“With
the rapid growth of Electronics and increasing consumer spending on Electronic
items, we believe it is important that we establish some policies, some
procedures and regulations that will guide the storage and disposal of E-Waste”
Former Executive
Director of the NSWMA, Jennifer Edwards in March 2015, during the launch of the
E-Waste Collection Initiative
The
NSWMA (National Solid Waste Management Authority) has decided that Electronic Waste
is worth collecting.
This
was based on the work of former Executive Director of the NSWMA, Jennifer
Edwards as reported by the Jamaica Information Service in their article “NSWMA Begins Pilot
to Collect E-Waste”, published March 24, 2015 By Oroyo Eubanks, The Jamaica Information Service.
So
will this initiative be an islandwide E-Waste Collection imitative?
NSWMA E-Waste
Collection Initiative – Test run to tackle Jamaica growing E-Waste Problem
The
six- month pilot project was officially launched a month later on Saturday
April 25th 2015 as reported in the article “NSWMA
Kicks Off E-Waste Collection Project Tomorrow”, published Saturday April
25, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner .
This
E-Waste Initiative was intended to focus on collecting specific categories of Electronic
Waste (E-Waste) from six (6) communities in Kingston, St. Andrew and St.
Catherine, namely:
1.
Duhaney Park
2.
Patrick City
3.
Harbour View in St. Andrew
4.
Hellshire in Portmore, St. Catherine
5.
Angels 1, 2 in Portmore, St. Catherine
6.
Angels Grove in Portmore, St. Catherine
Residents
are expected to separate their Electronic Waste from their regular garbage, specifically:
1.
CPUs
2.
Mobile phones
3.
Printers
4.
Monitors
5.
Laptops
6.
Keyboards
7.
Computer mouse
8.
Chargers
9.
Cables
They
then place them outside in specially marked containers for the workmen from the
NSWMA to collect. Persons seeking to be a part of the E-Waste Collection
Initiative who live outside of the designated areas can bring them to their Electronic
Waste to the following locations for disposal:
1.
NSWMA head office, 61A Half-Way Tree
Road in Kingston,
2.
Dermason Plaza, Independence City in
Portmore
3.
King Street in Spanish Town (next to the
Fire station)
Back
then, the idea was that the NSWMA six-month pilot project was to gather Data on
what type of Electronic Waste was most prevalent in these collection areas.
Using statistical extrapolation, they could then make an assumption as to the
major categories of Electronic Waste in Jamaica and thus target their
collection more precisely.
Jamaica potentially Mining
Rare-Earth Metals from E-Waste – Start of an Electronics Manufacturing Industry
Other
valuable metals used in Electronics from these Waste Electronics components,
such as Gold, Tellerium, Ytterbium and even Copper and Lithium could be
extracted in commercially viable quantities to make collecting E-Waste
worthwhile as predicted in my blog article
entitled “NSWMA
can benefit from coming Lithium Demand from All-Electric Vehicle - The Beverly
Hillbillies go Electric”.
As
part of the process, any storage media with Data will be Electronically erased
using a rapidly oscillating magnetic field to quote then Executive Director of
the NSWMA, Jennifer Edwards: “We ask people to clean their systems first, but
just to make sure we will have a magnet passing over them to make sure that any
residual information that is on the system is completely removed before it’s
disposed of”.
More
importantly, the Data collected could be used to guide the creation of draft
regulation for the manufacturing of Electronics in Jamaica in the future as we
well as serve as a guideline for the importation of Electronics items and their
proper disposal.
This
is especially important as the BSJ (Bureau of Standard Jamaica) is seeking to
stem the importation of sub-standard Electronics Appliances that do not conform
to the BSJ (Bureau of Standards) energy usage protocols as reported in my blog article
entitled “BSJ's
Energy Standards for Imported Electrical Appliances - Why a Ban on Light Bulbs
may lead to Chinese Manufacturing in Jamaica”.
Potential for Electronic
Manufacturing in Jamaica – Telecom Provider need to Collect their cell phones
So
is this the potential start of mining Rare Earth Minerals from our Electronic Waste
similar to the extraction of Rare Earth
Metals from RDA (Residue Disposal Area) Mud leftover from Bauxite Mining as
explained in my blog
article entitled “Paulwell’s
update on Jamaica’s Rare Earth Metal Project – Patenting Red Mud Extraction as
Aussies coming suggests Market rebound”?
If
expanded islandwide, can it lead to Jamaica utilisizing the recycled materials
to jump-start out own Electronics Industry as suggested by President of the
Jamaica Manufacturer’s Association of (JMA) Brian Pengelley in my blog article
entitled “Haiti's
Surtab SA and Handxom SA making 7-inch Tablet to supply Digicel - Pengelley's
Tablets need Cheap Electricity for Plants to make LED, Li-Ion Batteries and
Solar Panels”.
I
hope this project is expanded islandwide, as in the fifteen (15) years of
competition between Digicel and LIME, they’ve managed to sell millions of cellphones
and now smartphones but rarely have they had Promotions to collect the old cellphones.
To
their Credit, Digicel Foundation in collaboration with the Jamaica Association
on Intellectual Disabilities had decided to swap old cellphones from members of
the Disabled Community for Tablets in aid of children suffering from Autism as reported
in my blog
article entitled “Digicel
Foundation swap cellphones for Tablets for Autistic Children - How Cellphone
Recycling makes money as we drown in Electronic Waste and Noise”.
It
would be great if, like the Recycle Now Jamaica Project to Recycle PETE as
described in my blog
article entitled “GOJ
launches JA$200 million Recycle Now Jamaica Project to Recycle PETE Plastic Waste
- JEEP finally get self-sustaining Engine in small Step towards Telecom
Providers Recycling Electronic Waste”, the onus was placed on the Telecom
Providers to collect their old cellphones to reduce E-Waste pollution, a
silently growing problem both in Jamaica and globally.
This
would get them out of the Riverton Dump and prevent them from leeching out into
the soil and potentially contaminating our groundwater or worse winding up as
toxic air pollutants whenever the Dump catches on fire.
In
six (6) months time, roughly around September 2015, we'll have answers to these
pressing questions.
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