1. A study on developing a
National Household E-Waste
Policy for Malaysia
Zaipul Anwar Zainu
Malaysia Japan International Insitute of Technology
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
7th
November 2015
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2. Structure of this presentation
1. E-Waste is a pressing environmental issue
2. Economic opportunity on e-waste
3. E-waste lifecycle in Malaysia
4. The need to have a national e-waste strategy
5. Three approach on e-waste management
6. Current challenges for Malaysia
7. Ingredients for success
3. E-Waste: Is A Pressing
Environmental Issue like a time
bomb waiting to explode
4. E-Waste: Environmental Issue
• Inappropriate end-of-life management of e-
waste can create toxic environmental impacts:
– Manual dismantling: people dismantling electronic
and electrical equipment manually may suffer
health impacts
– Landfill: toxic substances in e-waste can
contaminate water sources and ground soil with
cadmium, mercury & lead, and release CFCs
– Incineration of e-waste plastics generates harmful
dioxins and furans
8. The need to develop a national
household e-waste strategy
• At the moment no laws specific to household e-
waste. A national strategy implemented by
regulation may have the objective to:
• Determine the basis on which the market is organized
– and make it profitable to enter the market
• Mitigate health and environmental risks from toxic
substances in e-waste.
• Reduce pressure on primary commodities in a world
with dwindling resources.
9. Based on my study there are 3 approaches
to E-Waste Management in the world
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
– European
• Consumer Pays
– Japan
• Mixed Model
– US
10. Extended Producer Responsibility
Europe: Producers and importers are responsible for their
products
Advantages:
•New industry created in collection, dismantling & processing
of e-waste
•Better design of products to reduce compliance costs
•Encourage high and growing collection rates
Disadvantages:
•Higher product costs born by consumers
•Enforcement costs
11. Consumer Pays
Japan: Retailers are responsible for collecting end-of-life products.
But consumers pay at the time of disposal, between $20 - $80 (USD)
Advantages:
•Strong and achievable targets, including focus on harmful wastes
(CFCs)
•Up-front payment by user ensures finances recycling
Disadvantages:
•Weak producer incentive to improve product design
•Weak monitoring and frequent violations by retailers
•Illegal dumping by consumers to avoid paying the fee
12. Mixed Model
The US: No consensus of industry & government on financing,
therefore no federal regulations:
– Patchwork of state regulations, mostly based on limited or full
Extended Producer Responsibility
Advantages:
•Low cost to manufacturers & distributors & space for different
approaches to flourish
Disadvantages:
•Low and patchy e-waste recycling activities
•Patchwork of regulations hinders industry development nationally
•No national awareness of e-waste issues
13. What are other emerging economies
doing?
• The big question for larger economies is
whether & how to do smelting and processing
domestically or focus on dismantling and
initial processing for export
• India
• South Africa
14. India
• Still working on draft law to:
• Introduce extended producer responsibility
• Define and include stakeholders
• Ban the import of used electrical and electronic
equipment for charity in the country.
• Formalize the very large informal sector
15. South Africa
• 2009 Waste Act makes manufacturers and
importers must define an Industrial Waste
Management Plan (IWMP) before they can sell
products in South Africa
• Producers and importers gathered in the e-Waste
Association of South Africa (eWASA) to
implement their IWMP
• Consumer Protection Act forces retailers to
accept take-back from consumers buying a new
product
16. Study on what is the best system/policy for
Household E-waste Management in Malaysia
Objective: whichever approach is chosen, the
national strategy should aim to:
•Clear roles and responsibilities among e-waste
actors
•Definition implementation mechanisms and
institutional support, as well as enforcement
measures
17. Current challenges for Malaysia
• Importing & lack of control over producers
• ‘Donations’ and dumping
• Size of economy and e-waste feedstock
• Transport infrastructure
• Informal sector competes for feedstock
• Smelting & processing is highly capital-
intensive
• Enforcement, Enforcement, Enforcement
18. Essential ingredients for success
National strategy should include:
•Discussion with all stakeholders: producers, importers,
retailers, consumers, refurbishes, recyclers, dismantlers,
scavengers, NGOs, academics, environment & other
enforcement agencies
•Financial scheme that allocates costs of collection &
treatment
•Reasonable and progressive targets to keep the
momentum going
•Public awareness - raising
•Enforcement measures
Manual dismantling health impacts are cuts & infections, and exposure to harmful chemicals
In the field of waste management, extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a strategy designed to promote the integration of environmental costs associated with goods throughout their life cycles into the market price of the products.
Ferrous metals = 50% total weight of e-waste; mainly large household appliances. As scrap metal is a critical input in all steel-making processes, demand for recycled steel is robust.
Non-ferrous metals =5%. :Aluminium, Copper, Tin and Precious metals. In the case of small household appliances and TV & Monitors, non ferrous metals are found in particular on printed circuit boards (PCBs). After the disassembly of the circuit board, metals are smelted so as to recover lead, copper, platinum, palladium and other precious metals.
Glass from CRTs can be used: direct glass-to-glass recycling, replacement for feldspar in the ceramic industry or as replacement for sand in the building industry.
Plastics can be incinerated with energy recovery, recycled or used in gasification plants. Recycling requires the separation of plastics containing brominated flame retardants and several sorting operations to separate plastic resins.
Hazardous materials are recycled, incinerated, or disposed of in special landfills. For example, batteries are recycled, mercury is recovered, CFCs and asbestos are incinerated, and PCB suspect capacitors are disposed of in special landfills
Regulation of e-waste management is key to the whole process as it has historically been the main catalyst of an organized e-waste collection and recycling market. The absence of regulation hinders the emergence of a formal e-waste market because it is not a profitable activity in this situation: collection and treatment costs – with proper health, security and environmental management - are not offset by potential revenue from reuse or material recovery.
The recycling program was extended to business PCs from April 2001 and residential PCs from October 2003.
Incentives for investment on large scale re-processing are low.
The big question for larger economies is whether & how to do smelting and processing domestically or focus on dismantling and initial processing for export. India and China are both trying, Brazil is considering. The jury is out on whether it is cost effective.
Stakeholders are the dealers, refurbishers, dismantlers, collectors, recyclers or the government agencies for implementation and monitoring
Strengths: open dialogue with stakeholders including NGOs dealing with the informal sector
Weaknesses: lack of market definition hinders investment, no collection schemes defined, no financial incentive for informal sector, poor enforcement of other environmental regulations undermine credibility.
Weaknesses: legislation is not precise enough on the fiscal and financial scheme and on the breakdown of responsibilities between companies and public bodies , import of second hand equipment not covered, collection is not organised so companies find it hard to fulfill their legal requirements. All in all, still fairly immature sector.
implementation mechanisms – legislation, regulation, voluntary schemes, pilot projects, information campaigns
there are only four large integrated smelters / refineries worldwide. Three of them in Europe namely:
Umicore in Hoboken (Belgium)
Norddeutsche Affinerie in Hamburg (Germany)
Boliden in Rönnskär (Sweden)