e Waste The Antiguan Experience

1
e- Waste The Antiguan Experience

• Presenters
• Denise L. Roberts General Manager Emmanuel
  Dubois Landfill Manager

2
Introduction

• Antigua and Barbuda is a twin island state with a
  population of approximately 79 thousand
  residents
  
• 108 sq.miles

3
BACKGROUND

• The National Solid Waste Management Authority is
  a statutory waste management department within
  the Ministry of Health
  
• Responsible for the collection, storage,
  transportation, treatment and disposal of stored
  solid waste in Antigua and Barbuda

4
Research on e-Waste in Antigua

• Conducted in 2006 by personnel within the
  Authority
  
• Small scale
• Targeted Mechanics, householders, Commercial
  entities and Government Agencies
  

5
METHOD

• To facilitate this exercise the National Solid
  Waste Management of Antigua and Barbuda
  spearheaded an information gathering
  questionnaire to facilitate the extraction of
  information from various sectors of society
  regarding their current knowledge and practices
  relating to e-waste management
• It was decided that a Rapid Response format
  would have been implemented to provide an initial
  appreciation of the local context of the e-waste
  scenario i.e. knowledge levels of stakeholders,
  current practices, and key problems

6
LIMITATIONS

• A rapid response format used in conducting the
  research and to provide the data is meant to be
  interpreted as is and not as a representation of
  the total population
• Realizing the limitations of the survey due to
  the small sample size, time constraints, and the
  differing methods of administering the
  questionnaire instrument, it would be prudent to
  further complement this initial research with a
  subsequent wider country research

7
ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS

• Across all respondents, it was obvious that the
  majority (60) of persons were ignorant of the
  topic of e-waste as a current concern.
  Interestingly, the businesses had a higher
  proportion of persons ignorant of the topic as
  compared to the Householders
• This finding is noteworthy as it could be
  realistically proposed that persons involved in
  the computer sales repair industry should be
  more knowledgeable of the hazards of their
  products than the end consumer
• The fact that the Government Dept indicated that
  e-waste is a relatively new topic suggests some
  chronic level of ignorance on the part of persons
  who are more directly involved in the Information
  Technology domain

8
ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS

• When noting the practices for the disposal of
  e-wastes, the results show that an amazing 70 of
  respondents (either always or sometimes) are
  involved to some degree in putting e-wastes out
  for collection by NSWMA personnel
• Comparing the Householders against the
  Businesses, it was noted that householders are
  25 less likely to put e-waste items out for
  collection by the NSWMA staff.

9
ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS

• One particular noteworthy anomaly was observed
  when noting that (50) of respondents stated
  that they were somewhat aware of the dangers of
  e-Waste
• This would suggest that a deeper analysis would
  need to be done to capture whether the
  respondents awareness was only on the obvious
  aesthetic impacts of illegal dumping as opposed
  to the more subversive negative environmental
  impacts such as groundwater pollution, heavy
  metal contamination of soils or bioaccumulation
  in organisms.

10
ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS

• A cursory evaluation of the e-waste stream (from
  the respondents) would suggest that the greater
  percentage of e-wastes generated locally are
  derived from Computer paraphernalia
• The high percentage of e-wastes repaired (in
  excess of 50 for all respondents) may suggest
  that the high rate of salvage and re-use may
  translate into a lower rate of disposal of these
  items

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ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS

• A disturbing outcome of the research was the
  realization that a Business owner highlighted
  that his method of disposal for e-wastes was to
  transport (via his vehicle) the items to a
  communal dumpster. This practice has long been a
  cause of concern for the Authority as the
  unwanted items in the communal skips interfere
  with the machinery of the collection vehicles
  immobilizing the truck from other usage.
• The awareness that waste generators did not
  have any proof of ultimate disposal at the
  landfill site would suggest that there is a
  disconnect between generator and disposal

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ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS

• Having noted that there was no knowledge of any
  recycling or reuse facilities for e-waste amongst
  all respondents, it would be prudent of the
  Authority to consider the implementation of a
  dedicated public awareness campaign tailored to
  address the E-waste management issues
• The need for the campaign is further highlighted
  as 100 of respondents concurred with the notion
  that there is not enough public information on
  the issue. However care must be taken to tailor
  the campaign for specifically the householders
  and businesses due to the diametrical opposition
  of the perceptions on the responsibility to
  educate the public
• With the majority of business owners thinking
  that collaboration between the NSWMA and
  stakeholders is ideal and the majority of
  Householders thinking that the NSWMA should
  unilaterally implement the education mechanism,
  different approaches would have to be used to
  entice stakeholder buy-in

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PRESENT MANAGEMENT OF e-WASTE BY THE NSWMA

• Ministry of Education
• APUA
• Cable and Wireless
• Process
• Collected separately
• Hazardous components removed (some stored at
  BURMA/ others sent to recycling company in
  Antigua)
  
• The shell is disposed of at the Cooks Landfill
  Site

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Our Expectations

• To learn from waste management Authorities,
  Groups, Corporations, individuals and recycling
  Companies who are currently engaged in e-Waste
  Management
• Extract lessons that can be used in formulation
  of policies and legislations
  
• To augment our vision to reduce, reuse and
  recycle
  
• Share information
• Improve our management of hazardous wastes

15
THANK YOU