The Story of E-waste in Pakistan

Robert Knoth of Greenpeace tells the story of e-waste in the Karachi district of Lyari through his photographs.

All that glitters is not gold

The PC Show over the weekend saw the annual ritual of mass purchase of IT products in Singapore with first-day sales of $3.5 million and $51.7 million in sales over four days. While citizens in other Asian countries gather in masses to protest about rising oil and food prices and worry about their livelihoods, Singaporeans gather in masses to worry about which laptop or plasma TV to buy and protest about having to cover three floors of IT products (the exhibition space was doubled this year to cater for a record 600 exhibitors).

Who cares about the recession and financial crisis? Who cares about increasing oil and food prices? Who cares about our love for electronic stuff that creates e-waste problems? Who cares about the large amount of paper waste generated? It seems that these problems are not our concerns.

Consider the idea of sufficiency before buying electronic products. Sufficiency is about what is needed, just enough and not too much. Do you need to surround your life with all these electronic stuff? If the old one is working, why do you need to buy a new one? Also consider what happens to the discarded electronic stuff. Does it go to the landfill? Is it given to a secondhand dealer for reuse? Is it sent for proper recycling? Or does it end up in developing countries? Next time when you visit an IT exhibition, think again before buying.

Quotes from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare:

All that glitters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:

So may the outward shows be least themselves:
The world is still deceived with ornament.

Our love for electronic stuff creates an e-waste problem

Singaporeans love IT and electronic stuff (handphones; computers; printers; digital cameras; televisions, music and video players, etc). Why do we say that? Because just this year, the three major IT exhibitions held in Singapore achieved a total turnout of 2.3 million visitors (that’s half the population) and a total of $126 million in product sales (see breakdown below; no figures for the recent SITEX 2007). Some of the exhibitions even achieved record sales and turnouts.

• IT Show 2007 – Sales of $48 million and turnout of 718,000
• PC Show 2007 – Sales of $26.2 million and turnout of 907,000
• COMEX 2007 – Sales of $51.7 million and turnout of 700,000

We also have a lot of those electronic stuff at home according to the Singapore 2007 Statistical Highlights. Households in 2003 own the following: personal computer (70%); handphone (89%); and audio/video compact disc player (83%).

 

We are buying more electronic products, whether we need them or not. Nowadays, we are caught in a cycle where we try to keep up with the latest electronic gadgets. As companies come up with new products with more functions or upgrades, we change our electronic gadgets faster than before. In the book, Made to Break, some companies even resort to design and make products with a shorter lifespan so that the old ones become obsolete and we have to buy new ones sooner. Do we need the new gadgets in the first place? Are we buying them because we actually need them or because the product advertisement says we should have them?

As we buy more electrical and electronic products, it also resulted in more such products being discarded. This is becoming a global waste problem, also known as the e-waste problem. E-waste contain toxic chemicals that will pollute the environment if they are not disposed properly. The export of e-waste from developed countries to developing countries on the pretext of recycling also poses environmental and health problems. Learn more about the e-waste problem from Greenpeace and the Basel Action Network (BAN).

© Basel Action Network 2006 

It would be wise to consider the idea of sufficiency before buying electronic products. Sufficiency is about what is needed, just enough and not too much. Do you need to surround your life with all these electronic stuff? If the old one is working, why do you need to buy a new one? Also consider what happens to the discarded stuff. Does it go to the landfill? Is it given to a secondhand dealer for reuse? Is it sent for proper recycling? Or does it end up in developing countries? Next time when you visit an IT exhibition, think again before buying.

Image attribution: Basel Action Network 2006.

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TES-AMM Singapore Pte Ltd

TES group of companies is a leading, global recycling and comprehensive e-waste management service provider. TES core competencies are designed around total resource management concepts encompassing a one-stop service platform for MNC needs on global service support, IPR security protection, consultancy, customized waste management, environmental accountability and overall industry professionalism.

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Email: info@tes-amm.com

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