Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) accounts for thousands of tonnes of e-waste in Kenya and Nigeria. Waste centres and recycling initiatives are partnering up to solve this growing problem.

In 2019, Kenya produced an estimated 51,000 tonnes of e-waste, half of which was not collected. This leads to the disposal of harmful substances, but also represents a loss of valuable materials which could possibly be recovered during collection and recycled. The e-waste also represents value lost, as many products can be repaired. For Nigeria, the estimated e-waste volume ranges from 290,000 to  1.1 million tonnes to per year. The variation is partly a result of opaque trade in e-waste arriving over land and by ship. Its disposal has been causing health concerns.

Kenya established a WEEE centre that collects electrical and electronic waste from over 8,000 clients, which is then dismantled and treated. To what extent an e-waste resource can be repaired, sold second-hand or recycled locally depends on its quality. Only when a country lacks the appropriate facilities are they exported abroad for recycling. The WEEE centre is ISO 9001:2015 and 14001:2015 certified. 

In Nigeria, on the other hand, the E-waste Producer Responsibility Organisation Nigeria (EPRON) has been established as a joint initiative by a coalition of electronics companies as part of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. EPRON is financed from fees and levies on producers. It collects and processes e-waste.

WEEE centres provide a route for partnering with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to source materials for collection and recycling, as well as fostering private partnerships for scaling up their operations. These centres are also important for driving economic empowerment of youth across their respective countries by providing them with skill-based training to repair and maintain electronics and e-waste. Imparting skills and providing jobs is especially important in Kenya where at least 40% of youth are unemployed. From a broader policy perspective, Kenya is a signatory to a host of multilateral treaties, such as the Basel Convention and the Vienna Convention—which effectively control transnational movement of e-waste. If citizens and the informal sector who own, manage, repair, collect and dispose of e-waste aren't sensitised through awareness campaigns, countries such as Nigeria and Kenya will likely falter in meeting these global regulations. For Sub-Saharan Africa, the success of WEEE centres means more replication and scaling up opportunities for similar initiatives, and promotes closer collaboration among various stakeholders, such as citizens, the informal sector, government and private players.

Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash.