With the liberalisation of the telecoms’ sector more than a decade ago came the unbridled importation of fake and substandard phones. Incidentally, some original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are also into computer products manufacturing. But while these products are being churned out, no effort is made to address the problem of wastes in the sector, reports LUCAS AJANAKU.
A middle class tenant had moved out of his apartment in Ayobo, a Lagos suburb, and abandoned a disused 24-inch carthode ray tube television set outside the gate. When 15-year-old Yakubu Tsakede pushed his cart to where the TV set was, he picked it, hauled it into his cart and rolled off his ‘loot’.
A few minutes later, he was seen using a hammer to dismember the cathode tube, ignorantly exposing the toxic phosphor dust inside. He put the circuit board over the fire to melt the lead in it, producing toxic lead fumes.
Tsakede is not alone in this ‘business’. There are several others in his age group who eke a living from moving from one dumpsite to the other in the cities, picking disused computers and electronics products, dismembering them in the hope of removing the lead, gold, copper, and other valuable metals to resell them.
Electronic items that are hazardous include televisions and computer monitors that contain cathode ray tubes, liquid crystal display (LCD) desktop monitors, laptop computers with LCD displays, LCD televisions and Plasma televisions, portable DVD players with LCD screens.
According to experts, hazards to human health stem from over 1,000 different chemical substances found in e-waste, many of which are toxic. Toxic heavy metals found in e-waste include lead and tin, copper, cadmium, mercury, brominated flame retardants, barium, antimony, and beryllium.
Beryllium, Felix Momodebe, a computer engineer, said is used in manufacturing computers’ motherboards and finger clips to facilitate the tensile strength of connectors while maintaining electric conductivity. It is classified as a human carcinogen because it can cause lung cancer, primarily through inhalation, while workers who are exposed to the chemical, even in small amounts, can develop a lung disease called beryllicosis.
Another component of electronics that is hazardous to human health is mercury It is estimated that 22 per cent of the yearly world consumption of mercury comes from electrical and electronic equipment. It is said to be dangerous because it easily accumulates in living organisms and becomes concentrated through the food chain when it combines with water and turns into methylated mercury.
“In humans, mercury can cause damage to vital organs, such as the brain and kidneys. One of the greatest dangers, is in developing fetuses, which are highly susceptible to mercury poisoning through maternal exposure. The harmful effects of beryllium and mercury are just two examples of the health risks that e-waste poses,” a publication entitled: Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights; recycling electronic wastes in Nigeria: Putting environmental and human rights at risk, noted.
In Nigeria as well as other parts of the world, the poor are daily being exposed to dangerous chemicals and work conditions while dismantling e-waste sent from developed countries. The released chemicals can have impact on entire communities and natural habitats.
Burning wires in open piles to melt away the plastics; burning plastic casings, creating dioxins and furans; throwing the unwanted hazardous leaded glass into ditches; and dumping pure acids and dissolved heavy metals into nearby rivers, are some of the dangerous ways of disposing off e-waste in the country. Experts say these things find their ways into the water bed and end up threatening the environment.
In 2010, the United Nations Environment Programme released a report called “Recycling – from E-Waste to resources.” The report used data from 11 representative developing countries to project current and future e-waste generation. Although the available data on e-waste is incomplete and imprecise due to the unregulated nature of the trade, the UN predicts that the amount of global e-waste should rise by about 40 million tons per year. The e-waste trade continues to grow at an alarming rate, and the need for more stringent legislation and enforcement will become increasingly significant.
According to the report, more than 24 million personal computers (PCs) and about 139 million portable communication devices, such as cell phones, pagers and smart phones, were manufactured in the United States in 2006. The report highlights that the highest growth rate has occurred in communication devices between 2003 and 2008. During those years, the number of communication devices skyrocketed from 90 million in 2003 to a projected 152 million in 2008. The increasing number of electronics manufactured and sold inevitably leads to a growing number of discarded products. Most often, consumers throw away their discarded electronics or turn them into a store for recycling without a second thought. The growing number of discarded electronics has resulted in an increasing volume of e-waste. In 2000, more than 4.6 million tons of e-waste ended up in US landfills. In Hong Kong, it is estimated that 10-20 per cent of discarded computers end up in landfills. Landfills are problematic because the toxic chemicals in e-waste can leach into the land over time or can be released into the atmosphere, impacting neighbouring communities and the surrounding environment.
The boom in the telecoms sector also led to massive flooding of the local market with handests. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), telecoms subscriber base reached 109.4 million by the end of October last year. With poor telecoms services, the average subscriber carries a minimum of two handsets. Added to this is the unbridled importation of fake/substandard handsets into the country with very short lifespan. The chargers, batteries and other components of these devices are recklessly discarded. It is not uncommon to find kids playing with disused handsets while their parents feign ignorance.
But this illicit trade continues to flourish despite that Nigeria is a signatory to the Basel Convention, a multilateral agreement which places restrictions on the trans-boundary movement of hazardous waste, and the Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa, which made the trade of hazardous e-waste illegal in sub-Saharan African countries..
The Nigerian Computer Society (NCS) said it is worried about the development. Its President, Sir Demola Aladekomo, said Nigeria has no business importing fairly used computers. He urged the Federal Government to step up efforts to stem the tide, insisting that insinuations about low quality of the products of indigenous OEMs is balderdash.
For the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, (CPN), it is an uphill task. Richard Adewumi, the Group Head, Electrical/Electronics, SON, said the agency is helpless because the handests do not come in containers. According to him, the handets come through the airports in small quantities such that no law enforcement agency would be suspicious.
The Computer and Allied Product Dealers Association (CAPDAN) disagrees with SON. Its General Secretary, John Oboro, said it is the absence of the political will to enforce laws that is responsible for the dumping of e-waste into the country.
Oboro, who is also a member, Committee on E-waste Evacuation in Lagos, said the problem is that of people who violate the laws and are never punished to serve as deterrent to others. “We have laws in this country but the laws remain paper tigers. People just do what they like while law enforcement agents look the other way,” he said.
According to him, worried by the dangers of e-waste, the Lagos State government set up the committee and through the Lagos State Environmental Agency (LASEPA) engaged the services of Messrs. Maintenance System Consultant to evacuate electrical/electronic waste of industries, markets, organisation, manufacturers and other stakeholders to its new site at Tamalo Village, on the Ogijo Shagamu Road. He blames ignorance for the prevalence, lamenting that the promise of state government to step up enlightenment campaign was stalled by paucity of funds.
Of all the OEMs in the country, only Nokia has taken pratical steps in addressing the problem. Through its ‘Take Back’ initiative, Nokia encourages people to drop their disused mobile phones, chargers and other components at its Care Centres. However, Nokia’s Vice President, West & Central Africa, James Rutherfoord, said the programme is not getting the desired effect, promising to restrategise.
“We have not made enough progress. We will do some more take back. Cans are available at our care centres where we can collect them (the disused phones, batteries, chargers). I think we need to do more in the coming years. We will focus on it and probably put some very good initiative in place. We will continue and put some new initiative in place too,” he assured.
“Consumers in many countries are unaware of the environmental benefits of recycling their broken or unwanted mobile phones. The reality is that mobile phones contain many valuable and useful materials that can be recycled, including precious metals and plastics. In fact, for every one million phones recycled, it is possible to recover nearly 35kg of gold and 350kg of silver, which can be re-used in the production of future electronic goods,” Bruce Howe, a Senior Executive of Nokia, said.
