e-Waste generation and management in Uganda

Abstract

Difficulty of access to hardware and software to leverage the benefitsof ICT is particularly acute for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in lessdeveloped countries. Within the framework of the partnership agreement that wassigned in July 2006, UNIDO and Microsoft plan to make secondary PCs availableto SMEs in developing economies in a safe and sustainable way. As part of thisinitiative it is intended to support the establishment of local sustainablee-waste material recovery facilities (MRF). Hence with support ofthe Swiss Institute of Materials Science and Technology (Empa) and the UgandaCleaner Production Centre an e-waste assessment study with emphasise onpersonal computers was carried out in Uganda. The study aims toprovide the necessary data to define a solution for handling e-waste associatedwith the UNIDO/Microsoft refurbishment project in Kampalaand to provide general data about the e-waste situation in Uganda. Thereare no specific mechanisms in place to deal effectively with e-waste, althoughsome recent development in Ugandan legislation can be read as having a bearingon e-waste. The assessment indicates that in 2007 around 300{\textquoteright}000 PCs wereinstalled in Uganda,of which 75% in governmental, educational and non-governmental organizations.It was estimated that around 15% of imports enter the country as second-handcomputers. In 2007 up to 50,000 PC units might have reached their end-of-life.However, only a small portion seems to appear in the waste stream. A few tonsof computer waste could be tracked back to informal waste pickers from landfillsites and formal and informal refurbishment businesses in Kampala. This finding suggests that most ofthe e-waste in Ugandais still in storage, yet this situation could change soon. Althoughunproblematic fractions from computer waste, such as plastic and metal could berecovered in existing recycling facilities in Uganda, especially hazardousfractions, such as leaded CRT glass and PCB containing capacitors need newsolutions. Therefore infrastructure and mechanisms to handle this waste streamshould be in place soon. An MRF as intended by the UNIDO / Microsoft initiativecould be part of this solution and serve as a model for other refurbishmentcentres.