Tonnes of mobile phone e-waste are going uncollected and might be endangering human health with poisonous chemicals across the country, environmentalists have warned.
As at the end of May this year mobile subscribers were 10,897,711, according to data from Rwanda Utilities and Regulatory Authority (RURA).
Mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants increased by 0.06 percentage points from 84.05 per cent in April this year to 84.11 per cent in May.
In the wake of this growth, some phones get old and hence the need to dispose them of.
However, only a handful of the old gadgets are traced, properly disposed of and recycled, meaning a bulk of them remain in people’s homes. Other are dumped in inappropriate places, pausing serious health and environmental challenges, while some end up in small phone repair shops.
"When my phones get old, I keep them in a cardboard. I still have them in my home because no one can buy them when they don’t function,” said Olivier Ndagijimana, a resident of Gisagara District.
While Ndagijimana keeps his old gadgets in his house, some people throw them in bushes, toilets and dustbins where they are collected along with other cabbage.
Anne Uzayisenga, a resident of Musanze District, says that he is not aware of any specific place reserved for disposing of phone waste.
There is a need for an e-waste collection centre in our area, says Theophile Muhire from Nyabihu District.
No data on phone e-waste
In 2017, Rwanda launched a national e-waste recycling facility located in Bugesera.
The facility can recycle over 15 types of electronic and electrical equipment into other valuable materials.
According to a 2014 study, which informed the setting up of the e-waste recycling facility, Rwanda generates between 10,000 and 15,000 tonnes of e-waste is generated each year.
The volume of electronic waste was projected to grow by 6 per cent, according to the study, yet only 40 per cent is collected, dismantled and recycled.
Olivier Mbera, the Managing Director of the facility, says data on mobile phone e-waste is scarce while their collection is also uncontrolled.
Smart waste management systems
In order to address these challenges, officials at the Ministry of ICT and Innovation said that a project involving setting up smart waste collection stations is being piloted.
The $100,000 project is jointly implemented by MY ICT, Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), the City of Kigali and Smart Africa Secretariat. It features smart dustbins smart and smart waste stations and is being piloted in 10 public markets of Kigali.
The solar-powered stations will introduce waste sorting at generation sites where e-waste will be easily sorted from other waste.
Experts call for decentralisation of e-waste collection
The e-waste collection facility had pledged that by the end of 2020, all districts would have e-waste collection points.
Egide Nkuranga, an environmentalist who heads Rwanda Association of Professional Environmental Practitioners (RAPEP), said that there is need for decentralising collection points from district to village and Isibo level considering that most e-waste collection points are located in urban areas.
"There should be small e-waste collection points in villages, cells, sectors and then at district levels. If not, the garbage will continue to be a threat to the environment,” he said.
He added that the waste must also be sorted at the household level so that e-waste is not mixed with other waste.
However, he said the main challenge is that even waste collection companies have no means of transporting types of waste separately.
"All mixed waste ends up in landfills,” he said.
Dangers of mobile phone e-waste
Mobile phone components that are not well disposed of contain toxic substances such as mercury, lead, and cadmium, which may leach from decomposing waste in landfills, seep into groundwater and contaminate the soil, contributing to cancer, damage to the central nervous system, mutation, and other disorders in humans according to Environmental experts.
"E-waste such as phones, car batteries, and others contain heavy metals such as mercury. This chemical harms both human beings and animals. If it penetrates soil or water, fish can consume it and when we consume such fish it is dangerous,” he said.
He added that when e-waste is mixed with other waste in landfills, they make chemical reactions that pollute the environment and water bodies when it rains.
According to the report by the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) and World Economic Forum in 2019, approximately 50 million tonnes of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) is produced globally.
It says only 20 per cent is formally recycled.
For every million cell phones that are recycled, 35,274 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered, according to the UN environmental protection Agency.
There is 100 times more gold in a tonne of smartphones than in a tonne of gold ore, it says.
In 2016 alone, 435,000 tonnes of phones were discarded globally.