E-waste in Gaborone, Botswana – assessing the generation, handling practices, and strategies for improvement
2013 (English)In: 28th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management, 2013Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
E-waste includes components with economic and environmental importance, thus the need for their sound end-of-life management. This study provides fundamentals regarding the amounts, flows, and handling practices of e-waste in Gaborone, Botswana. A number of relevant stakeholder organisations were interviewed and an in situ waste composition study was conducted. The concentration of e-waste arriving at the municipal landfill is less than 1 weight per cent, corresponding to about 1.9 kg/capita/year, far less compared to the estimated 8 weight per cent for European Union countries. However, obsolete electr(on)ics are in urban storages primarily due to a lack of tapping mechanisms. Among several inadequacies of the current handling practices is the absence of an e-waste management framework. Improvement routes discussed include public sensitisation and engagement, capacity building, and future exploitation of potentially suitable end-of-life treatment options including the novel phenomenon of enhanced landfill mining.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2013.
Keywords [en]
E-waste, Electrical and electronic equipment, Solid waste management, Resource recovery, Botswana
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-102194OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-102194DiVA, id: diva2:669368
Conference
28th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management (ICSW 2013), 10 March 2013, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Projects
GTARS
Funder
Sida - Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency2013-12-032013-12-032014-12-16Bibliographically approved