NSWMA e-Waste Collection Initiative – Telecom Providers, Jamaica's E-Waste Problem and Starting Electronics Manufacturing Industry

“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 25^th 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

This information could then be passed on to third party companies interested in collecting and extracting valuable Rare Earth minerals such as Tellerium, Ytterbium and Dyspropium. 

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.