuse, but as long as they don’t receive material from a collection point, there is no need to further regulate their activities. When selling second-hand computers, refurbishers should inform their customers on the Green e-Waste Channel, so that they bring it back to partners from the Channel at the end-of-life of the equipment. If refurbishers sell second-hand computers to other southern African countries, it is important to make sure that they don’t send non working computers there, as Europe or the U.S.A. do with Nigeria for example. To guarantee that the reuse won’t compromise the confidentiality of the former owner, refurbishers should systematically use a software to erase the data on computers. Many corporate consumers already discard their devices through refurbishers, but it could be done on a bigger scale if they were informed that software which erase data can be trusted. If the users still don’t trust it, the data could be destroyed by only destroying the hardware, which would make the reuse of other parts possible. To reduce the cost of buying new software for the refurbished computer, open source software should be installed (Widmer et al., 2005a). 5.2.2.

Logistics providers

In the present system, there are three role players in the collection of e-waste: the consumers, the processors or refurbishers, and the transporters (informal collectors, municipalities or private transporters).

32

This is currently done by Intelligent Computing: they fix the computers they receive from

some corporate consumers that will hand it for charity and keep one quarter as payment.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Discarded electronics needs to be brought from the consumers to a collection point, and then from the collection point to the refurbisher or processor. It can also go directly from the consumer to the refurbisher or processor for big amounts (collected by the processor/refurbisher) or if the consumer wants to have a certificate of destruction at the processor. For the transport of discarded electronics from the user to the collection points, consumers should take back the equipment they want to discard, assuming that convenient collection points are provided. The role of private consumers in the transportation of e-waste is currently almost nonexistent but it should be encouraged as much as possible because it doesn’t cost money to the system, the cost being paid by the consumer according to the principle of the “polluter pays”. The study on the easiest and most convenient way to drop-off the waste showed clearly that the consumer would prefer a pick-up service at his/her house. To complement the take-back by the user, the municipality or another authorized private collector could collect the discarded equipment from the users to the collection sites. When asked how often the consumer would like a pick-up service, the average was every four and a half months. Looking at the dispersion of the results, a convenient solution for most of the people wouldn’t be every four and a half months, but either very often, such as every month, or every year (Figure 11).

Figure 11. Frequency of Pick-up service for e-waste wished by the persons surveyed.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne 39% of the respondents are ready to pay for a pick-up service, on average 59 ZAR (6.30 Euro)

33

for small items ranging from phones to computers, and 144 ZAR

(15.30 Euro) for bigger equipment such as a fridge. Although less than half of the people asked would be ready to pay for the service, those who would spend money on it are willing to pay a fair amount. The municipality or another authorized private collector could also play a role transporting the e-waste from the collection point to the refurbisher or recyclers. If processors and refurbishers were to pay for a professional logistic provider from the collection point, the system would be more efficient and thus more money could be spent on the recycling of unprofitable e-waste components. More money could also be given to the reclaimers on the collection site. According to Huisman (2005), competition between logistics partners can add value. The transport from one processor to another, for example from one pre-processed material from a recycler to the refinery, could continue to be carried out by the processors. The Green e-Waste Channel provides collection points, especially useful for private users, but in order to have big volumes of e-waste going through the Channel, it’s primordial to have the corporate consumer involved. The collection from corporate consumers shouldn’t be a problem, as most of the old computers are already grouped and as the internal communication system from this large consumer base could be used to inform how the computer should be properly collected. Corporate consumers should have their goods brought directly to refurbishers or possibly processors. Business to business solutions must be encouraged, in order to minimize the amounts stored at collection points. The government, as one of the biggest corporate consumers, should lead by example, having most of its discarded equipment taken to refurbishers. Regarding the role of the informal collector, if they do collect a significant amount of e-waste, then they should be regulated. Contrary to reclaimers for glass or paper, there is too much risk associated with electronics dismantling and dumping to let e-waste reclaimers collect material uncontrolled. Information and control could be carried out

33

ZAR = South African rand. Exchange rate: 1 Euro = 9.4 ZAR (16 February 2007).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne through the buy-back centres and the processors buying scrap from them: they shouldn’t buy material if it has been dismantled before. A summary of the principal ways for collection of e-waste is shown in Figure 12. ______________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________ Figure 12. Principal ways for collection of e-waste in South Africa: aimed long term situation.

5.2.3.

Collection points

Collection points are key elements of a recycling system, as Huisman (2005) emphasized: “Research shows a clear link between number of collection points and kg’s collected. Especially in the start-up phase of take back, the availability of collection points is crucial.” The study of the easiest and most convenient way to drop-off the waste showed clearly that after the pick-up service at his/her house, the consumer would secondly go to a collection point and as third solution use the retailer to bring back their equipment. If privates were informed about the closest collection point, and if the only collection possibility would be to take back the items to the collection point in question, 88% of the people questioned would do it, although they didn’t choose it as the most convenient - 69 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne solution. The reasons not to use the collection site were the distance to drive for people living far from town, the lack of time and the effort involved. The people who said they would use the collection site were motivated by environmental concerns and the wish to have their equipment properly disposed of as well as the convenience. At collection points, refurbishers or processors would collect the material. Processors and refurbishers could have a tender to receive material from a certain number of collection points close to their facilities. Ideally, the refurbishers should have priority; the processors should recycle only the material not suitable for reuse. A solution that could be investigated for users that don’t trust the software to erase the data used by refurbishers is to provide two containers on the collection site, one guaranteeing destruction (recycling) and the other allowing refurbishment. When suggested to the people concerned, this solution seemed complicated to execute, at least in the short term. The collection points provide a place to communicate on the Green e-Waste Channel: information sheets on the containers could explain to the consumer that it will be disposed of safely and why it is important. A list of the collection points and of the type of equipment collected could be written on the back of the Water and Light account received from the municipality. Although collection points might not be really useful on a big scale for PC’s because they are mainly owned by corporate consumers, they might be used for other types of e-waste owned by household consumers such as toasters, phones etc. To have appropriate collection site is important in order to change consumer behaviour regarding the discarding of e-waste. Drop-off sites At the garden site, the place must look clean and be safe, if the private consumer has to use the site. The use of a drop-off site is convenient for the consumer, because they can get rid of other waste such as paper or glass at the same time. As old equipments still have a potential high value, the drop-off site must provide safe storage. It can’t be put in open containers in places such as schools like it is done for - 70 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne glass or paper. Therefore, containers must be lockable, in order to ensure that no e-scrap gets stolen and to have the material covered from the rain. The space available is not a problem for the collection point, but containers are expensive to buy. IT businesses could sponsor containers branded with their company logo 34. The big challenge for the drop-off sites is to know who works for who, to have the manager of the site monitoring the workers and to have only one person responsible for the e-waste. It is the responsibility of the municipality (or Pikitup) to ensure that the personnel on the site are authorized to work and that scavengers leave. The responsible person for e-waste would receive the money from processors and refurbishers and redistribute it to the workers that help with the sorting and storage of electronic discards. This should allow: •

To have the material sold only to official partners of the Channel.



The buyer to pay to accounts and not in cash on the spot, which is safer, especially when big amounts are involved.



To have records of volumes: there must be a weight bridge at the collection point to weigh the e-waste going to the processors 35.

Retailers / traders In the current system, retailers don’t play an important role in the e-waste take-back system, but they could serve as a collection point for discarded electronics, similarly to the system in developed countries such as Switzerland. This solution has been investigated because it seems convenient for consumers, as they can bring back their old equipment when purchasing a new one. However, the consumers surveyed didn’t choose the take-back at the retailer as the most easy and convenient solution for a future tack back system. When asked for the reasons of this choice, it surfaced that people don’t see it as inconvenient but thought rather that it would be too complicated to put into practice: they were wondering how they would give reasons to the retailers for them to accept to take back the end-of-life equipment. If retailers do participate, it might 34

Negotiations are being carried out in Cape Town (Dittke, 2006)

35

It would be weighed again when it arrives at the processor. This double check is necessary for

a possible financial mechanism for the system, so that they don’t cheat with it.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne be convenient for the users, especially for lower class users not having a vehicle: retailers are more centrally located than drop-off sites and buy-back centres. In the Green e-Waste Channel, the retailers should take back equipment that the user wants to discard, irrespective of the age or brand, as long as the equipment is of the same type as the ones sold. Consumers could get a discount on the new equipment when they bring the old one back as is currently done by some distributors, but the consumer should have the possibility of bringing back the equipment without the obligation of purchasing a new one

36

. They should bring as much equipment as possible to

refurbishers. Thus, destruction through recycling couldn’t be guaranteed at the retailer. When selling new items, they should inform their customers about the needs and the way to take back the equipment at the end-of-life. Buy-back centres In the future, they will probably receive more discarded electronics and could be used as official collection points. The entrepreneurs on the site need to be trained, especially because they might also dismantle some components there to sell different metal fractions. Since their activities are in between collection and dismantling, they could be considered as dismantling facilities and respect the same standards. Consumers are already used to discarding their waste at landfill sites, but the use of buy-back centres next to landfills as collection points for e-waste should be avoided: although this solution is probably convenient for the users, it risks being tempting and easy for entrepreneurs to dump the invaluable scrap. Value adding centres More side activities to add value to the waste should be encouraged. Some end-of-life equipment could be brought by the consumer to “waste-to-art” centres and then given to different entrepreneurs wishing to do side activities. “Waste-to-art”, done at Footprint Environmental Centre in Cape Town, is defined by Laffely (2006) as: “the production

36

Similarly to the Swiss ordinance on the Return, Taking-back and Disposal of Electrical and

Electronic Equipment (ORDEE).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne of arts and craft items made from recyclables and other materials that have been discarded.” Waste-to-art can be lucrative for the crafter, as the raw material - e-waste - is received for free or nearly, and products such as jewellery can be made out of it. Other products such as clocks can be elaborated with an addition of new components. Waste-to-art products could be sold in a second-hand shop together with refurbished PC’s. Such centres can have a display showing the components of a computer and what can be done with it, explaining the value and hazard of it: they could be considered as a place to carry out awareness raising, to give information on the Channel, for visits by schools etc. They could be used as an ecotourism route, as they plan to do at Footprint in Cape Town. If such centres receive high quantities of e-waste, they should redirect them to an official collection point. Those sites are not used for the efficiency of the collecting, but more for social and communication aspects. If they do handle a lot of electronic discard and generate waste, they should apply the same standards as dismantlers (like the buy-back centre). 5.2.4.

