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New Agenda seeks to transform e-waste into opportunity
Sustainable business models key to waste reduction
Geneva, 3 April 2013 – Representatives of Central American
governments, private companies, universities and non-governmental organizations
have agreed on a
20-point Agenda aiming to promote advances in the handling
of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or ”e-waste”) in the region.
Key will be the application and identification of business models that leverage
recycling opportunities and create new employment.
The new Agenda was agreed by the 86 participants in the ITU/UNEP Workshop for
Capacity Building on Environmentally Responsible Management of Waste Electrical
and Electronic Equipment
(WEEE), organized in San Salvador, March 19-21 with the support of
ITU Sector Member Telefónica.
The Agenda emphasizes increased collaboration between all parties, as well as
the development of online learning programmes and workshops aimed at
policy-makers. It calls on ITU and UNEP/PACE
to assist Central America and the Caribbean in the development of regulations,
legislation and international standards to mitigate e-waste’s potentially
damaging effects on the environment and the health of local populations.
Electronic devices can contain up to 60 different chemical elements. But
deficiencies in collection methods, recycling technologies and illegal dumping
mean the majority of these valuable resources are lost when equipment reaches
end-of-life.
The failure to close the loop on e-waste leads not only to adverse
environmental impacts, but also to the depletion of a potentially valuable
resource base of ‘secondary equipment’.
Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General of ITU explains that “The e-waste
challenge will be met by combining effective legislation with incentives to
develop business and employment opportunities to maximize the lifespan of these
valuable finite natural resources. Capacity building and technology transfer to
developing countries, along with the implementation of international standards,
will be key to reducing waste and pollution, in parallel with the creation of
sustainable business models.”
Workshop participants reaffirmed their commitment to the implementation of
the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions, while also recognizing the
importance of ITU Resolution 79 on “The role of telecommunications / information
and communication technology in handling and controlling e-waste from
telecommunication and information technology equipment and methods of treating
it” adopted by the
World
Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (Dubai, 2012). This
resolution urges ITU to develop activities related to capacity building and the
implementation of recommendations, methodologies and other publications on the
responsible management of e-waste.
Speaking at the opening of the Workshop, Vice-Minister of Environment and
Natural Resources of El Salvador, Ms Lina Pohl, said: “WEEE is a topic of high
relevance to this region and the world. We need to act now, before it becomes an
‘unstoppable waste tsunami’ that causes irreversible damage to our health and
environment.”
“The Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD), is
very thankful for this important contribution and happily offers to promote this
Agenda and its model of cross-cutting integration of efforts amongst
environment, health and telecommunication authorities, private sector and civil
society,” said Nelson Trejo, Executive Secretary of CCAD at the inauguration of
the workshop.
“If we tap into the potential of wide public-private sector partnerships to
promote environmentally sound management of WEEE, we will be able to create a
vibrant green economy, while reducing poverty, health hazards and risks, climate
change and the pressure on our non-renewable resource base,” said Miguel Araujo,
Director of the Basel Convention Regional Center for Central America and Mexico
(BCRC-CAM).
Note to media
The Workshop for Capacity Building on Environmentally Responsible Management
of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment was jointly organized by
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU);
the Secretariat of the Basel Convention administered by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP),
through the Basel Convention Regional Center for Central America and Mexico (BCRC-CAM);
in cooperation with the Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment (PACE)
established under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements
of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal; the Central American Commission for
Environment and Development (CCAD);
and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of El Salvador (MARN).
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information
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Toby Johnson
Communication Officer
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