• ‘60,000 tonnes of used equipment shipped to Lagos ports yearly’• Stakeholders seek incentives for recycling firms, manufacturers
Nigeria’s piles of e-waste come both from home and abroad. The country generated 290,000 tonnes of electronic waste in 2017 – a 170 per cent increase against 2009. Nigeria remains a major recipient of used electronics from abroad. Government officials disclosed these figures have reduced drastically as a result of the steps taken to monitor the importation of used Electrical and Electronic Equipment into Nigeria. However, civil society groups disagree, saying that the figures have doubled as agencies lacked appropriate mechanisms for monitoring and sanitising the system.
Also, every year, $10 billion worth of unused cables, electronic toys, LED-decorated novelty clothes, power tools, vaping devices, and countless other small consumer items often not recognised by consumers as e-waste amount to nine billion kilogrammes of e-waste, one-sixth of all e-waste worldwide. “As a result of improvements in enforcement and regional collaboration, progress has been reported in the control of illegal shipments of e-waste in West Africa,” says the official. However, in January 2023, an organized crime group was caught smuggling over five million kg of e-waste from the Canary Islands to Ghana, Mauritania, Nigeria and Senegal.
The study, which involved vehicle and enforcement document inspections at Ringaskiddy port in Ireland, scaled sampling data to yearly shipment figures and estimated that 17,319 kg of used EEE were exported from Ireland annually, and around 1 in 5 vehicles exported contained used EEE. According to the International Labour Organisation, up to 100,000 people work in the informal e-waste recycling sector in Nigeria, collecting and dismantling electronics by hand to reclaim the saleable components. Informal workers are directly exposed to hazardous chemicals and commonly suffer respiratory and dermatological problems, eye infections and lower-than-average life expectancy.
“EPR has been on Nigeria’s waste management agenda since the gazetting of the Regulations in 2009. We are making progress.”
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Source: GuardianNigeria - 🏆 1. / 94 Read more »