Processors

Unsound processing should be reduced first by trying to teach informal and small processors about Best Practices. If they are not willing to participate, their activities should be diminished by discouraging the big processing companies to buy from undesirable sources. The first priority is to ensure that the e-waste that goes through the Channel is processed in a sound way, but then the aim is also to guarantee that the participants handling the WEEE don’t receive discarded equipment from other unwanted sources, such as, for example, is the case with processors illegally importing e-scrap from the U.S.A. or Europe.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne The points to improve in order to satisfy the targets of a Green e-Waste Channel would be to: •

Increase the amount that can be handled - have bigger facilities, with more space for storage.



Provide information on the precise amount of e-waste processed, on the origin of the e-waste and on the destination of waste residues, according that the system guarantees the protection of the data.



More communication between processors, as for example a waste exchange data base. Some recycling processes are currently not viable because the amount of waste is not sufficient.



Respect current legislation, have the required licenses. This also applies for subcontractors of a business.



Avoid importing if there is material available locally.



Export only if there is no market in South Africa. If they do send the end product to other countries, at least get information on how it will be treated there and choose responsible recyclers.



Recycle all the components or pay another recycler abroad for the correct recycling.



Get informed on the origin of the material to buy and not accept: -

Sorted components such as PWB’s if they don’t know if the rest of the equipment has been processed in a sound way

5.2.5.

-

Burned copper

-

Stolen material 37 Final Disposers

In the aimed long-term situation, almost no material should be landfilled. However, in the mid-term, before an integral recycling system is place, some e-waste components that shouldn’t be mixed with other recyclable parts such as batteries, capacitors or condensers could be landfilled. Unless studies can show that there are no risks of using general landfill sites, they should be disposed of in hazardous landfill sites.

37

According to Markson (2006, Int.), it is easy to recognize if a cable comes from a computer

wire or has been stolen from a telecommunication company, each company using cables with a certain shape, thickness and a different number of wires.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

5.3

Setting framework conditions for the Channel

As the role players are dependent on one another, they should be coordinated with certain rules. This can be done by introducing other entities who are not part of the infrastructure or businesses of the Channel but that play or could play crucial roles such as managing, regulating or informing. Three ways to improve the current system to meet the targets of the Green e-Waste Channel are proposed and described here: i. A managing process - from a system operator like a PRO ii. A legal enforcement - from the government iii. A facilitative process - from eWASA or other NGO’s 5.3.1.

System Operator

The Green e-Waste Channel can provide the infrastructure for a proactive e-waste management initiative from the industry as part of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). As in other European countries, the system could be managed by an independent auditing and control mechanism - the PRO or “system operator” - to ensure sound management. Producers, through the ITA, have shown interest in constituting a PRO and playing the role of “system operator”, managing the Green e-Waste Channel. There are numerous reasons for producers to be interested in finding a sound solution for e-waste. In Europe, in the last 15 years, the social, environmental and ethical aspects have gained more and more impact on business activities, and corporate social responsibility is now often considered as a strategic business tool. Before, the end of pipe approach towards environmental problems dominated, but nowadays, the emphasis is changing towards Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), shifting the management of the problem upstream: the producer is responsible for the environmental impact of the product during the whole life cycle, from cradle to grave (Darby et al., 2005). This change is currently taking place in South Africa as well. The extension of product responsibility to manufacturers of other countries is a highly probable trend. Similarly, according to Park (2006), “ ‘WEEE’ and ‘RoHS’ are no longer an isolated ‘European phenomenon’ but are becoming part of a much larger and irreversible trend”. Producers therefore

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne want to proactively prepare for regulation. Failure to prepare now would result in costly and hasty decisions when new requirements come into effect. (Vermij, 2006, Int). Other motives to be involved in the e-waste issues include providing a “Green Image” to the customers, saving money of the disposal in hazardous landfill sites as they currently do and complying with the requirements of their ISO 14001 (Vermij, 2006, Int). Reasons to want to take into consideration environmental aspects, according to Dummett (2006), are government legislation or the threat of legislation, protecting or enhancing reputation or brand, pressure from consumers and cost savings, which seem to be similar to those explained here. The PRO should manage at least the logistics and the processing part of the Channel, but they could also regulate the big refurbishers generating a lot of waste, bypassing small refurbishers and other value adding parts such as waste-to-art. Each of these stakeholders must have contract with the e-waste system operator, the system operator having to choose the participants. This allows them to receive e-waste of the Channel and ensure the sound handling of it. The contract with participants should be different for each stakeholder, according their roles and depending on if they are for-profit or non-profit participants in the Channel. When starting the implementation of the system, the PRO will probably work with the “cleaner ” stakeholders because it’s a more convenient way to start, but the final goal is to improve the standards of other stakeholders so that they can join the Channel. Social and environmental minimum requirements for the different processes should be applied, such as emission limits, safety standards, work conditions etc. When setting the standards, according to Huisman (2005), it is important to: “Create room for system optimization by the recycling field itself. This can be done by explicitly stating that deviation from rules and standards is allowed when the recyclers can demonstrate equal or better environmental performance for new or alternative processing option”. Since the cost of complete recycling of electronic equipment is higher than the value that can be recovered (Atlee et al., 2006), sound management should include a financing mechanism. This permits to internalize the cost and is in accordance with the principle of the “polluter pays”, emphasized in The National Environmental Management Act (Government of South Africa, 1998). There are many possible financial mechanisms - 76 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne payable by the consumer, including the Advanced Recycling Fee (ARF), which should be considered in this case because, as the consumer pays when buying the device, he/she doesn’t have the impression he/she is paying directly for the take-back system. The PRO has to be nonprofitable 38. The PRO offers a convenient collective solution for the producer. The participation to the PRO is voluntary, but should satisfy the producer, making individual solutions less appealing (so that there is no need for an individual solution). The PRO would first manage the IT equipment, but manufacturers of other types of appliances could join later on. 5.3.2.

Government

The government can play an important role at a national level in making legislation on e-waste, addressing the roles of producers, consumers and maybe also retailers. Similarly to the Swiss ORDEE, a South African legislation on e-waste could: •

Establish the legal policy framework for EPR, the basis of the PRO, which would encourage the creation of a PRO and therefore allow better management (OECD, 2001).



Make the take-back of end-of-life equipment mandatory for consumers, which would positively influence the collection rate of consumers.



Require that retailers collect end-of-life equipment without the need for the consumer to purchase a new one and independent of the age and the brand of the equipment, which offers one a more convenient collection point for the consumers.

Besides the national level, local authorities as corporate consumers might encourage e-procurement, for example by saying that they will only buy from producers having a policy for end-of-life computers (such as the global recycling policy from Dell 39) or

38

The recycling can be profitable, as long as the recyclers make money out of the profitable part

of recycling, not out of the ARF: to insure it, the PRO “may decide to introduce transparent financing for unprofitable recycling processes schemes if required.” (Rochat, 2006) 39

Available under www.dell.com/producerresponsibility. Other elements that could be taken

into account to evaluate the performance of the company can be found in Environment Victoria (2005).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne encouraging its own offices to use computers from responsible manufacturer/ producers, discouraging auction systems. 5.3.3.

Academics and NGO’s

Academics They have a role to play in research. Currently, the university is not connected to the pilot projects; therefore more links should be encouraged. Huisman et al., (2005) explain the role of academia in a recycling system: “provide proof for overall objective and framework, before setting rules”. This is what this thesis, written in an academic context, tries to do; to set precise rules would be the role of the body managing the system. NGO’s NGO’s could provide different services, such as: •

Help for educational centres or independent entrepreneur based activities like waste-to-art



Awareness raising and communication



Pressure for ecodesign and benchmark European standards for manufacturers.



Establishing contact between refurbishers and disadvantaged people for secondhand computers donation

eWASA could play the role of a consulting body. A consulting body could deliver support to: •

Make sure that the participants of the Channel know and understand the objectives of the Channel.



Define the standards for the participating stakeholders.

• Give information to the participants of the Channel on Best Practices (BEP’s) and Best Available Technologies (BAT’s)

40

. This could be done through a

website. •

40

Insure knowledge transfer on a national and international basis.

The website www.e-waste.org.za informs on e-waste issues, Best Practices and best available

partners, but it has to be completed and partners of the Green e-Waste Channel have to be informed of the existence of this website.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne •

Business links between stakeholders of the Channel or of the framework of the Channel such as information for the government to help establishing legislation.



Help finding more local markets for pre-processed products.

They can play a more important role than just that of a consulting body for the part of the Channel not ruled by the system operator, such as encouraging educational centres or entrepreneur based waste-to-art activities, but those activities should later become independent: eWASA should help starting, providing information, linking businesses, but not be further involved in the long term (maybe keep a structure providing information through consultants if needed).

