Addressing South Africa’s electronic waste (e-waste) problems could become the next ‘gold rush’ industry for the country.

This is according to Dr. Koebu Khalema who is the programme officer at the Africa Institute-for the ‘environmentally sound management of hazardous and other wastes.

In his research paper titled “e-Waste South Africa’s next gold rush?”, Khalema has said the increased production and consumption of electronic equipment has led to a rapid growth in e-waste in the country.

When improperly disposed of, this could be associated with health risks and toxic environmental pollution from lead, mercury and other toxic compounds found in most computers and monitors, he has written.
 
However, he has told ITWeb Africa that South Africa’s e-waste need not be a problem but that it instead presents business opportunities for industry players, especially manufacturers and distributors.
 
“The industry in South Africa is actually very keen to make sure that they can actually reclaim all the material because of its value,” Dr. Khalema has told ITWeb Africa.

“There are other players who would like to set up recycling facilities right here in South Africa, all the role players believe this is the way to go..

“Reclaiming can become an economically viable business,” he said.  

According to Dr. Khalema reclaiming means that e-waste products are reprocessed by industry players instead of ending up in municipal landfills.

The process involves collecting all e-waste products, assessing them and then trying to bring them back to life.

More than 60% of electronics disposed of can be reused, refurbished and resold, said Dr. Khalema.

“We are so dependent on electronics, but electronics don’t live forever: they become waste and that waste cannot be waste that is being disposed of.

“We need facilities to actually process all these components and not only certain parts but the overall processing of the components – that’s what we hope it will actually come down to,” he explained.

He also said that such a process need not be specific to South Africa, as other countries in the southern African region could develop similar systems when dealing with e-waste.

Khalema said government and industry players plan to meet in November to discuss the business of reclaiming the country’s e-waste.

The planned meeting is expected to formalise and find solid terms of getting government to step up and put regulations in place so that there are certain standards and deadlines for this process, Khalema concluded.