16 Mar 2012

UNEP / AFRICA E-WASTE

Following the first ever forum of its kind, 18 African states, the UN, the private sector and other groups have agreed on a set of actions to better manage electronic waste – or e-waste – in Africa, including capitalizing on the economic benefits of this environmental hazard. UNEP

Posted at: March 16, 2012 6:55 pm

Duration: 02:19

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: KENYA / AFRICA E-WASTE 
TRT: 2.19
SOURCE: UNEP / UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 16 MARCH 2012, NAIROBI, KENYA / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE - UNTV "AFRICA: DIGITAL GRAVEYARD"
 	
1. Wide shot, e-waste dumpsite 
2. Med shot, boy walking in e-waste dumpsite
3. Close shot, e-waste 
4. Wide shot, boys walking in e-waste dumpsite with fires burning

16 MARCH 2012, NAIROBI, KENYA

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Miranda Amachree, Deputy Director, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Nigeria:   
"E-waste is one of the highest volumes of waste streams we have in Nigeria because of the high use of telephone handsets, so many people have more than one handset."

FILE - UNTV "AFRICA: DIGITAL GRAVEYARD"

6. Various shots, containers transporting e-waste in a harbour being off-loaded
7. Med shot, truck carrying container driving on the road
8. Med shot, truck carrying used computers

16 MARCH 2012, NAIROBI, KENYA

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Miranda Amachree, Deputy Director, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Nigeria:   
"Nigeria allows importation of used electrical and electronic equipment. Some of them they come and they are almost at the end of their life, so it becomes a problem for us in the country."

FILE - UNTV "AFRICA: DIGITAL GRAVEYARD"

10. Wide shot, woman walking in e-waste dumping site
11. Various shots, little boy rummaging through e-waste

16 MARCH 2012, NAIROBI, KENYA

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Katharina Kummer Peiry, Executive Secretary of the Basel Convention, UNEP:   
"One tonne of mobile phones, obsolete mobile phones, that tonne of mobile phones contains roughly 350 grams of gold."

FILE - UNTV "AFRICA: DIGITAL GRAVEYARD"

13. Various shots, people rummaging through e-waste

16 MARCH 2012, NAIROBI, KENYA

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Katharina Kummer Peiry, Executive Secretary of the Basel Convention, UNEP:   
"If you consider the value of these materials, there you have the economic opportunities."
15. Wide shot, Nairobi forum on e-waste  
16. Wide shot, delegations to forum
17. Med shot, delegations to forum
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Secretary and UN Under Secretary General:   
"We in UNEP would like to see in this partnership that has been involving with more and more representatives from governments, but also from the private sector, from the manufacturers but also those who perhaps can be pioneers in bringing new technologies to processing that waste - really being a partnership that speaks to this notion of green economy where you turn a problem into an opportunity."
18. Wide shot, delegations to forum
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean Cox-Kearns, Director of Compliance, Dell /Global Takeback: 
"Let's start to see e-waste move away from informal recycling practices and to proper demanufacturing and to proper methodologies for recycling with the right kind of standards which is obviously protecting health and protecting the environment."
20. Med shots, delegations to forum

STORYLINE:

Following the first ever forum of its kind, 18 African states, the United Nations (UN), the private sector and other groups have agreed on a set of actions to better manage electronic waste – or e-waste - in Africa, including capitalizing on its economic benefits.

Old mobile phone, TVs, refrigerators and computers are among the most common kinds of e-waste around the world and quantities are rising fast across Africa.

Increasingly, Africans themselves are responsible for a large amount of this waste, which can release harmful substances such as mercury and lead into the environment that damage human health.

SOUNDBITE (English) Miranda Amachree, Deputy Director, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Nigeria:   
"E-waste is one of the highest volumes of waste streams we have in Nigeria because of the high use of telephone handsets, so many people have more than one handset."

Many African countries also import e-waste. Together with rising domestic demand this menas that the continent could generate more e-waste than Europe by 2017.

SOUNDBITE (English) Miranda Amachree, Deputy Director, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Nigeria:   
"Nigeria allows importation of used electrical and electronic equipment. Some of them they come and they are almost at the end of their life, so it becomes a problem for us in the country."

To address the problems of e-waste, many experts and countries are focusing on the  economic potential of e-waste to the African economy.

SOUNDBITE (English) Katharina Kummer Peiry, Executive Secretary of the Basel Convention, UNEP:   
"One tonne of mobile phones, obsolete mobile phones, that tonne of mobile phones contains roughly 350 grams of gold."

Old electronics contain precious materials such as gold, silver and rare earth metals.

SOUNDBITE (English) Katharina Kummer Peiry, Executive Secretary of the Basel Convention, UNEP:   
"If you consider the value of these materials, there you have the economic opportunities."

The Call for Action on E-Waste issued on the last day of the first-ever Pan-African Forum on E-waste, held in Nairobi, Kenya from March 14 to 16, underlined the possible economic benefits of e-waste.

SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Secretary and UN Under Secretary General:   
"We in UNEP would like to see in this partnership that has been involving with more and more representatives from governments, but also from the private sector, from the manufacturers but also those who perhaps can be pioneers in bringing new technologies to processing that waste - really being a partnership that speaks to this notion of green economy where you turn a problem into an opportunity."

The agreement also prioritized need to improve the collection, transport and storage of e-waste since most e-waste recycling in Africa currently takes place informally at dumpsites or landfills.

A move towards a formalized sector using international standards would limit risks to the environment and the health of people working on dumpsites.

SOUNDBITE (English) Jean Cox-Kearns, Director of Compliance, Dell /Global Takeback: 
"Let's start to see e-waste move away from informal recycling practices and to proper demanufacturing and to proper methodologies for recycling with the right kind of standards which is obviously protecting health and protecting the environment."

Representatives from 18 African states, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and academia attended the Pan-African Forum on E-Waste, where they issued a "Call to Action" that outlines 8 priority areas to improve the environmentally-sound management of this waste stream in Africa.

The priorities areas include:	implementation and enforcement by African states of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and the Bamako Convention, which bans the import of hazardous wastes into Africa; development of national systems to improve the collection, recycling, transport, storage and disposal of e-waste; national institutions to co-operate with multiple stakeholders (UN, NGOs, private sector and others) in producing e-waste assessments; recognition that the safe and sustainable recycling of e-waste provides an opportunity for green jobs and poverty reduction; and awareness-raising activities on environmental and health hazards linked to the unsound management of e-waste.