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Electronic trash: The Indonesians fighting e-waste and educating people
Electronic waste is an environmental threat that Indonesia has not given enough attention to, but a young activist and his team aim to change that.
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Drop it: EWasteRJ's dropboxes are available in several shopping centres located in the Greater Jakarta area. (JP/Courtesy of EwasteRJ)
I
ndonesia’s effort to deal with electronic waste remains limited, with only a few governmental organizations tasked with dealing with it. Comparing it with the electronic market industry, which produces mountains of electronic waste, it becomes clear that a far greater effort needs to be made soon.
Understanding e-waste
Rafa Jafar is the 17-year-old founder of EWasteRJ, a non-profit organization that is one of the leading e-waste management initiatives in Indonesia.
When the community started seven years ago in 2014, Rafa learned about the gross negligence of tech companies and the lack of oversight by the government regarding electronic waste.
E-waste comes in many shapes. Rafa explained that the most common one was electrical and electronics equipment (EEE), a wide range of products with circuity or electrical components with power or battery supply that exists within basic electronic goods that almost everyone uses: kitchen appliances, toys, tools for music and ICT items, such as mobile phones and laptops, which have become more common during the pandemic.
There are more than 50 different product categories, but the EwasteRJ team narrows it down into six general categories that correspond closely to their waste management characteristics. These are household electronics, entertainment equipment, IT and telecommunications equipment, electrical tools, lighting equipment, and sports toys electronics.
“In Indonesia itself, the main challenge is that there are still so many informal e-waste recyclers. Individuals with no common knowledge of recycling and no protection gear, which endangers their own health and risks contaminating the environment,” said Rafa.
