Tag: disposal

ALBA E-Waste in NUS and Singapore

Recycle your electronics right in your neighbourhood

Having read so many posts on responsible recycling practices, you might be thinking—okay, I’m on board! But where do I begin?

It’s simple. Ever seen one of these gigantic white boxes in your neighbourhood? You might not have noticed them previously, but they can be found all over Singapore.

Here’s a list of all the e-waste recycling collection points around Singapore (NEA, n.d.). You can also take a look at ALBA’s map on their website, which also includes a list of all their bin locations. Use these maps to locate your nearest collection point!

The e-waste collection point in NUS, located on the ground floor just outside the Central Library at FASS (Author’s own, 2022).

There’s also one located in NUS itself, if you prefer dropping off your electronics on your way to class. But remember to be careful with what you put into the bins, as not every bin is the same and certain bins only accept certain types of electronic products.

NEA’s rules regarding the type of e-waste accepted at the various types of collection points (NEA, n.d.).

The rules are pretty straightforward. 3-in-1 bins accept most products, such as all the different types of bigger ICT equipment like laptops and mobile phones. The 2-in-1 bins only accept batteries and bulbs or lamps. Batteries-only bins are, as the name suggests, strictly for batteries.

ALBA and the NEA have made it really easy and convenient to do your part in recycling your unwanted electronics. Next time you think about getting rid of that unwanted old laptop gathering dust in your room, why not give one of these e-waste collection points a try?

References

NEA. (n.d.). Where to Recycle E-Waste. Retrieved 10 April 2022, from https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/waste-management/3r-programmes-and-resources/e-waste-management/where-to-recycle-e-waste.

How China Uses Tech to Sort Its Waste

An app to do it all: Baidu Recycle

What if recycling e-waste could actually be as easy as clicking a few buttons? That’s what China has achieved with their Baidu Recycle app (Baidu Huishou Zhan, lit. “Baidu Recycling Station”).

The Baidu Recycle opening press conference (Baidu, 2015).

In response to the growing challenge of e-waste pollution, UNDP China collaborated with internet company Baidu to develop a smartphone application known as “Baidu Recycle” (UNDP, n.d.).

The app helps users price and recycle their unwanted electronic products by generating nearby e-waste pick-up services. It was introduced in hopes that it would streamline the recycling process, making it more convenient and hassle-free. In doing so, this would also reduce the number of informal recycling stations.

User guide to the Baidu Recycle application (UNDP, n.d). 

The Baidu Recycle app is an example of how technology can be harnessed to simplify the e-waste recycling process for everyday consumers. One of the major barriers to recycling was identified to be consumers’ lack of knowledge regarding their disposal options (Islam et al., 2021). Apps like Baidu Recycle thus ensure that the recycling process runs smoothly, taking care of everything up to your doorstep.

China is not the only one that offers apps like Baidu Recycle. Similar apps can be found in other pockets of the world, such as MyGizmo in Cincinnati or RESQ in Singapore (Hicks, 2010). However, they have yet to take off thus far. Personally, I didn’t know that RESQ existed in Singapore prior to writing this post. Though these apps are amazing inventions, they can only truly be useful if a high proportion of the population actually utilises them to dispose of their e-waste. Perhaps marketing tactics, such as offering incentives for new users, would help such apps gain popularity where they are located. This has proved successful for other apps such as Healthy 365 under the Live Healthy SG programme, which offered free Fitbit Inspire HR health trackers to users who signed up for their programme.

References

Baidu. (2015). Baidu Recycle. Retrieved 5 April 2022, from https://gongyi.baidu.com/dist/action-recycle.html.

Hicks, R. (2010). Could this app ease Singapore’s e-waste problem? Eco-Business. Retrieved 5 April 2022, from https://www.eco-business.com/news/could-this-app-ease-singapores-e-waste-problem/.

Islam, M. T., Huda, N., Baumber, A., Shumon, R., Zaman, A., Ali, F., Hossain, R., & Sahajwalla, V. (2021). A global review of consumer behavior towards e-waste and implications for the circular economy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 316, 128297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128297.

