LANGA, SOUTH AFRICA — The Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment of South Africa, Bernice Swartz, led a major drive to collect electronic waste in Langa on Friday. This is one of the national awareness campaigns about the health risks and hazards posed by e-waste.
South Africa produces about 300,000 tons of e-waste annually. “Only 10 per cent of it is recycled safely,” Swartz cautioned, adding that most of it is either stored at home or illegally dumped into landfills. Most common household products, such as refrigerators, microwave ovens, kettles, irons, and even toys, are made with dangerous materials like lead and mercury that can seriously harm one’s health if one is exposed to them.
This was evident in the footage provided, which shows residents taking part in the process by dropping off obsolete electronic appliances at drop-off centres, where they are weighed and processed for recycling. The incentives for participation were supermarket coupons or cash. Also, other footage shows the processes by which facility workers remove the collected electronics and separate the vital components for reuse in making new products from the recyclables.
The current initiative aims to create a circular economy and meet the country’s EPR requirements. According to Swartz, “Our ultimate goal is that people understand that the waste is gold.”
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