GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP SPONSORED FOCAL AREA/ BUSINESS PLAN: UNIDO E-WASTE WORKING PLAN The Global Partnership on Waste Management (GPWM) was established to coordinate activities related to waste management. It should help to overcome duplication of work and to increase the impact of the implemented activities in concerned countries. The objectives of the GPWM are: (a) To enhance international cooperation, outreach, advocacy, knowledge management and sharing, and identifying and filling information gaps in waste management to protect human health and environment, and to tackle adverse impacts of unsound management of waste; (b) To raise awareness, political will, and capacity to promote resource conservation and resource efficiency through waste prevention and by recovering valuable material and/or energy from waste. 1. SUMMARY OF THE SPONSORED FOCAL AREAS OF WORK E-waste is currently one of the fastest growing waste streams in developed as well as in developing countries. Due to the fact that the life span of computers has dropped in developed countries from six years in 1997 to just two years in 2005, and mobile phones have a lifespan of even less than two years, the amount of generated e-waste per year grows rapidly. This has a major impact on developing countries as loopholes in the current WEEE Directives allow the export of e-waste (mostly labeled as second hand goods) from developed to developing countries (70% of the collected WEEE ends up in unreported and largely unknown destinations). Rudimentary methods like open burning, which are often used by the informal sector in developing countries to recover valuable materials, have heavy impact on the environment and the health of the concerned people. There are three levels of harmful emissions of hazardous substances with dramatic environment & health impact: 1. from the product itself (if landfilled): Pb in circuit boards or CRT glass, Hg in LCD backlights, 2. due to substandard processes: Dioxin formation during burning of halogenated plastics or use of smelting processes without suitable off gas treatment 3. of reagents used in the recycling process: cyanide and other strong leaching acids, NOx gas from leaching processes and Hg from amalgamation UNIDOs approach of e-waste management takes all relevant stages of e-waste management into account, starting with an inventory of the current status until the sound end-processing in cooperation with international smelters. The management strategy contributes to the objectives of the GPWM as it targets various issues arising in developing countries regarding e- waste, different stakeholders are involved in the process, the health and environmental situation will be improved and international co-operations will be enhanced through the sound management of e-waste. 2. OBJECTIVES OF THE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP SPONSORED FOCAL AREA OF WORK The objective of UNIDOs e-waste management approach is to mainstream and disseminate environmentally sound management of e-waste in developing countries through the design of
a sustainable business plan which will include an effective take-back system, a manual dismantling facility, local pre-processing activities and sound end-processing activities. The management of e-waste in developing countries contributes to the objectives of the GPWM as the risk to the health of concerned workers as well as to the environment can be reduced significantly. Further knowledge sharing is one of the major points within UNIDOs approach. Lessons learned from other projects are always taken into account and through international cooperation best practices in the field of e-waste management are implemented. Additionally through the manual dismantling of e-waste in developing countries it is possible to have higher recovery rates of valuable metals during the end-processing. As the lead member of the focal area UNIDO will coordinate the different activities planned by partners and support cooperation between different international experts in the field of e- waste management. The main object of the focal area corresponds to the overall objectives of the GPWM, to overcome duplication of work, to strengthen existing co-operations and establish new ones, as well as coordinating activities of relevant stakeholder. 3. PRIORITY ACTIONS/ACTIVITIES To develop a structured e-waste management strategy the objectives and main activities have to be assigned to the following five topics: 1. Policy & Legislation: In most developing countries there are no regulations for the treatment of e-waste, what makes it easy for the informal sector to use rudimentary methods to recover valuable metals from e-waste. 2. Business & Finance: It is important to design an effective take-back system and a business model for a manual dismantling facility, which can be adapted by other countries that face a similar situation regarding e-waste. Through the effective collection system the sustainability of the dismantling facility can be ensured. Each stage of the management will generate costs, but only the last reclamation stage generates value, depending on the procedures used. Thus it is important that the costs of each stage will be lower than the total value obtained from the material reclamation. 3. Technology & Skills: Knowledge and technology transfer to ensure that best available technologies will be implemented; including the informal sector; trainings for the people working in the facility. 4. Monitoring & Control: The facility will be established according to certain environmental and health standards, to secure a sound treatment of e-waste (certifications will be applied). Regular audits and monitoring activities will give information on the economic situation of the facility. 5. Marketing & Awareness: There is a major lack of awareness regarding the potential risks of treating w-waste. It is very important to establish awareness among the public to tackle the issue of e-waste effectively.
4. GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP SPONSORED FOCAL AREA EFFORTS AND TIMELINES Projects in Uganda and Tanzania are ongoing and other countries showed their interest in developing projects on e-waste management in cooperation with UNIDO. The projects are set up in close cooperation with local and international stakeholders to establish sustainable business models, effective take-back systems and international solutions for end-processing. UNIDO provides technical assistance in establishing take-back systems and the design of the manual dismantling. Further are governmental regulations essential for the successive implementation of an e-waste management strategy. A general timeline for approximately 2 years can be estimated for the following specific activities planed by UNIDO: 1. Consultation of the stakeholders to establish a national e-waste strategy including regulations on governmental level. Estimated Budget: 70.000 USD 2. Inventory of the current situation regarding e-waste. The type, quantity, source, existing collection system, existing treatment methods, etc. will be analyzed to give a good basis for the further steps. Estimated Budget: 50.000 USD 3. Based on the outcomes of the inventory a business model for e-waste management will be designed. This includes the expected revenues, costs, needed space, required amount of workers, output fractions, etc. Estimated Budget: 130.000 USD 4. To ensure sufficient input to the dismantling facility an effective collection system has to be created. Also during this activity the outcome of the inventory and the local conditions will be taken into account. Estimated Budget: 200.000 USD 5. The establishment of a manual dismantling facility focuses on the set up of a suitable premises and working spaces for the dismantling activities of the workers. Throughout the first dismantling activities technical support will be provided by experts. Estimated Budget: 350.000 USD 6. Connecting the dismantling facility to international smelters for environmental sound end-processing of the residuals and the effective recovery of valuable materials. Estimated Budget: 100.000 USD 7. To promote the collection and the activities of the dismantling facility an awareness building campaign will be formulated which is appropriate for the concerned country. Estimated Budget: 100.000 USD All efforts will take into account already existing initiatives. If there are any, they will be up graded and integrated in the national e-waste management strategy. Great efforts will be made to integrate the informal sector for example in the collection system. Next to the projects UNIDO is active in the network of the StEP initiative and hosted in spring 2011 an international workshop on Hazardous substances within the life cycle of e-products. Further UNIDO works in close cooperation with several international partners, which includes: the Stockholm Convention, UNITAR, the Basel Convention and
the Solving the E-waste Problem Initiative (StEP) UNU US EPA Agence Française de Développement (AfD) EMPA Through the cooperation with these partners UNIDO is able to have a global picture on the best available technologies and best environmental practices towards the sound management of obsolete e-products. Further the events concerning e-waste can be coordinated through the network. For the year 2012 many events are planed for example by the UNU to strengthen the cooperation between different actors and to share knowledge on the ongoing processes and the newest technologies. In the following some relevant meetings are listed: 1. March 14-16, 2012 Pan African Conference in Nairobi (supported by StEP) 2. March 15, 2012 Workshop The Future Flows in Amsterdam (co-organized by UNU) 3. March/April 2012 China Stakeholder Workshop (organized by StEP); dates to be confirmed 4. May 23-25, 2012 Alexandria (Egypt) StEP General Assembly; 5. May 21-22, 2012 - Alexandria (Egypt) E-waste Forum (5th Anniversary of StEP celebration) 6. June 25-29, 2012 Accra (Ghana), E-waste Academy (organized by StEP) 7. July 2012 StEP Regional Workshop for the South Pacific; to be confirmed 8. September 9-12, 2012 Electronics Goes Green Conference, Berlin, incl. StEP sessions 9. October 2012 2nd StEP Workshop in Ethiopia; to be confirmed 10. November 2012 4th StEP E-waste Summer School; to be confirmed 5. OPPORTUNITIES AND LINKAGES E-waste is in general a cross-cutting topic, for that the cooperation with all other members of the GPWM is highly appreciated. The integration of POPs management into the e-waste management strategy of concerned countries is an advantage, which can be provided by the international cooperation of UNIDO mentioned above. Further integrated PC refurbishment centers could help achieving the objective of the sponsored focal area of Waste Minimization and help meeting the objectives of the GPWM. 6. EVALUATION Reports will be established on a regular basis to report the process to the secretariat of the GPWM. The processes will be evaluated according to the UNEP Logframe matrix. 7. RESOURCE MOBILIZATION There are several institutions which are possible donors for funding activities regarding e- waste: Governments (both from concerned countries as well as from developed countries) OEMs (HP, Dell, Nokia, etc.) Financial institutions (banks to secure a safe treatment of the data on obsolete PCs) Etc.
8. WORK PLANNING PROCESS The working process of the different activities will be reviewed regularly. If needed the work plans will be adjusted accordantly. 9. MEMBERS Mr. Heinz Leuenberger Director of the Environmental Management Branch Email: h.leuenberger@unido.org Phone: +43 1 26026 5611 Mr. Smail Alhilali Industrial Development Officer Email: s.alhilali@unido.org Phone: +43 1 26026 3363 Ms. Elisabeth Herbeck Consultant Email: e.herbeck@unido.org Phone: +43 1 26026 3750