The growing electronic waste problem

Tonight as I sat feeding my daughter, I read an article on my smart phone about techy people that are saying ‘no’ to smart phones and holding onto their old mobile telephones. These people want to be ‘disconnected’ to a degree when home: to not be contactable and to not be distracted by their new devices.
So could these people be onto something? As more and more new electronic devices are introduced, consumers quickly rid themselves of their mobile telephones, computers, laptops, tablets etc for the newest and greatest. So what happens to all of these devices? Where do they end up?
Very likely this electronic waste or e-waste ends up in places like Guiyu in China or Agbogbloshi in Ghana where people work to take apart the electronic devices to extract metals such as copper and steel. While some of these metals have a value to those that collect them, electronic devices also contain many nasty chemicals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, selenium and the list goes on. Once the valuable materials have been extracted out of the devices (usually in crude ways such as burning), the rest is dumped with little regard to its environmental impacts or impacts on the health of communities that deal and manage this waste.

Now to prevent the transport of hazardous waste around the world, the BASEL convention was set up. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal was established in 1989 and this treaty has been signed by over 180 countries. E-waste is covered under this treaty which is what makes the movement of all of this electronic waste from developed countries to developing countries like China, Ghana and India troubling. One way this is happening is that old computers, televisions and mobiles are given as ‘gifts’, except that these gifts often don’t work!
Here is a good clip on e-waste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A5zVNpkuzk
The AMP project
The Abu Dhabi Eco-Chicks is a group of dedicated eco-minded women and when we were established, we were all living in Abu Dhabi. Many of us however moved away and are working in all parts of the globe, from Africa, the Philippines to Australia. One of our super dedicated and passionate Eco-Chicks, Dr Yasmine Abbas is currently working in Agbogbloshie on the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP) project.
This initiative is a: “collaborative project to upgrade the quality of life and environment at Agbogbloshie, an e-waste ecosystem in Accra, Ghana” (http://qamp.net/project/) . This project seeks to empower and facilitate the diversification of income from the scrap dealers by upcycling the scrap e-waste into things like refrigerators and microwave ovens!

What can you do?
While this initiative is so important because it is working with those that are bearing the brunt of our consumerist disposal society, what can we do to prevent this waste from ending up in places like Agbogbloshie?
• Where economically feasible, repair machinery, appliances and equipment in preference to purchasing new equipment.
• Purchase electronics from those that you know have a take back policy. For example Hewlett Packard have extended their take back and recycling program to cover the UAE. To participate in this, please go to: http://h41111.www4.hp.com/globalcitizenship/uae/en/environment/recycle/hardware.html and complete the online form.
• Contact reputable e-waste recyclers in the UAE about how to recycle your electronic waste. These recyclers should be able to ensure electronic waste does not end up in unregulated places like developing countries. An example of an e-waste recycler operating in the UAE is: Enviroserve: http://www.enviroserve.ae/services/e-scrap/
• Please share this article with your friends and contacts!

How to reduce waste and be kind to your plants?

You can use Bokashi:
Developed in Japan, the Bokashi Compost Kit quickly and odour-lessly converts your organic waste into a high-grade soil conditioner through the use of effective microbes or Bokashi – a Japanese word meaning “fermented organic matter.” Similar to the process used to make yoghurt, this system relies on fermentation to decompose the matter rather than putrefaction, so no offensive odour is produced. For more info and to check out local suppliers go to: http://www.bokashidubai.com/

Trash to Treasure, an Abu Dhabi Eco-chicks workshop on the Corniche!

Your trash in birds’ stomach!

Check the video-photos by Chris Jordan:

Has being green in Abu Dhabi gotten a little harder?

Abu Dhabi likes to tell the whole world how green it is – but how green is it really? In the absence of a proper waste management system I’ve spent the last few years diligently separating my paper, plastic, tins, cans and recently glass – for recycling. No there are no door to door collections, so I’ve risked stinking out my car and taking my separated waste to the Spinneys car park recycling cage.

But now the only recycling place in Abu Dhabi where households could take their waste is no more! so where did it go? My husband asked and apparently something happened to the old one (?! yes, I know!) and they’re going to replace it. But we went again this weekend and no sign of any activity.

So with our kitchen overflowing, my husband took the paper/ cardboard (which he is now also collecting from his work) to a recycling ‘centre’ of sorts behind the Millennium Hotel on Khalifa St. Don’t know what actually happens to it from there, or even if we can use it.

So anyone out there know of alternatives in Abu Dhabi and anyone in the ‘know’ as to why the Spinneys recycling cage disappeared?