Smartphone Recycling Facts
Via http://infographicsmania.com/
Kenya is responsible to more than 17,000 tonnes of E-waste every year.
Mobile phones contribute more than 150 tonnes
-UNEP 2009-
Looking for a place to deposit your old electronics? Well Safaricom Kenya began a e-waste management programme last year.
You can now drop off your used electronics at any of the 36 retail centres countrywide.
They will be collected by Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Centre (WEEE) who will then disassemble the gadgets and recycle the parts that can be recycled. The rest of the parts will be shipped away to countries that can dispose them off in environmentally friendly ways.
Now you know 🙂
Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle – The Commentary
By MW
It is interesting that you bring this up. The talk on waste management tweaked my interest to see what the situation is like in Kenya, and I was both appalled by the deplorable state of waste, but also pleasantly amazed at the strides that some people are taking to do their little part in ensuring that waste is reduced, and even converted to valuable items / cash.
For starters, the state of our waste management (or lack thereof). In a word – DEPLORABLE!! And whose fault is it? Let us say it together…….MINE (yes, you are meant to say it out loud and take ownership!). You make instinctive purchases in the shops and supermarkets of things you do not need. You fill your fridge and pantry with food items that you cannot consume in the short period (….because you don’t feel like going back to the shops too soon… Yet, you WILL end up going back seeing as what you have bought in bulk has gone bad in just a few days!!). You have to do spring cleaning every quarter because you have stacked things on top of things and have no idea what is at the bottom of the pile!! Nuff said!!
So, in my house, I do not sort out my trash – in any case, there are people whose job is garbage, so why shouldn’t they be the ones to do it…?? I have rid myself of the trash that once or twice a week, so I have done my part, AND paid for the service (the NIMB syndrome – Not In My Backyard).
Then, on my way to work, I buy some sugarcane, a banana, water melon, water bottle, sweets, yoghurt, ice-cream, etc, and discard what is not useful to me by the wayside. STOP – I know you are saying that the food materials are organic and will decompose and not be a menace – but I now tell you…..it takes over 6 months for these food remnants to decompose, and in the meantime, they are not only an eyesore, but become putrid and smell bad, block drains, and attract vermin that are vectors for diseases. So, do you still think it is ok to discard ad hoc? The water bottles and plastic wrappers gather water and block the drains – water collects, mosquitoes breed, etc. But let me bring this closer to home – it is now raining heavily. When going to work every morning, I not only have to be on the lookout for the time because I do not want to be late, but I also have to contend
with heavy traffic (caused by flooded roads due to poor drainage – read; blocked by my careless littering), and while walking, I have to be on the lookout for manic motorists who will splash water on me, and hope against hope that there are no random holes hidden by the waters that could twist my ankles!! And we have the nerve to complain that the government and service providers are not doing their job, yet whatever little they do, we undo it 10-times over by littering?!?
However, it is not all doom and gloom. Some facts can aid us in pushing us to take the necessary steps to curb unwanted waste (because not all waste is valueless). Anyway, approximately 80% of the trash generated in the home can comfortably fit into the 3Rs, and probably we can even make some money off the trash if we just made that little more effort!! If up to 80% falls into the 3Rs, then how great would it be if we then only have to send 20% of our trash to the dumpsite. Very soon, there will be no need for the dumpsite!!
Let us situate ourselves – plastics, glass items, paper, cloth, etc, can all be reduced, reused or recycled. That pretty much leaves us with only organic matter (which can also be reused as compost) and the occasional electronics (…..I will give you a little secret about these very useful gadgets which become a menace once they have lost their usefulness….).
To even happier thoughts!! I have collated a few companies that are doing us proud in mother Kenya, and making a business out of it!!
- Garbage collectors do good business of ridding our homes and estates of the trash
- There are some new companies that are not only collecting garbage, but also sorting and recycling, and they are minting money from YOUR trash!
The other day I noted a company that has set up an incinerator that gets rid of all excess material that is deemed no longer useful, and also protects us by incinerating hazardous waste like chemicals, medical and industrial waste, etc, by burning them at extremely high temperatures We have heard of those that collect plastics and manufacture extremely durable posts for fencing, etc. In the same tone and breath that we say that plastics are a
huge menace (plastics take over half a century to decompose), imagine how long these posts will last!! AND we will have saved the forests in the process!!!
And, believe it or not, there is a company that now buys off old electronics from you, separates the useful parts, and incinerates the non-usable items!
There are community based youth groups that are doing all the above, and we should do our part to support them – don’t we want to ensure that they do not turn to a life of crime? If not for their sake, then for our own safety?
So, I have done my part of researching and getting pleasantly surprised. Now you do yours.
If you would like to get in touch with any of these good people who are doing wonders in our community (and probably make some money on the side), please contact followthetrash@gmail.com.
See you on the other side of a clean nation!!
Follow the Trash 
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