Picture a hot, sandy wasteland. In front of you lies multiple man-made mountains: tall, impressive, and imposing. They will stand the test of time, remaining unchanged for generations.

Stock image of the Great Pyramids of Giza

  That’s right, this week, Ximple is talking about the great pile of… electronic waste (or e-waste) that we generate annually.

Oops, the last one was the wrong picture. Photo Credit: Global E-waste Monitor 2017

These are no ancient structures, but indeed, our annual e-waste weighs as much as 9 Giza pyramids, or all the commercial airplanes ever built (>44 million tonnes) (source). Speaking of planes, Singapore itself produces the equivalent weight of 220 Airbus A380s (or 60 000 tonnes) in e-waste annually (source). Meanwhile, Malaysia averages 8.8kg of e-waste per person in 2016, way more than the global average of 6kg (source).

Amount of e-waste generated in Malaysia. Graph from: DOE, Malaysia

Why should we care?

There are two main reasons: gold (and other precious resources), and toxic chemicals, which harms the environment and people's health.

According to the World Economic Forum and a few other agencies (source), the material value of our e-waste amounts to more than three times the annual output of the world’s silver mines. In other words, that is more than the annual GDP of 120 countries. Additionally, a CRT TV (the old kind, from before smart TVs) contain 75% recyclable materials like copper, iron, glass, and plastic. Not to mention, recycling releases less carbon emissions than mining for the same raw materials (source).

The gold in our mobile phones alone, is 100 times more than what you can extract from 100 tonnes of gold ore (stock image).

This means that every time we chuck our electronics in the bin instead of recycling, we waste already limited natural resources and contribute to global warming, all in a flick of the wrist.

To make matters worse, many electronics contain chemicals that deplete the ozone layer and pollute the soil and water. They also cause health problems like cancer or brain (and multiple organ) damage. We might think this would not affect us since all these wastes are simply buried in landfills, but any damage to the electronics could release said chemicals. And this happens more often than we think. Not only because the process of dumping can be rough, we often pass our used electronics on to rag-and-bones men and women or unlicensed scrap traders who may take apart the electronics improperly (source, source, chili sauce, and source).

Current initiatives

Singapore and Malaysia have been trying to improve our situation. For example, in Singapore, the NEA has regulations restricting the use of hazardous materials in electronics. Several industry partners and communities are also working together to voluntarily provide e-waste recycling programmes (source). Meanwhile in Malaysia, the E-waste Alam Alliance, launched in 2013, is a loose alliance of industrial partners, NGOs and state authorities providing avenues for recycling (source). However, it should be noted that full recovery facilities in Malaysia are currently catered towards industrial e-waste, with many households still relying on cheaper, unlicensed collectors and scrap traders (source).

Current problems

As highlighted before, many Malaysians and Singaporeans are just not recycling. Take a look:

Source: NEA

As we can see, only 6% of e-waste in Singapore gets recycled (note that deliverymen often dump the e-waste they collect at bin centres). Ximple is unable to find exact numbers for Malaysia, but the DOE concedes that (like Singapore) recycling is hampered by logistics and consumers not knowing enough about e-waste recycling. The latter arises because consumers do not provide the economy of scale for the logistics to be worth the costs. This means consumers have to voluntarily bring their electronics to recycling centres. Even if we know where to find these centres (which, let’s be real—I didn’t, before researching this post), it may be out of the way, especially when we have bulky items (MY: source; SG: source).

That said, there are many things that we, the people, can do. Knowing the importance of e-waste recycling is an important first step. We should also try to avoid throwing away our electronics or passing them to unqualified recyclers/ illegal traders. Instead I have linked lists of collection points for both Malaysia and Singapore in the annex.

Lastly, our governments do have mandatory, future plans. These plans will affect everyone, and we will have important roles to play. However, as this post is getting long, I will not keep you further. We will pick up from this cliff-hanger next week. Stay tuned!

Annex

List of Malaysian collection points by state:

http://www.doe.gov.my/hhew/collection-points/

List of Singaporean collection points by organiser:

https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/waste-management/3r-programmes-and-resources/e-waste-management/where-to-recycle-e-waste

Additional reading:

https://www.towardszerowaste.sg/resources/infographics/e-waste

https://www.eco-business.com/news/look-at-how-much-e-waste-singapore-has-saved-from-the-landfill/

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/malaysia-gets-tough-over-polluting-e-waste

https://assets.rbl.ms/19822316/origin.jpg

References

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/how-a-circular-approach-can-turn-e-waste-into-a-golden-opportunity/

https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/waste-management/3r-programmes-and-resources/e-waste-management

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/singapores-mountain-of-e-waste

http://www.doe.gov.my/hhew/