Dedicated 100% to non-profit re-use (no commercial re-sale) Redistribution technological wealth in LDCs – tools for development Provision to under-developed economies and under-resourced communities making real development (and the end of aid dependency) possible 100s of development applications: - Rural hospital telemedicine, - Blind & visually impaired students, - Climate & Meteorology info for farmers, - Literally 1,000s of schools, colleges and universities. Provided more than 160,000 PCs in over 110 different countries Over 5 million kilos of EEE & WEEE responsibly reused / recycled
Arrival of WEEE legislation did a great job raising awareness about ICT & environment Compliance concerns changed behaviour – no throwing in skips and dumping in UK landfill 100s of companies set up to benefit from WEEE business but the expected tidal wave of kit did not get diverted from skips and landfill to re-use charities and legitimate commercial businesses The majority of kit went to unlicensed merchants – and was traded as a commodity; sold to the highest bidder, high quality, refurbished kit was diverted away from African schools and toward middle-income markets. The lower-quality untested, unrefurbished kit became the raw materials of the toxic trade which ended up dumped in West African watershed and
Hard enough to enforce environmental protection here with legal & regulatory framework Export to territories with no legal or regulatory framework for processing of WEEE is a licence for eWaste cowboys to continue their filthy trade at the expense of the environment and people health & safety No
Poor countries consume millions items new EEE Ran a workshop in Zambia last month and we drew up a list of 100 items of electrical and electronic equipment bought by Zambians and quickly established that there were well over 20 million items of EEE in use in Zambia – every item will die – every item will need end-of-life recycling The Zambian in the workshop of staff at ZOU estimated that within their Population of 13 million people there were likely to be in current use approximately: Mobile phones – 5 million Cookers 5 million Radios 4 million TVs 2 million Fridge/freezers 2 million Fans, Air-conditioners, microwaves 2 million Kettles, sandwich toasters, microwaves 2 million Hair drier/straighteners/curlers 1 million And that’s before we get to computer new and refurbished (this was by no means scientific research – but is useful in establishing a point) So even if there were not a single computer in Zambia there is already a compelling and urgent need to put in place end-of-life recycling capacity for domestic WEEE That is why Computer Aid is supporting partners in the countries Where we work to lobby for WEEE-type legislation & regulation To end foreign WEEE imports/ domestic WEEE dumping To promote EEE re-use and compel WEEE recycling Build nation re-use & recycling capacity proportionate to national consumption Enforce the Producer Pays Principal