Figure 13 presents a summary of the role players of the Green e-Waste Channel and their connections. It shows as well the stakeholders of the framework of the Channel and on which role player of the Channel they can have an impact. ______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________ Figure 13. The South African Green e-Waste Channel: aimed long term situation. Source: adapted from EMPA (2006)

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

CHAPTER VI 6. SWOT ANALYSIS OF THE AIMED LONG TERM SITUATION This chapter is an attempt to assess the model of the Green e-Waste Channel, presenting a list of elements that can have a positive or negative impact on the success of the Green e-Waste Channel as presented in Chapter 5. The elements classified as internal factors (strength and weaknesses) come from stakeholders of the Channel or are intrinsic, while the elements classified as external factors (opportunities and threats) come from the framework of the Channel, from the general context, from other countries or from technological advances. Each element is classified as positive or negative regarding its effect on the desired end-state. The targets presented in the Table 3 in chapter 4 are used as wished end-state. To see if there are more strength, weaknesses, opportunities or threats at a certain level of the Channel, four levels were chosen for each of the four factors: i. The whole Green e-Waste Channel: all the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats having an impact on more than one level ii. The collection system iii. The reuse iv. The sound processing The elements of the SWOT analysis are summarized in appendix VI.

6.1

Strengths

Whole Green e-Waste Channel •

Processors and refurbishers already exist and are willing to expand.



The Green e-Waste Channel has international support from the EMPA and national support from eWASA. Among others, they bring knowledge and help coordinate the participants. The people involved are highly motivated. - 80 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne •

There are local pilot projects, in order to locate problems and improve the Green e-Waste Channel before establishing a national one.



The labour force is cheaper than in developed countries. Thus, a financial mechanism wouldn’t’ need to finance as much as in developed countries.



The Green e-Waste Channel is weakly government regulated, since this could slow and complicate the process, thus causing inefficiency 41.



The type of e-waste considered as of greater interest to recyclers is not the same as for refurbishers: newer equipment will be more suitable for reuse while older equipment will have a higher precious metal content.

Collection System •

The municipalities might participate, offering space at drop-off sites or organising pick-up services, because the Green e-Waste Channel goes along their expectations of waste minimization.



The collection system is cheap because the consumers bring back their end-of-life appliances: the take-back system respects the expectations of the consumers.



It is in the corporate consumer’s interest to participate: it provides a “Green Image” to corporate consumers using the Green e-Waste Channel to discard their equipment 42.

Reuse •

The expectations of the refurbishers are mostly taken into account, they get more appliances and possibly newer: if the consumers are informed about refurbishers, they might want to sell relatively new computers to refurbishers.



The consumer will see positively that some of the material refurbished is given for charity.

41

According to Lombard (Int., 2006), the tax on plastic bags, paid through the government to

finance the recycling, has not been distributed to the recyclers. 42

The stakeholders of the Green e-Waste Channel could have a logo representing the Channel.

A slightly different logo, for example in another colour, could be used by partners of the Channel such as corporate consumers ensuring that they use the facilities of the Green e-Waste Channel to discard their old equipment, which shows that they are environmentally concerned.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Sound processing •

The expectations of the processors are mostly taken into account.



The Green e-Waste Channel is particularly attractive for new processors: recyclers that are willing to open a new plant need material “to feed the machine”, they might see the Channel as a way to ensure that they will receive enough e-waste. They might have higher environmental and social standards, because they have to apply for permits and comply with the current legislation.



The high metal and precious metal content of e-waste makes it an extremely attractive business for processors.



The dismantling process can provide jobs opportunities for people with disabilities, because of the low skills required (Vermij, 2006, Int.).



Informal processing is reduced: if the official processors don’t buy from people extracting metal through open burning or acid baths, these unwanted processes should diminish.



The extension of the lifespan through more reuse allows time to put a recycling system in place.

6.2

Weaknesses

Whole Green e-Waste Channel •

Double edge sword with awareness raising: the people approached, to whom one explains the advantages of the Channel and the potential value of e-waste, only pay attention to the fact that they can increase revenues and benefit from business growth. However they don’t necessarily want to improve their standards by avoiding certain processes.



Processors and refurbishers seem to have economic priorities, with environmental and social aspects coming after.



Some stakeholders might negatively perceive the fact that the idea of the Green e-Waste Channel comes from the Swiss e-Waste Knowledge Partnerships Programme project, although the project aims to support South African stakeholders find a convenient solution and doesn’t impose a Swiss vision.



The role of eWASA is not clear for all: as eWASA is linked with the Swiss e-Waste Knowledge Partnerships Programme, some stakeholders might have a negative perception of eWASA, as already noticed by Vermij (2006, Int.). - 82 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne •

Although a lot of jobs can be created, it has to be noted that most of the jobs don’t require specific skills.



The labour force is cheaper than in developed countries, but the quality of work and the efficiency might be lower.



The cost of control in order to track the e-waste and ensure that nothing escapes might be high.



There is a risk of encouraging businesses to discard more equipment: if too many processors start recycling and realise that it is lucrative, processors may pay companies to deliver computers and thus encourage them to change their equipment more often than needed.



The Green e-Waste Channel might give the impression that the consumers can consume more EEE because there is a sound system to recycle it. There is the risk that people believe that because there is a clean Channel, the recycling doesn’t have negative environmental effects, which is not possible.



This system encourages the big processing companies, complying with the standards. Hence, the smaller one’s may be excluded.



It is complicated to approach informal collectors and processors to train them because they may feel threatened. Furthermore, because of poverty, HIV/AIDS and alcohol, they are primarily concerned with fast money ignoring health and other long-term issues.



As noticed during the interviews, refurbishers and processors might have a bad opinion of producers and don’t necessarily want to be part of a common system. This confirms the finding of Lindhqvist (2000) that the links between producers and consumers as well as between producers and the government are much stronger than between waste managers and producers.

Collection system •

There is a risk of loosing public confidence if the Green e-Waste Channel starts too early without proper implementation: consumer or environmental associations might discover some unsound processes deriving from the Channel and therefore discourage the consumers to use the Channel. According to Suter (2003), once a single failure has been perceived, it is almost impossible to undo the damage.

• The processors and refurbishers that just observe what happens to see if the project is interesting before getting involved might think that it is not profitable since the - 83 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne take-back will not quickly accumulate fast quantities of e-waste. The reason for this is that the consumers will have to get used to using the collection sites. An awareness raising campaign also requires time. After a first peak period, the collection might be slow. •

It is difficult to have all the electronic discard stored in one container and have all the derived payments made to a single responsible person: there is a mafia effect between all the people selling e-scrap at collection sites since they want to sell to the best offer, not to the official partners. They want to be paid in cash daily, which is not safe for the person buying the material.



If the equipment is refurbished and then sold to a consumer who doesn’t bring it back into the Channel at the end of its lifespan, the guarantee for consumers that it will be disposed of appropriately is lost.

Reuse •

The consumers don’t always trust the software to erase data on a computer and the recyclers and the IT industry tend to argue that destroying the device is the only way to guarantee data protection: although it is true that erasing data or reformatting the hard disk does not eliminate the data (BAN, 2005), erasing data with an appropriate software is quite safe, the time required to recover the data after erasing being very high.



In the pilot Green e-Waste Channel Gauteng, the material collected is entirely distributed to recyclers: maybe because the processors are bigger companies compared to the used computer industry or because less attention has been put on finding refurbishers, less refurbishers come to meetings, thus recycling is encouraged as opposed to reuse.



The computers are sometimes sold or just given to schools or associations but without guarantee or after-sale service, which is not always profitable for the clients because of the difficulty to repair and find the right spare parts.



It is complicated to have the newer equipment received at the collection point going to refurbishers: how can one concretely check if the material is suitable for reuse on the site? If everything goes first to the refurbishers with only the rest being brought to recyclers, it wouldn’t satisfy processors: the market would be too saturated and processors wouldn’t receive enough.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne •

The refurbishment is less interesting for other types of end-of-life appliances than IT equipment - lower price, smaller market, lower need to be repaired by a professional, a longer life span - except maybe for mobile phones.

Sound processing •

It is difficult to control the e-waste flows, which is necessary for a financial mechanism: the processors are highly interconnected, some of them doing only a small step in the processing.



It is dependent on the processor’s willingness to participate and to communicate. The precious metal industry is particularly closed. Processors fear competition.



The workers might use the know-how they have received at processing facilities to carry out uncontrolled activities on their back yards, especially acid baths in order to recover precious metals because of their potentially high value.



It is difficult to set standards and rules just for e-waste, because e-waste is considered by some recyclers as part of metal recycling but not as a specific stream. For problems such as copper burning or components that are stolen, it is part of problem that doesn’t concern only e-waste.



There is a risk of only identifying already “clean stakeholders” but without helping other stakeholders to improve their standards.



It is difficult to convince processors not to buy material from unwanted sources and therefore stop informal activities.



Already well established recyclers don’t necessarily see the need to be part of a system: they already have their clients - some of them being scrap metal dealers having uncertain material sources - and might see a body regulating e-waste recycling as a threat. At Desco, they said that they don’t use chemicals and put it on their website as well 43, but it seems that they do use chemical extraction methods. They might not want to be part of the Green e-Waste Channel if it involves strict regulations.



It is difficult to trust the participating stakeholders: as the processors know that they might receive material to recycle if they are part of the Green e-Waste Channel, they have the temptation not to be honest about their processes.

43

www.desco.co.za/

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne •

The processors that could invest in a new plant need an estimation of how much e-waste they could receive to know the size of the plant they should build, especially because the investment is enormous, but this is hard to estimate with current knowledge.



The expectation of a recycler to receive more valuable part can’t be respected if all the waste has to be recycled. Furthermore, monitors, keyboards and mice have shorter lifespan than CPU’s; therefore the parts with lesser value are more likely to join the waste stream.