UNDP. (n.d.). Baidu Recycle. Retrieved 5 April 2022, from https://www.cn.undp.org/content/china/en/home/ourwork/our_campaigns/e-waste.html.

UNDP. (2016). China’s e-waste recycling app goes global. Retrieved 5 April 2022, from https://www.asia-pacific.undp.org/content/rbap/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2016/06/02/china-s-e-waste-recycling-app-goes-global-.html.

Urban Mining

Extracting gold from your mobile phone: Urban mining

Urban mining is a new approach to recycling, referring to the process of recovering metals from e-waste (Arya et al. 2021). This is a technique introduced recently to address the global e-waste challenge, as part of the push towards a more sustainable life cycle of electronic products. You could think of it as somewhat similar to the idea of renewable energy—it’s all about the recycling of what we already have, rather than generation from scratch.

Urban mining is an alternative to virgin mining, the more traditional method to extracting precious metals. Virgin mining is comparatively undesirable, having resulted in catastrophic environmental disasters in the past such as mine explosion events and poisoning events. Virgin mining has also been proven to be an unsustainable option for our future, according to Murthy & Ramakrishna (2021). On the other hand, urban mining is cheaper in cost and just as viable for extracting precious metals.

Olympic athletes show off small electronic devices donated by people from all over Japan, instead of their shiny medals (International Olympic Committee, 2021).

Have an extra old Nokia lying around that you don’t use anymore? It could be more valuable than you think. Between April 2017 and March 2019, people from all over Japan donated over six million mobile phones to the organisers of Tokyo 2020 (Smedley, 2020). From the devices collected, precious metals were extracted and used to make 5,000 gold, silver and bronze medals for the Games (International Olympic Committee, 2021).

It’s amazing how the Tokyo Olympics were able to garner so much support for their urban mining scheme. Locally, urban mining has yet to gain much traction in Singapore. Seeing the comparative advantages that urban mining offers over virgin mining, we should continue to explore how urban mining could be adopted and promoted outside large-scale events like the Olympics.

References

Arya, S., Patel, A., Kumar, S., & Pau-Loke, S. (2021). Urban mining of obsolete computers by manual dismantling and waste printed circuit boards by chemical leaching and toxicity assessment of its waste residues. Environmental Pollution (1987), 283, 117033-117033. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117033.

International Olympic Committee. (2021). Tokyo 2020 highlights the possibilities for a circular economy. Retrieved 5 April 2022, from https://olympics.com/ioc/news/tokyo-2020-highlights-the-possibilities-for-a-circular-economy.

Murthy, V., & Ramakrishna, S. (2022). A review on global E-waste management: Urban mining towards a sustainable future and circular economy. Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland), 14(2), 647. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020647.

Smedley, T. (2020). How to mine precious metals in your home. Retrieved 1 April 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200407-urban-mining-how-your-home-may-be-a-gold-mine.

The Khian Sea Waste Disposal Incident

Around the world with the Khian Sea Garbage Barge

This week, we’ll take a look at a historic e-waste incident known as the Khian Sea waste disposal incident. Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Khian Sea ship carried 15,000 tons of municipal ash from the city’s incinerator and embarked on its journey to the Bahamas in August 1986. Over a course of 27 months, the ship traversed the world hoping to find places to dump its load of toxic ash.

A map and timeline of the route taken by the Khian Sea vessel to dispose of the 15,000 tons of Philadelphia waste ash on board (Groff, 2016).

From this event, it was clear that more had to be done regarding e-waste disposal laws, especially internationally. It sparked the creation of the Basel Convention, an international treaty which restricts the flow of hazardous waste between countries.

More importantly, this incident was one of the first to highlight e-waste as a global controversy, as well as the pressing issue of e-waste exportation from developed to developing countries. Next time, we’ll take a look at what this signifies for the global flow of e-waste exports, the global distribution of e-waste and subsequent imbalances in the politics of e-waste.

References

Groff, D. (2016). Tracking the Khian Sea. Philadelphia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 January 2022, from https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/screen-shot-2016-04-18-at-1-03-51-pm/.