The Philippine Online Chronicles

There comes a time when we have to part with our favorite gadgets and equipment. Our television sets were not made to last a lifetime. New models of mobile phones come out in the market so very often. Flat screen monitors have replaced the bulky, old ones and your old and rusty refrigerator cannot keep functioning forever.

Electronic products are present in almost every aspect of our daily lives. But as they say, all good things come at a price. Heavy reliance on these electronic devices has introduced a new problem: more and more electronic items are being found in the waste stream, and this spells danger and risk to our health and environment.

Commonly known as e-waste, electronic waste refers to electronic products that no longer satisfy the needs of the initial purchaser. It encompasses a growing range of electronic devices, ranging from large household devices such as refrigerators or air conditioners, to consumer electronics like computers, which have been discarded by their users. These wastes contain hazardous materials that pose both an occupational and environmental health threat.

For instance, the non-profit group World Computer Exchange cites that an average computer can contain up to 1,000 toxins including lead, cadmium, mercury and other heavy metals that are dangerous to the nervous system, kidneys and brain. These toxins can cause cancer and birth defects. Mercury, which can be found in e-wastes such as laptops and LCD screen backlights, can also accumulate in living organisms if it gets into a water supply.

The e-waste problem

According to environmental advocacy group Greenpeace, the estimated amount of e-waste generated on the planet every year is around 20 to 50 million tons. The group warns that e-waste is now considered as the fastest growing component of the municipal solid waste stream since people are constantly upgrading their gadgets and other electronic devices, especially mobile phones and computers.

So where does e-waste end up?

A 2006 study on the e-waste problem in the country by Genandrialine Peralta and Psyche Fontanos mentions four options available to the owner of the obsolete equipment: First, old electronics could be reused, possibly resold or reassigned to another user. Second, the original owner can opt to store it. Third, it could be recycled, or fourth, the equipment could be landfilled. Naturally, reuse and storage are only intermediate phases in the life-cycle of an electronic item, while recycle and landfill are the end points.

In the global arena, the issue of exporting e-wastes has become a hot topic after it was found that about 80 percent of the e-waste in the United States is being exported to Asia, especially China where it is being recycled using primitive and environmentally damaging methods such as cooking and melting of computer circuit boards that endanger the health of workers and surrounding populations. The US remains the only developed country in the world that has failed to ratify the Basel Convention to put strict controls on the import and export of hazardous wastes.

In our country, there have been reports that e-waste is being dumped in Davao from other countries in the guise of being surplus products, according to Ban Toxics.

Like many developing economies, the Philippines is faced with a mounting e-waste problem. There is an increasing and booming consumption of electrical and electronic goods in the country, especially since electronics manufacturing has become one of the country’s top export industry, while electronic goods are one of the country's top imports. This corresponds to an explosion in e-waste.

There is no official data regarding the current quantity of e-waste in the country, but Peralta and Fontanos' study estimates that at the end of 2005, approximately 2.7 million electronic units became obsolete and about 1.8 million units required landfilling. Over a 10-year period from 1995 to 2005, around 25 million units became obsolete. These estimates, which were generated using sales data, cover only five electronic products (televisions, air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators and radios) and do not include imported e-waste.

Need for regulation

Governments around the world are starting to institute regulatory measures to address the growing problem of e-waste. The European Union has already enacted the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive that requires manufactures, private firms and individuals to properly dispose of e-waste. Various states in the United States have also put in place mechanisms for e-waste disposal, with some totally banning electronic devices in landfills. In Japan, there is a Home Appliances Recycling Law enacted in April 2001 which states that retailers are mandated to accept end-of-life appliances from consumers and take them to manufactures of importers for recycling.

Sadly, our country has no such specific law to regulate e-waste. E-waste is generally designated by the National Solid Waste Management Commission to be “special garbage” based on the definition of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, which is the only legislation in the country that contains provisions with regard to electronic devices.

In Congress, there are various legislative initiatives to tackle the problem of e-waste. Senator Antonio Trillanes has filed Senate Bill 246 which aims to help recycle the people's electronic devices for free by taking a “manufacturers' responsibility” approach to recycle e-waste. The bill is applicable only to devices sold to households and requires companies that produce consumer electronics to collect and recycle the products that they have sold. Meanwhile, in the Lower House, Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino also filed a resolution which directs the government to undertake a study on the extent of the problems posed by the increasing amounts of e-waste in the country, and to create guidelines on the proper handling, disposal and recycling of e-waste and on restricting the illegal entry of e-waste by taking into account the responsibility of manufacturers.

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