The number of permits and registrations that processors need to go through

44

and

the time required to obtain them (sometimes about a year for a one year permit) makes it complicated for a processor to respect legislation. •

As the market might be saturated, it is not possible to give e-waste to all processors. It is difficult to choose who would receive the e-waste if many processors wanted to build a plant: the processors not chosen might work against the Green e-Waste Channel.

6.3

Opportunities

Whole Green e-Waste Channel •

It is a good time to start implementing the Green e-Waste Channel: problems such as import or informal activities are still small compared to other countries such as India or China. It is easier to tackle the problem at the beginning than to stop something already established for a long time.



There is a positive recycling context, with legislation and waste management systems for other wastes.



There is a positive environmental context, the Channel being part of a move towards more sustainable waste management. “E-waste is receiving a relatively high priority in South Africa at the moment” (Finlay, 2005).



People from other regions in South Africa are interested in the Green e-Waste Channel. The local pilot project might extend to other Provinces.

44

Storage of gold, Registration of second-hand goods, Hazardous substance transport license etc.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne •

The producer’s expectations are answered, the ITA is fully committed (Green eWaste Channel Gauteng, 2006b).



The products could have a more sustainable design (ecodesign), be easier to repair or be more easily recycled if producers applied the same standards as in Europe.



Legislation specific on e-waste seems possible in the future; eWASA already made a position statement for the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) (eWASA, 2006). “E-Waste is now considered as a priority waste stream by DEAT as part of the NWMS [National Waste Management Strategy].” (SinhaKhetriwal et al., 2006)



Efforts of the government at a local level can have positive effects. E-waste might be included in the green city plan of the city of Tshwane, work is being done for internal policy in Cape Town (Dittke, Int., 2006).

Collection system •

Since the collection points for discarded electronics could be the same as for other wastes such as glass, paper or compost, a communication and marketing campaign could be done for different waste together.



The participation of retailers in the take-back could be encouraged if the producers are onboard.

Reuse •

The market for second-hand computers is huge since people can’t afford to buy new ones, especially now that the dollar has risen (De Bruyn, Int., 2006).



The used computer industry can create a new market because they provide cheap computers for disadvantaged people. They in turn will then be used to owning a computer and might be new customers for the ICT industry if their income eventually increases.

Sound processing •

The Swiss recycling company Immark Ag is investigating new technologies (Schluep, Int., 2006) and is looking for partners. They could help building a new recycling plant in South Africa.



The export of precious metal could diminish: precious metal refineries and mining companies are interested in building new facilities for e-waste processing, realising - 87 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne that it can be profitable; the concentration of precious metal such as gold is much higher in e-waste than in naturally occurring mineral ore (EMPA, 2005). •

Many recyclers are interested in building a new plant or increasing the size of their current one.



The precious metal content in computers decreased this last decade, but it might increase again with RoHS (Lombard, Int., 2006), making it more attractive for processors.

6.4

Threats

Whole Green e-Waste Channel •

Some big companies might not want to cooperate because they negatively perceive investigation and awareness raising campaigns showing the bad methods they currently use to discard their e-waste: the crew from a television show on e-waste was taken to the site where Telkom SA Ltd dumped equipment can be seen, which is not good for the image of the company.



The Green e-Waste Channel is extremely dependent on a body ruling, coordinating the system and organising a financial mechanism for the nonviable part of the process. If the ITA doesn’t take the lead, eWASA alone can’t and doesn’t want to manage the system. None of the 120 questionnaires sent to ITA members have been answered. Besides the lack of time, it can be a decision not to communicate on that topic.



There is a risk that each stakeholder will try to have it’s own system: companies such as Universal Recycling and Intelligent Computing came to meetings but are not involved so far in the Green e-Waste Channel. They still however advertise the collecting of material.



More items are having electrical and electrical components incorporate into them, which were not present before such as toys, pens or badges. Sometimes, EEE is just a very small part of a larger overall product, as in a talking teddy bear. Because of their small size, complexity and diversity, they are not easy to dismantle and recycling is less viable than with larger items. Reuse opportunities are low because of low market demand and high price of repair. (Darby et al., 2005).

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Collection system •

The collection system is highly dependent on the consumer involvement, but household consumers are not used to separating their waste and might want to keep their end-of-life equipment because of psychological factors.

Reuse

• According to Vermij (Int., 2006), producers, and therefore the system operator, might have many reasons not to encourage reuse: reasons include the fact that the image of the product can potentially be damaged by the second-hand seller and that products are designed to fail after a period of time in order to allow the sale of a new item: the longer the equipment is in circulation, the longer the new sale is delayed. The refurbishment company Intelligent Computing (De Bruyn, Int., 2006) also expressed strong doubts about the willingness of producers to encourage reuse.

• Refurbishment facilities might give a negative image linked with theft. Sound processing •

It is difficult to control import because there are hoaxes in Europe and in the U.S.A. According to the Basel Action Network (2005), the risk of import is higher now that the WEEE directive has been instilled, because landfilling is no longer permitted in Europe. In Nigeria, most of the imported e-waste arrives through the harbours in Lagos. As the harbour of Durban is the most active in Southern Africa45, waste might enter easily that way (Lombard, Int., 2006).



It is difficult not to export certain materials: competition is high with countries such as China, where environmental and health standards are lower and the work force is cheaper, sometimes about 1.5$ a day (Puckett et al., 2002).



There is a risk of having more informal chemicals extracted out of precious metals if bigger volumes are collected or if the precious metals content rises with the RoHS directive (BAN, 2005).



Small e-waste is easy to throw away in the normal garbage bin (Darby et al., 2005).



Some processors have a simplified vision of recycling, thinking that as long something is recycled, it is positive: they don’t take into account the potential environmental and health hazards, such as the idea of using plastics with Brominated Flame Retardant in chairs.

45

source: www.ports.co.za/durban-harbour.php

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

CHAPTER VII 7. CONCLUSION Assessment of the proposed Green e-Waste Channel compared to the objectives set for the Channel i. The Channel is environmentally sound, preventing emissions of hazardous substances to the environment and reducing the amount of improper final disposing of hazardous substances. ii. The Channel is economically sustainable, but only through a financial mechanism organised by the system operator. The logistics and the sound processing can’t be economically sustainable only though the stakeholders of the Channel. iii. The Channel fulfils a social role, for example creating safe jobs and protecting the health of its workers. It also allows educational centres and side activities such as waste-to-art, but as the system operator wouldn’t regulate those activities, there is a need for other organisations to encourage it. Viability of the proposed Green e-Waste Channel Although there are fewer strengths than weaknesses, the strengths are important and none of the weaknesses represent a real obstacle if handled properly. An essential strength of the Green e-Waste Channel is that it offers advantages for all role players directly or indirectly involved in the Channel. Material is provided to processors and refurbishers and safe jobs are created. The system is convenient for the consumers. It offers a solution for end-of-life equipment for the producers. The Channel helps respecting national and international regulations, which is positive for the government. Even though the reasons to want a system are not the same for all role players consumers and NGO’s are likely to have environmental and social interests while processors will see rather the economical motivation - the goal of more recycling remains the same.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Another positive aspect is the general context: much attention is presently given to environmental issues, the recycling context is good and the e-waste situation is relatively clean. Thus the country has the chance to start the management of e-waste under relatively simple circumstances. There is no need to deal with too many currently existing unsound handlings of the e-waste or with too many foreign stakeholders. Many opportunities and threats come from elements of the framework of the Green e-Waste Channel, showing clearly that the Channel itself can’t be viable without at least a proper management process, and, if possible, a legislative and a facilitative process. As the involvement of the ITA as system operator and a future legislation is likely to take place, and as there are motivated actors such as the eWASA team to help realize it, the Green e-Waste Channel has many chances to receive strong support. Seeing that some recycling already occurred without this support, the recycling will most probably increase. However, the target of the Polokwane declaration to have zero waste by 2022 seems illusionary for e-waste, especially in a country where energy recovery is not allowed. E-waste at landfill sites will certainly be reduced but not disappear. Regarding the take-back system, if an appropriate awareness campaign is done to encourage consumers’ participation, a lot of stored e-waste should be collected. Although this study shows that the Green e-Waste Channel in its entirety will most likely be successful, the quantity of appliances that will be reused risks being low, unless role players such as eWASA and other organisations strongly support the refurbishment. Indeed, the expectations from different stakeholders on that point are contradictory: the IT industry sees the second hand sellers as competition, while eWASA or environmental NGO’s consider it as an essential element. The role of the IT industry, through the PRO, would be to manage the Green e-Waste Channel and to ensure that it follows the objectives. Currently the IT industry doesn’t see refurbishment as a priority to be encouraged through a Green e-Waste Channel. This strategy is similar to developed countries, where refurbishment is seen as a separate market and is not encouraged by the take-back systems. However due to a very different market behaviour and a higher demand for low cost IT equipment in developing countries, the inclusion of refurbishment in a Green e-Waste Channel should be considered.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Environmental and social impacts. The Green e-Waste Channel can have positive effects on waste management in general: for instance, the consumers would get to know the collection points and get used to separating wastes. It would have a positive impact for awareness rising on environmental issues. However, it is important to communicate that recycling is better than dumping, but that the pollution doesn’t disappear even with sound recycling: the responsible consumer should first reduce his/her production of waste, for example buying computers that can be easily upgraded to avoid having to purchase entirely new systems. The Green e-Waste Channel as proposed might have a social negative impact for informal processors and small size processors, excluding them if they are not willing to be trained and improve the quality of their processes. To protect the environment from the impact of informal activities is not necessarily more import than allowing informal processors to earn a living. If we create jobs in the Channel through big recycling facilities for instance, it doesn’t automatically justify taking jobs away from the informal collectors and processors. The challenge of the Green e-Waste Channel is to really integrate the small processors, as well as help support recycling companies to grow. This challenge of having to join big recyclers with modern facilities and small street waste collectors is common in South Africa, “a world in one country”. Consequences for other countries in transition or developing countries If South Africa succeeds in implementing a recycling system for e-waste, with the help of the Green e-Waste Channel, the country would be a pioneer in the continent and one of the first within transitioning and developing countries. The model of the Green e-Waste Channel could be adapted to other developing countries, by taking into account the different context and needs. South Africa could play a role for neighbouring countries in processing their e-waste. The other southern African countries are less developed and don’t produce as much e-waste. They don’t have many processors with facilities as modern as in South Africa. However, neighbouring countries could have more refurbishment, because it doesn’t require big and sophisticated facilities as for processing.

