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UN environment head addresses electronic waste

Achim Steiner says western nations must stop dumping illegal electronic waste in Africa

The head of the UN Environment Programme said today that technological progress and increasing western consumerism is leading to an increase in the amount of dangerous electronic waste being dumped on the world's poorest nations.

Achim Steiner, opening the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention in Kenya today, said Western countries are effectively using Africa as a landfill for useless electronics.

Hi-tech products like mobile phones and computers are 'driving the purchasing and discarding of products in a way unknown a generation ago,' he said.

Steiner says he has just learned that at least 100,000 computers a month are entering the Nigerian port of Lagos.

'If these were good quality, second hand pieces of equipment this would perhaps be a positive trade of importance for development. But local experts estimate that between a quarter to 75 per cent of these items including old TVs, CPUs and phones are defunct - in other words e-waste, in other words long distance dumping from developed country consumers and companies to an African rubbish tip or landfill,' he said.

Some 20 to 50 million metric tonnes of electronic waste are generated worldwide every year.

In the EU the volume of e-waste is expected to increase by 3-5% a year, while developing countries are expected to triple their output of e-waste by 2010.

When the millions of computers purchased around the world every year (183 million in 2004) become obsolete they leave behind lead, cadmium, mercury and other hazardous wastes.

Steiner was speaking at the beginning of five days of talks in Nairobi between parties to the Basel convention which monitors hazardous waste.

He is also calling for better enforcement of the Basel Convention; a recent survey found 48 per cent of European waste shipments were illegal. UNEP's emergency fund should be increased in light of the Cote D'Ivoire crisis and more manufacturer-led recycling programmes were essential, Steiner added.

Among the subjects to be discussed are new rules to make manufacturers take financial responsibility for disposing of their products, and tighter controls on the shipment of electronic waste.

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UN environment head addresses electronic waste

Achim Steiner says western nations must stop dumping illegal electronic waste in Africa

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