SA campuses can lead fight against e-waste

Potential to produce environmentally conscious graduates

- SANDILE NDLOVU

WHEN I bought my laptop in my first year of university, it was fast, reliable, and felt like an investment that would last.

But when I reached the third and final year of my undergraduate studies, it was a completely different story as my trusted laptop took ages to boot up, the battery barely lasted an hour, and performing simple tasks felt like a test of patience.

It's as if my laptop knew graduation was near and had decided to retire early. As I found myself at a university that relies heavily on the use of electronic products, I couldn't help but wonder: what happens to all our obsolete electronic devices?

Early last year, I came across a statistic that left me stunned: South Africa's formal recycling efforts only recover between 7% and 12% of its total electronic waste output. The rest is either stored indefinitely, dumped in landfills, or handled by informal recyclers under hazardous conditions.

Electronic waste, also known as e-waste, refers to discarded electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and is the fastest-growing waste stream in the world.

Between 2019 and 2022, the amount of e-waste generated increased by approximately 15.67%, growing from 53.6 million tons to 62 million tons.

According to the Recycling of Waste and Scrap in South Africa 2023 report, e-waste is growing three times faster in South Africa than solid municipal waste. But why is this happening? Is it "just the way it is", or is there something bigger going on?

As a sociologist, I was immediately interested in understanding why e-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream. Are we buying too many electronic products indiscriminately, or is there more to the story?