- 92 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne It is not possible to have big scale processors everywhere, especially for refining; the cost of investing in new facilities and the amount necessary to be viable is particularly high. As South Africa has infrastructure for transport and trading, an important economic position in the African continent, and is strategically situated between Asia and South America, the country could have a plant to compete with the world market. This would be very profitable for South Africa, but it has to be regulated and the system must ensure that the refinery provides a sound solution for all parts of the equipment. It shouldn’t encourage neighbouring countries to dismantle their end-of-life equipment and send the PWB’s for precious metal recovery to South Africa, as the invaluable and hazardous components would be dumped in Southern African countries. The South African Green e-Waste Channel should help other developing countries, not take advantage of them. Recommendations The target of having a better quality of recycling and having control on the system are difficult to achieve together while having as much e-waste as possible processed through the Channel. It must be decided if it is more important to have a big amount processed quickly while accepting that some parts go uncontrolled and that quality won’t be perfect or less processed, but with the guarantee of sound processing. Starting the collection system now despite the processors not being completely ready would have positive impact on the processors’ involvement: the processors might all wait to see what is going to happen before being on board, but once there is material collected, processors should be able to react rapidly. Although it doesn’t make sense to wait for perfect processing to start the collection of e-waste, it is important to be careful at the beginning: once connections have been made and e-waste has been handed to a company, it is complicated to stop, which should be done if the processor doesn’t want to improve his standards. One has to realize that no business is completely “clean”: the most important element to take into account when assessing role players at this stage is to see if they are ready to communicate, show the problems they encounter, and if they want to improve. At the start, a contract for participants could stipulate whether they agree with the objectives of the Channel and will do their best to improve their processes to comply with the aim of the Channel, precise standards coming later.

- 93 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne Some stakeholders were not favourable to the Channel because they think it seeks to impose a new system and don’t see the need for one because they already have partners. Other don’t trust this project because they don’t always understand the role of eWASA and the Swiss team or what the industry wants from them. Some processors don’t want to give up their data fearing that it might go to competitors. There is an urgent need to communicate the aim of the Green e-Waste Channel, the role and interests of each role player. It should be explained for instance that the system operator, although initiated for the industry, is independent and wouldn’t use the data to serve industry purposes. Elements that could be further investigated •

Set precise standards, especially for processors; have a summary of Best Available Technologies, Best Practices and legal requirements.



The economic viability of each step of the process, including logistics, could be studied to know exactly where a financial help is needed and how profitable e-waste recycling could be. Business and finance is the focus of the EMPA project in South Africa.



A Material Flow Analysis should be carried out on the current e-waste flows in Gauteng or even at a national level. Among others, an estimation of the future flows - which would involve knowing how much is really stored - could be very useful for processors willing to expand or build a new plant to know the capacity they should have.



A potential solution for plastics could be the indirect energy recovery through cement plants such as Holcim Pty: the feasibility should be studied.



Other IT rental companies should be identified and approached, to understand their current roles and see how much of the discarding of IT equipment from corporate consumers goes trough them. They could maybe be included in the design of the Green e-Waste Channel.



An assessment of the informal activities – collectors, dismantlers and metal recovers - would be important, to understand how big this sector is and what is done exactly: what becomes of each e-waste component after dismantling, under which conditions are back yard acid baths performed (how are the chemicals for the metal extraction discarded after use etc.). This is an essential step before teaching them Best Practices.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

8. REFERENCES ATLEE J., KIRCHAIN R. (2006). Operational Sustainability Metrics Assessing Metric Effectiveness in the Context of Electronics-Recycling Systems. Environmental Science and Technology. 40. 4506-4513. BAN (2005). The digital dump : Exporting Re-use and Abuse to Africa. Retrieved from http://www.ban.org/ [Last assessed: December 2006]. City of Cape Town (2006). Internal Policy recommendation on e-waste. Draft Report. [Unpublished]. City of Tshwane (2004). State of the Environment Report for the City of Tshwane 2001-2002. Retrieved from: www.tshwane.gov.za [Last assessed: December 2006]. Computer Industry Almanac Inc. (2006). Retrieved from: www.c-i-a.com. [Last assessed: February 2007]. DARBY L., OBARA L. (2005). Household recycling behaviour and attitudes towards the disposal of small electrical and electronic equipment. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 44. 17-35. DITTKE S. (2004). Draft Report of the Cape Town Audit Meetings (October 4th – 5th 2004). "Knowledge Partnerships in e-Waste Recycling". [Unpublished]. DITTKE S. et al. (2006). From national policy planning to local green e-Waste channel. Action-responsible e-Waste management in South Africa. In proceedings of the waste Conference 2006, 5-8 September. Cape Town, South Africa. DITTKE S. (2006). Interim Progress Report, 01.01-31.10.2006. South African Project “Knowledge Partnerships in e-Waste Recycling”. [Unpublished]. DUMMET K. (2006). Drivers for corporate environmental responsability (CER). Environment, Development and Sustainability. 8. 375–389. - 95 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne ECROIGNARD L. (2006). Southern countries harmonise e-waste plans. RéSource. Vol. 8. (November 2006). N°4. 23-24. EMPA (2005). Swiss e-Waste Guide, a knowledge base for the sustainable recycling of e-waste. Swiss Knowledge Partnerships in e-Waste Recycling. Retrieved from: www.ewaste.ch. [Last accessed: February 2007]. EMPA (2006). Draft presentation for a workshop in Costa Rica. Pensar un Modelo de Negocio Social de Reciclaje para LAC. [Unpublished]. Environment Victoria (2005). Environmental Report Card on Computers. Computer Waste in Australia and The Case for Producer Responsibility. Retrieved from: www.envict.org.au/inform.php?menu=6&submenu=532&item=894

[Last

assessed:

February 2007]. eWASA (2006). Position paper on e-waste management in South Africa on behalf of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). [Unpublished]. Federal Office for the Environment (1998). Ordinance on the Return, Taking-back and Disposal

of

Electrical

and

Electronic

Equipment.

Retrieved

from:

www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/c814_620.html. [Last assessed: December 2006]. FINLAY, A. (2005). E-Waste challenges in developing countries: South Africa case study, APC “Issue papers”. Serie 2005, November. 1-22. Government of South Africa (1998). The National Environmental Management Act (Act 107 of 1998) (NEMA). Retrieved from: www.polity.org.za/html/govdocs/legislation/1998/act98-107.html?rebookmark=1 [Last assessed: February 2007]. Government of South Africa (2001). The Polokwane Declaration on Waste Management. Retrieved from: www.environment.gov.za/ProjProg/WasteMgmt/Polokwane_declare.htm. [Last assessed: February 2007]. - 96 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Green e-Waste Channel Gauteng (2006). First Core Group Meeting. Minutes. June 19th. [Unpublished]. Green e-Waste Channel Gauteng (2006). Core Group Meeting. Minutes. September 12th. [Unpublished]. Green e-Waste Channel Gauteng (2006). Metro workshop. Minutes. November 24th. [Unpublished]. HE W. et al. (2006). WEEE recovery strategies and the WEEE treatment status in China. Journal of Hazardous Materials. B136. 502–512. HILTY L.M. (2005). Editorial. Electronic waste—an emerging risk? Environmental Impact Assessment Review. 25. 431 – 435.

HISCHIER R., WÄGER P., GAUGLHOFER J. (2005) Does WEEE recycling make sense from an environmental perspective? The environmental impacts of the Swiss takeback and recycling systems for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Environmental Impact Assessment Review. 25. 525 – 539. HUANG P., ZHANG X., DENG X. (2006). Survey and analysis of public environmental awareness and performance in Ningbo, China: a case study on household electrical and electronic equipment. Journal of Cleaner Production. XX. 1-9. HUISSMAN J., MARINELLI T., MAGALINI F. (2005) Where did WEEE go wrong in Europe?

Practical

and

academic

lessons

for

the

US.

Retrieved

from:

http://forum.europa.eu.int [Last assessed: February 2007]. International Monetary Fund (2006). World Economic Outlook Database, for the year 2005. Retrieved from: www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/02/data/index.aspx [Last assessed: February 2007].

