E-waste(d)
The Jakarta Post - WEEKENDER | Thu, 02/26/2009 11:31 AM |
When I look back with nostalgia at my youth, I reminisce about tree climbing, kicking around overripe watermelons with friends and spending hours playing with rather cool toys. But from what I’ve been hearing lately, my cherished childhood gadgets have joined a deadly trail of electronics that are causing environmental mayhem: a battered Game Boy, the family PC i286 over which my brother and I squabbled constantly, gazillions of batteries for the Walkman so I could listen to Michael Jackson’s “Bad” for the 1,272nd time, remote control toy cars and even that silly robot Uncle Jacques brought back from Taiwan once (yes, I was a spoiled brat, so shoot me).
Kind of throws a pall on those golden years of youth, doesn’t it? Worry no more fellow consumer – e-redemption is right on this page.
So what’s e-waste? According to the ever-resourceful Wikipedia, e-waste includes broken or unwanted electrical or electronic devices that are considered toxic and are not biodegradable. Broken monitors, fried hard drives, burned circuit boards, short-circuited transistors ... This is the kind of stuff that accumulates by the ton every year (20–50 million tons per year says the UN).
When it is not treated properly, e-waste is a major source of toxins, including carcinogenic substances such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Think of these substances leaching into the soil, into water reserves, and from there into your tap water and shower, and you start getting an idea of the problem.
Here in cell phone land, where even your 75-year-old farmer in Cirebon has a Nokia, some 100 million cell phones are thought to be scattered across the country. Most of them will be binned in the next few years.
“But what can I do about e-waste?”
Love new stuff? Think twice.
The unsustainability of discarding electronics and computer technology is another reason to recycle – or perhaps more practically, reuse – electronic waste. By shopping less, you can worry less about reusing and recycling new stuff, let alone finding yourself with too much e-waste on your hands.
Choose quality items that can be upgraded.
When you really have to buy electronics, choose quality items that are compatible for upgrades and add-ons. That way, you can extend the life span of your equipment and save money. So, for example, instead of replacing your Centrino laptop with the new Core Duo notebook, why don’t you just buy more RAM to improve computer performance?
Reclaim the basic functions of your cell phone.
The only thing that needs to be updated regularly on your cell is the address book (sorry, not the handset). So, as long as your device can still make and receive calls and text messages, why bother replacing it with a new one? Splash out on a romantic dinner instead, my friend.
Try to repair your faulty electronic equipment before binning it.
There are plenty of repair shops out there providing a wide range of quality services.
Choose recyclable batteries, rather than single-use batteries.
Rechargeable batteries offer greater economic and environmental benefits than disposable batteries do, because they can be discharged and recharged many times before they give out.
Make sure that your e-waste is properly handled.
Here in Indonesia, we don’t have an e-waste system in place, but there are still plenty of options.
- Sell or give your e-waste to a repair shop, so that the stuff can be used as spare parts.
- Collect used batteries and take them to the nearest hazardous waste collection center.
In Bandung, batteries and CDs are collected by Tobucil, Jl. Aceh No 56 (contact Tarlen on 022 4261548 for details).
- Are you working for a company that produces large volumes of e-waste? Contact WMI to find out how the material can be safely processed with minimal environmental damage (www.wmi-indonesia.com).
Tell firms you are concerned about how they manage their e-waste.
Three-eyed fish? Mutant frogs? No thanks. Write to local electronics companies that you know to be discarding large volumes of e-waste and ask them: What are you doing with the stuff? Where is it going? Do you have a recycling program in place?
These few steps will hopefully help you begin curtailing your trail of defunct and hazardous electronic equipment.
As for me, I realize now that I should have held on to my toys a little bit longer. I really miss that Game Boy.
+ Shinta Nurwulan and Marc-Antoine Dunais
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