- 97 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne LAFFELY J. (2006). Blueprint, Footprint Environmental Centre. Swiss e-Waste Knowledge Partnerships Programme. [Unpublished]. LINDHQVIST, T. (2000). Extended Producer Responsibility in Cleaner Production. The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics. Lund University, Sweden. MACAULEY M., PALMER K., SHIH J.-S., (2003). Dealing with electronic waste: modelling the costs and environmental benefits of computer monitor disposal. Journal of Environmental Management. 68. 13–22. MAY J. (1998). Poverty and Inequality in South Africa. Summary Report. Retrieved from www.polity.org.za/html/govdocs/reports/poverty.html?rebookmark=1. [Last assessed: February 2007]. OECD (2001). Extended Producer Responsibility: A Guidance Manual for Governments. Paris, France. OECD. OECD (2003). Technical guidance for the environmentally sound management of specific waste streams: used and scrap personal computers. Retrieved from: www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/linkto/ENV-EPOC-WGWPR(2001)3-FINAL [Last assessed: February 2007]. PARK D. (2006). Myth, misunderstanding, miscommunication and mistakes – fact and in-depth analysis of product- related environmental regulations on electrical and electronic equipment in China, Japan and Korea. ENHESA-EPC (Environmental Policy Centre). Brussels, Belgium. Working paper Series. PUCKETT J., et al. (2002). Exporting harm: the High-Tech Trashing of Asia. Seattle. The Basel Action Network, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. ROCHAT D. (2006). E-Waste Management Event in Electronics City, 20th September. India. [Unpublished].

- 98 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne SINHA D. (2004). The management of electronic waste: a comparative study on India and Switzerland. Master Thesis. University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. In cooperation with EMPA. [Unpublished]. SINHA-KHETRIWAL D. et al. (2006). Legislating e-waste management: progress from various countries. Environmental Law Network International, Elni Review. 1+2/ 06. SRIVASTAVA P.K. et al. (2005). Stakeholder-based SWOT analysis for successful municipal solid waste management in Lucknow, India. Waste Management. 25. 531537. STEINER S. (2004). Risk Assessment of E-waste burning in Delhi, India. Diploma Thesis. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, Switzerland. In colaboration with EMPA. [Unpublished]. StEP (2005). Solving the e-waste problem: a synthetic approach (StEP), Draft Project Document. Retrieved from : http://work.step-initiative.org. [Last assessed: February 2007]. SUTER P. (2003). A new guiding paradigm for waste disposal. Energy. 28. 1335–1343. The Economist (2005). Recycling old computers. January 27. 56. The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (2003). EU Directive 2002/95/EC of 27 January 2003 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS). Official Journal of the European Union. L 37. 19 - 23. The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (2003). EU Directive 2002/96/EC of 27 January 2003 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Official Journal of the European Union. L 37. 24-39.

- 99 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne UNDP (2003). Human Development Reports. Human Development Indicators. Retrieved from: http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/indicator/cty_f_BRA.html [Last assessed: February 2007]. UNEP (1989). Basel convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous

wastes

and

their

disposal.

United

Nations

Environment

Programme/Secretariat of the Basel Convention. Retrieved from: www.basel.int/ [Last assessed: February 2007]. United States Environmental Protection Agency (1997).

Jobs Through Recycling

Program. Retrieved from : www.epa.gov/jtr/ [Last assessed: February 2007]. WIDMER R., LOMBARD R., (2005): e-Waste assessment in South Africa – a case study of the Gauteng province. Swiss Knowledge Partnerships in e-Waste Recycling, Swiss States Secretary of Economic Affairs (seco) and Swiss Institute of Material Sciences and Technology (EMPA). St.Gallen, Switzerland. WIDMER, R. et al. (2005). Global perspectives on e-waste. Environmental Impact Assessment Review. 25. 436-458. WILLIAMS, E. (2003). Environmental Impacts in the Production of Personal Computers. IN KUHR, R. & WILLIAMS, E. (Eds.) Computers and the Environment: Understanding and Managing their Impacts. Dordrecht, Nederlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers. WILLIAMS E., SASAKI Y. (2003). Energy analysis of end-of-life options for computers: Resell, upgrade, recycle. In Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment. San Francisco, U.S.A. WILLIAMS, E. (2005). International activities on E-waste and guidelines for future work. In Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Material Cycles and Waste Management in Asia, National Institute of Environmental Sciences. Tsukuba, Japan.

- 100 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne WISI (2003). Declaration of Principles: Building the Information Society: a global challenge in the new Millennium. Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved from: www.worldsummit2003.de/en/web/586.htm. [Last assessed: February 2007]. ZUMBUEHL D. (2006). Mass Flow Assessment (MFA) and assessment of recycling strategies for cathode ray tubes (CRTs) for the Cape Metropolitan Area (CMA), South Africa. Master Thesis. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, Switzerland. In collaboration with EMPA. [Unpublished].

Internet resources [all last assessed February 2007] www.basel.int/

Secretariat of the Basel Convention, UNEP

www.itu.int/

International Telecommunication Union

wikipedia.org

The free Encyclopedia

www.dell.com/producerresponsibility

Dell Global Recycling Policy

www.sens.ch

Stiftung Entsorgung Schweiz

www.swico.ch

Swiss association for Information, Communication and Organisational Technology

www.baselpretoria.org.za

Basel Convention Regional Centre Pretoria)

www.environment.gov.za

Department Environmental Affairs and Tourism, RSA

www.iwmsa.co.za/

The Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa

www.ports.co.za/durban-harbour.php

Port of Durban

www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm

AVERT, international HIV and AIDS charity

www.gprg.org/

Global Poverty Research Group

www.anc.org.za/

African National Congress)

www.e-waste.org.za

Electronic Waste Guide, South Africa

www.desco.co.za/

Desco Electronic Recycler

www.ewaste.co.za

African Sky Electronic Recycler

www.nfshred.com

Non Ferrous Shredders Recycling Company

www.pikitup.co.za/

Pikitup, Waste Management Company

www.collectacan.co.za

Collect-a-Can (Pty) Ltd) - 101 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

9.

APPENDICES

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Appendix I: Questionnaire on consumer behaviour regarding electronic waste --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis Student at the University of Lausanne/Switzerland, intern at the United Nation Environmental Programme’s (UNEP) Basel Convention Regional Centre in Pretoria

1. Storage and discarding of the equipment Type

Number of items you have at your house

Number stored (that you don’t use anymore)

Since when is it stored

Number of items that you have discarded

Washing machine Dryer Refrigerator Vacuum Cleaner Toaster PC Cell phone Telephone Fax Machine Printer Television VCR/DVD/ CD player Radio

1.2 If you have some equipment stored, why do you keep it? …………………………………………………………………………………………….

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne 1.3 If you have discarded some equipment, how did you discard it? (many answers possible) In the normal garbage bin? Given back at the retailer/ shop when buying a new one? Donation (to whom?)?..................................... Other? How? ……………………. 2. In order to encourage more reuse and recycling, e-waste must first be collected. 2.1 Have you taken recyclables to a collection point before (paper, glass, plastic, cans, garden waste etc.) ? (many answers possible) garden refuse/site

buy back centre

landfill site

other ………..

2.2 If you have never used a collection point, why? (many answers possible) You don’t know where there are You don’t want to take the time to separate your waste You don’t want to take the time to go there You never thought about it Other ………….. 2.3 What would be an easy and convenient way for you to drop-off (return) the e-waste? Arrange in order of convenience the collection possibilities below (write number from 1 to 3 on the line, 1 being most convenient, 3 least) .......

Take back at a public collection point

.......

Take back at the retailer / shop

.......

Pick up service at your house

2.4 How often would you need a Pick-up service ? Every month

2 months

3 months

6 months

- 104 -

once a year

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne 2.5 Private Pick-up based on phone call: would you pay to have your equipment fetched ? yes

No

2.6 If yes, how much (in Rand/ ZAR) would you pay for: Small items from phones to computers? …………...

A fridge?

.................

2.7 If you were informed about the closest collection point and the only collection possibility would be to take back your items to a collection point, would you do it?

yes

No

Why? ………………………..

3. What is important for you for a recycling system: 3.1 The consumer doesn’t have to pay for the recycling Not important

Important

Very important

3.2 The system guarantees that the e-waste will be disposed of appropriately (sound environmental and socially responsible process), with creation of a national consumer label guaranteeing safe processing and disposal Not important

Important

Very important

3.3 The electronic waste would first go to a collection point, then to recyclers. For computers, it could go to refurbishers for repair/upgrade and then be sold to be re-used. How important is it for you to encourage the reuse, even if you don’t get money out of it? Not important

Important

Very important

3.4 For computers and cell phones, opportunity to decide if the equipment will be destroyed (data protection) or reused/refurbished Not important

Important

Very important

3.5. Do you have other expectations from a recycling system? ............................................................................................................................................. ……………………………………………………………………………………………

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne 4. Re-use of computers 4.1 If data protection is important for you, would you trust the refurbisher if the system guarantees that the refurbisher uses a software to erase the data before selling/donating the computer? yes

No

4.2 Once the e-waste is given to the take back system, no money will be given to the consumer. If your computer still has value, would you be ready/interested to go to the refurbisher to sell the computers? yes

No

4.3 Do you know refurbishers where you could take it? yes

No

If yes, where? ............................................................................................................ ………………………………………………………………………

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Appendix II: Results of the questionnaire on household consumer behaviour regarding electronic waste --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sample size: n=44 Participation rate: except when stipulated, all participants answered all questions Target population: middle to upper class, adult Date: November 2006 Place: Pretoria --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Storage and discarding of the equipment Washing Dryer Refrigerator machine mean SD mean SD mean SD Number in use 1.07 0.45 0.82 0.61 1.84 1.43 Number stored 0.16 0.44 0.14 0.69 0.14 0.69 Number discarded 0.39 1.04 0.20 1.76 0.36 1.07 Stored since 1999 8 2000 5 2005 1

Vacuum cleaner mean SD 1.27 0.99 0.18 0.60 0.56 1.44 2005 1

Toaster mean 1.14 0.14 0.69 2003

SD 0.55 0.38 1.49 2

PC mean 2.23 0.50 0.77 2001

SD 2.87 3.39 1.86 7

Cell phone mean 2.82 0.68 1.33 2004

SD 1.72 0.60 5.16 2

Fax VCR/DVD/CD Printer Television Radio Machine player mean SD mean SD mean SD mean SD mean SD mean SD Number in use 1.32 1.52 0.34 0.74 1.18 1.15 2.32 1.47 2.05 1.22 1.98 1.39 Number stored 0.20 0.64 0.07 1.73 0.27 1.04 0.23 0.54 0.39 0.57 0.16 0.64 Number discarded 0.34 1.35 0.09 1.41 0.45 1.49 0.51 1.28 0.25 0.74 0.58 5.07 Stored since 2004 2 2000 0 2001 7 2000 7 2003 3 2004 2 Telephone

Number of items in use Number of items stored Number of items discarded - 107 -

Mean 19.9 3.3 6.5

SD 11.2 4.3 11.1

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne 1.2 If you have some equipment stored, why do you keep it? 39% don’t store equipment. Each of the participants who do store equipment gave one reason:

For future use Don’t know what to do with it Other reasons to store

Percentage 59% 26% 15%

For future use • Spare for later (3) • May use in the future (2) • For backup • In case other need to be repaired • Will maybe fix it one day, didn’t claim for insurance • Can still work if fixed • To use when I move out to my own place • Spare parts or later use • May be able to fix in the future to use • Keep in case I need it again • Hope family can make use of it • Emergency cell phone • Attempting to fix them Don’t know what to do with it • Never got time to take it in • Nothing else to do with it • Feels to irresponsible to discard it (no information on recycling) • Effort to dispose of • No resell value • Don’t know where to discard • Haven’t had anyone suitable to give it to Other • • • •

Sentimental value Have space for it Obsessive compulsive syndrome It all belongs to my parent

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne 1.3 If you have discarded some equipment, how did you discard it? 86% of the people surveyed have discarded e-waste in the past. Many persons used 2 or 3 ways to discard their equipment.

Donation to: • • •

Domestic workers, maid, gardner (7) Family, friends, kids, students (7) Poor people, organization such has schools, charity (7)

Other: • • • • • •

Placed outside next to the garbage bin (2) Stolen (2) At work, has a facility to discard it Advertise to give away Burn it at the farm Uncle that fires stuff, so he can use the parts that are not damaged

2.5 Have you taken recyclables to a collection point before (paper, glass, plastic, cans, garden waste etc.) ? 89% of the people surveyed have discarded recyclables in the past. Many persons brought their recyclables to 2 different places.

Other: Directly to “recyclers”, SAPI and MONDI - 109 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne 2.6 If you have never used a collection point, why? 52% of the people surveyed answered this question. Each of them gave one reason. Reason Don’t know where there are Don’t want to take the time to separate your waste Don’t want to take the time to go there Never thought about it Other

Percentage 9% 26% 26% 26% 13%

Other: • • •

No collection point where I stay (but also said don’t know where they are) Long distance Not a high priority for me

2.7 What would be an easy and convenient way for you to drop-off (return) the e-waste? 1 being the most easy and convenient way, 2 the second most and 3 the least. When only the most convenient was indicated, a value of 2.5 was assigned to the two others.

2.8 How often would you need a Pick-up service ?

Months

Mean 4.6

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SD 4.3

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

2.5 Private Pick-up based on phone call: would you pay to have your equipment fetched?

Yes No

Percentage 39% 61%

2.6 If yes, how much (in Rand/ ZAR) would you pay for: Item Small item such as phone or computer Fridge

Price in Rand/ZAR 59 144

SD 47 108

2.7 If you were informed about the closest collection point and the only collection possibility would be to take back your items to a collection point, would you do it?

Yes No

Percentage 88% 12%

Why yes (15 answers): • Environmentally friendly, properly disposed (5) • Convenience (4) • Recycle (2) • Because its cheaper • To get rid of it • It s good for the community, but maybe I wouldn’t do it sometimes • Would be nice, but some items too big or inconvenient to move yourself Why no (3 answers): • Live on a farm very far from town • Time too little • Effort - 111 -

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne 3. What is important for you for a recycling system Not Very Important important important 3.1 The consumer doesn’t have to pay for the recycling 3.2 Guarantee of sound environmental and socially responsible process with creation of a national consumer label 3.3 Encourage Reuse 3.4 Possibility to decide if the equipment will be destroyed (data protection) or reused/ refurbished

19%

48%

33%

12% 16%

47% 37%

42% 47%

32%

45%

23%

3.5. Do you have other expectations from a recycling system? 32% of the persons surveyed answered this question, as followed: • No, as long as I get service and the environment is protected • Must be convenient and effective • Convenient, low cost • Environmental purpose • Should just stay as say as it is at this moment • Do it a.s.a.p. • Job creation, safe • Practical, user friendly • Should be financially self sufficient, as recycling could be an easier way to obtain raw material compared to mining • It has to be efficient and effective without causing damage to the environment • More drop off, collection points, to make process easier • Government involvement (environmental department) • More reuse • Must be done as environmentally friendly as possible, computers have toxic materials, even recycled

4. Re-use of computers Question 4.1 Trust the refurbisher using a software for data protection 4.2 Would go to the refurbisher to sell the computer 4.3 Know refurbishers

- 112 -

Yes 57% 66% 2%

No 43% 34% 98%

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Appendix III: List of site visits Type Distributor

Name of Company IT business AXIZ

Place 46

Date

Midrand

13.10.06

Dobonsville

14.09.06

Collection site Buy back centre

Molefi Recycling

Soweto Drop-off site

Green House Project

Johannesburg

12.09.06

Drop-off site and waste-

Footprint Environmental

Cape Town,

4.09.06

to-art centre

Centre

Western Cape

5.09.06

Garden refuse

Municipality of Tshwane

Pretoria

11.09.06

Johannesburg

24.11.06

Collection Private collector

Collection by Darkling Industrial Metal at Pikitup garden sites Refurbisher

Medium size refurbisher

Intelligent computing, shop

Pretoria

28.09.06.

Big size refurbisher

Intelligent computing,

Silverton,

29.09.06

central warehouse

Tshwane

Processor Medium size dismantler

Darkling Industrial Metal

Alexandra,

11.10.06

Johannesburg

1.12.06

Big size recycler

Desco Electronic Recyclers

Ekurhuleni

13.09.06

Big size recycler

Universal Recycling

Johannesburg

11.10.06

Company Final disposing Illegal dumping site

Contractors from Telkom

Pretoria North

30.10.06

General landfill site

Municipality of Tshwane

Hatenley,

2.10.06

Tshwane

46

All the places are in the Gauteng Province in South Africa except if stipulated.

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Appendix IV: List of workshops and meetings attended Organised by eWASA

Purpose

Place

Draft of an e-waste blueprint

Greyton, Western

Date 8.09.06

Cape Green e-Waste

Core Group Meeting

Channel Gauteng

City of Tshwane

12.09.06

Municipal Offices, Centurion

Pickitup

Role of Pickitup in the e-waste

Pickitup office,

12.09.06

collection

Johannesburg

Information

Discussion of the possible role

ITA office, Midrand,

13.09.06

Technology

of the ITA

Meeting with the dismantler

Pickitup office,

20.09.06

collecting the e-waste at the

Johannesburg

Association (ITA) Pickitup

Pickitup sites Pickitup

Launch of the e-waste

Ballyclaire Garden

20.09.06

collection

Site, Johannesburg

Green e-Waste

First core group meeting and

Hillcrest, Durban,

Channel Kwa

launch

Kwa Zulu Natal

Gold Mining company

Gauteng

11.06

Pickitup office,

24.11.06

22.11.06

Zulu Natal Consultants

investigating the potential of e-waste Green e-Waste

Metro workshop

Channel Gauteng

Johannesburg

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Appendix V: List of informants Type

Name Vermij, Wayne

Dismantler Recycler

Recycler

Recycler

Recycler Recycler

Company IT distributor Axiz

Function

Operation Manager Computer provider (IT rental company) Van der Walt, Jan Orange System Director Collector Venter, Christa Pickitup Strategic Planning Director Refurbisher De Bruyn, Frans Intelligent Director Computing Processor Markson, Leo Darkling Director Industrial Metal Van Rensburg, Universal Environmental Debbie Recycling Manager Company Smit, Andre Sindawonye Pty. Consultant Ltd. (Branch of Non Ferrous Shredders) Werth, Allan African Sky Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Airga, Costa Desco Electronic Executive Recyclers Director Newson, Gerry Recycling IT Director

Plastic exporter Refiner

Lee, Alex

Utong Trading

Director

Abramson, Cecil

Precious metal Recovery System

Refiner

Ackerman, Rieker; Griffiths, Martin

Rand Refinery

Consultant escrap recovery pilot plant Smelter manager; Information manager

Landfill

Dekker Frans

Hazardous Landfill

Havinga Matthew

Final disposing City of Tshwane

landfill Sites Manager EnviroServ Waste Regional Management Pty. Operations Ltd. Manager

- 115 -

Place Midrand

Pretoria Johannesburg

Silverton, Pretoria Alexandra, Johannesburg Newclare Industria, Johannesburg Port Elisabeth, Eastern Cape

Benoni, Ekurhuleni Ekurhuleni Cape Town, Western Cape Boksburg, Johannesburg Germiston, Johannesburg Germiston, Ekurhuleni

Pretoria Johannesburg

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Type

Name

Company Function Consultant, member of eWASA Dittke, Suzanne EnviroSense CC Waste Management Specialist

Cape Town, Western Cape

Ecroignard, Lene

BCRC

Pretoria

Finlay, Alan

Open Research

Lombard, Ray

Lombard & Associates

Information & Marketing Coordinator Media & ICT research Consultant and waste scientist

Schluep, Mathias

EMPA

Project Manager

- 116 -

Place

Johannesburg Link Hills, Kwa Zulu Natal St-Gallen, Switzerland

Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Appendix VI: Summary of the SWOT analysis Whole Green e-Waste Channel Strengths • •

Processors and refurbishers want to expand International support from the EMPA and national support from eWASA, motivation

• • •

Local pilot projects Cheap labour force Weakly government regulated



Type of e-waste considered of greater interest to recyclers is not the same as for refurbishers

Weaknesses • •

Double edged sword regarding awareness raising Processors and refurbishers seem to have economic priorities

• • •

Negative perception that the idea of the Channel comes from the Swiss project Unclear role of eWASA Most jobs created don’t require specific skills

• •

Quality of work and efficiency might be low High cost of control

• •

Risk of encouraging corporate consumers to discard their equipment more often than needed Gives the wrong impression that users can consume more electric and electronic equipment because there is a sound recycling system



Risk of encouraging big companies, excluding smaller ones

• •

Difficulty to approach informal collectors and processors Bad opinion from processors and refurbishers of producers

Opportunities • •

Easier to tackle the problem at the beginning Positive recycling context

• •

Positive environmental context People from other regions in South Africa are interested

• • •

Producer’s expectations are answered, the ITA is fully committed Possible ecodesign for products, being therefore easier to repair or recycle E-waste specific legislation seems possible in the future



Efforts of the government at a local level

Threats

• •

Low cooperation from corporate users, because of investigation on their methods to discard e-waste Extremely dependent on a body ruling the system and organising a financial mechanism Risk that each stakeholder will try to have it’s own system



Difficulty to recycle small e-waste or devices with small electrical components



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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Collection system Strengths • The municipalities might participate •

Cheap because the consumers bring back their end-of-life appliances



Corporate consumer’s interest to participate because of “Green Image” provided

Weaknesses • Risk of loosing public confidence if the Channel starts too early without proper implementation

• Loss of interest from processors because of low collection rate •

Mafia effect between all the people selling e-scrap at collection sites



Loss of guarantee for consumers of sound handling of the equipment with reuse

Opportunities • Communication and marketing campaigns could be bundled for different wastes •

Participation of retailers in the take-back adding one more convenient collection point

Threats • Highly dependent on consumer involvement

Reuse Strengths • Expectations of refurbishers mostly taken into account •

Consumers positively perceive the fact that some of the material refurbished is given to charity

Weaknesses • Low trust concerning software to erase data •

Less refurbishers than processors involved in the pilot projects



Computers handed to schools or associations but without guarantee or after-sale service



Difficulty to have the equipment from collection points primarily going to refurbishers



Reuse less interesting for other types of end-of-life appliances than IT equipment

Opportunities • Huge market for second hand computers •

Refurbishment can create a new market, providing cheap computers for disadvantaged people

Threats • Negative image of refurbishment facilities, linked with theft •

Producers, and therefore the system operator, have many reasons not to encourage reuse

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Sound processing Strengths • Expectations of processors mostly taken into account •

Channel particularly attractive for new processors



E-waste recycling is an attractive business for processors



Dismantling offers jobs opportunities for people with disabilities



Informal processing is reduced



Extension of the lifespan allows time to put a recycling system in place

Weaknesses • Difficulty to control the flows, which is necessary for a financial mechanism •

Dependence on the processor’s willingness to participate and to communicate



Risk that workers will use the know-how of processors to set up uncontrolled back yards activities



Difficulty to set standards and rules just for e-waste



Risk of only identifying already “clean stakeholders”



Difficulty to stop informal activities



Already well established recyclers don’t necessarily see the need to be part of a system



Difficulty to trust the participating stakeholders when they give information on their processes



Need for an estimation on amount of e-waste for processors willing to invest in new plant



Not possible to respect recyclers’ expectations to receive more valuable parts



Complicated to respect current legislation



Processors not chosen to be a part of the Channel might work against it

Opportunities • Swiss recycling company Immark Ag is looking for new partners •

Export of precious metal could diminish through new South African refineries



Many recyclers are interested in building a new plant or increasing the size of the current one



Precious metal content in computers might increase with RoHS

Threats • Difficulty to control import because there are hoaxes in Europe and in the U.S.A. •

Difficulty not to export certain materials because of competition with other countries



Risk of more informal chemical extraction of precious metals if bigger volumes are collected



Small e-waste is easy to throw away in the normal garbage bin



Simplified vision of recycling from processors who think that all types of recycling are sound

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Appendix VII: Selection of definitions of e-waste Reference

Definition

EU WEEE Directive

“Electrical or electronic equipment which is waste (…) including

(The European

all components, sub-assemblies and consumables, which are part

Parliament and the

of the product at the time of discarding”. Directive 2002/96/EC

Council of the European of the European Parliament and of the Council (January 2003), Union, 2003b)

defines ten categories (see appendix X).

BAN (Puckett et al.,

"E-waste encompasses a broad and growing range of electronic

2002)

devices ranging from large household devices such as refrigerators, air conditioners, cell phones, personal stereos, and consumer electronics to computers which have been discarded by their users."

OECD (2001)

Any appliance using an electric power supply that has reached its end-of-life

SINHA (2004)

"An electrically powered appliance that no longer satisfies the current owner for its original purpose."

StEP (2005)

E-waste refers to "…the reverse supply chain which collects products no longer desired by a given consumer and refurbishes for other consumers, recycles, or otherwise processes wastes."

Source: Widmer et al. (2005b)

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Appendix VIII: Categories of e-waste N° 1.

Name of category Large household appliances

2.

Small household appliances

3.

IT and telecommunications equipment

4.

Consumer equipment

5.

Lighting equipment

6.

Electrical and electronic tools (with the exception of large-scale stationary

7.

industrial Toys, leisure tools) and sports equipment

8.

Medical devices (with the exception of all implanted and infected products)

9.

Monitoring and control instruments

10.

Automatic dispensers

Source: The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (2003b)

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Appendix IX: Why e-waste is considered hazardous

Material Plastics including Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) Lead

% of Total (by weight) 23%

6%

Barium

0.03%

Beryllium

0.02%

Cadmium

0.01%

Hexavalent Chromium

0.006%

Selenium

0.002%

Main Applications in Computer Production Cabling, computer housings

Environmental/Health Impacts Various cancers; endocrine system disruption PVC emits highly toxic dioxins and furans when manufactured and also if materials containing it are burnt

Soldering of printed circuit boards and other components; glass panels in CRT monitors

Significant amounts of lead ions are dissolved from broken lead containing glass, such as the cone glass of cathode ray tubes, when mixed with acid waters which commonly occur in landfills. Accumulates in environment and has high acute and toxic effects on plants, animals, and microorganisms Damage to nervous system, blood system, and kidneys; serious effects on child brain development. Vacuum tubes in Short-term exposure to barium can lead to brain CRT monitors swelling, muscle weakness, damage to the heart, liver and spleen. Long-term effects of chronic exposure not yet known. Used for thermal Recently identified as human carcinogen. Exposure conductivity can cause lung cancer and skin diseases. SMD chip When plastics containing cadmium are landfilled, resistors, can leach into groundwater. infrared Acute and chronic toxic compound which detectors, accumulates in human body, esp. in kidneys. Can semiconductors, be absorbed either through respiration or ingested older models of through food. CRTs; also used as plastic stabilizer Mostly phased Highly toxic material which can pass easily through out, but still cell membranes; causes strong allergic reactions some limited use (e.g. asthmatic bronchitis) even in small as corrosion concentrations. May also cause DNA damage. protector and Contaminated wastes can leach from landfills and decorative or also fly ash if chromium-containing wastes are hardener for incinerated. steel housings Used in Exposure to high concentrations of selenium rectifiers and compounds cause selenosis, the symptoms of which printed wiring are hair loss, nail brittleness, and neurological boards abnormalities.

Source: Environment Victoria (2005)

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Anahide Bondolfi, Master Thesis, University of Lausanne

Appendix X: Legislation in South Africa with impact on e-waste management Law or Regulation Constitution

The National Environmental Management Act (Act 107 of 1998) (NEMA)

The Municipal Services Act (Act 32 of 2000) The Occupational Health and Safety Act (Act 85 of 1993) The Environment Conservation Act (ECA)

The White Paper on Integrated Pollution and Waste Management

The Health Act

The Hazardous Substances Act

Major Content Deals with basic environmental rights (including access to information). Sets out the allocation of powers for different levels of government. While provinces set the standards of environmental control within a national framework, local authorities are expected to administer the legislation, supplementing it with by-laws where necessary. Amongst other things, NEMA lays out principles for waste management. These include avoidance or minimization, and the “remediation of pollution” ,Waste reduction, re-use, recycling and proper disposal, as well as the ‘polluter pays’ and “cradle to grave” principles are emphasized. Includes principles for effective local governance. Deals with health and safety in the workplace.

Deals with the protection and controlled utilization of the environment. The ECA makes provision for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which is needed for any waste disposal activities. An amendment delegates the administration of waste disposal to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). The permitting of waste disposal sites is guided by a series of documents dealing with minimum requirements. Deals with the allocation of environment and waste management functions and powers. Has also included the development of the National Waste Management Strategy, which is a Danish-funded joint venture between the DEAT and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. The emphasis is on “holistic waste and pollution management”. Recycling is one of the short-term priority areas identified. Promotes healthy living and working conditions. Relevant to the potential health risk implications of ewaste. Regulates the management of hazardous substances and hazardous waste.

Source: Sinha-Khetrival et al. (2006) and Widmer et al. (2005a)

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