Recycling benefits us in the following ways: Paper, plastic, cardboard, and metals can be recycled, reinvented, and repurposed into new products. Recycling gives materials a chance to be used to their fullest extent. There may be hope yet for Phenix to rise from the ashes.Many everyday items are recyclable through the City of Corpus Christi's curbside recycling program. There is no need to sort recyclables accepted by the program, be sure to give them a quick rinse and empty all liquids before placing them in the blue recycling cart. Kyriakopoulou is optimistic that e-waste recycling in East Africa will improve with stronger regulation and more competition. Phenix came a few years too early,” she said.īut Ms. Kyriakopoulou.Ī lot of money goes into understanding the issue “but not yet to support growing companies. Phenix also received conventional recyclable materials like plastic and paper.ĭespite the huge need for recycling services, many businesses still struggle for support and funding.Ĭase in point: Phenix closed down last year partly because of “the lack of investors willing to fund waste companies, and a hesitation from companies to pay for their waste because of lack of regulation or lack of enforcement,” explained Ms. It sent difficult-to-recycle circuit boards and lithium batteries to Belgium, and solar panels to South Africa, Israel and Belgium.Ī lot of e-waste must be sent abroad for proper recycling that meets international standards. Phenix received e-waste from clients including the solar companies M-Kopa and Mobisol. Phenix Recycling was founded by Athina Kyriakopoulou, who worked for several years at solar energy companies in Tanzania and Uganda, where she saw the “alarming” accumulation of e-waste. The need to confront the waste problem does not necessarily guarantee a business’s success, however. “We find out automatically if something is wrong with the product.” “It communicates with our database and informs us about the system performance, energy consumption, appliance use,” explained Paula Berning, corporate sustainability manager at Mobisol. It provides renewable energy that is often cheaper than electricity created from dirty diesel generators and kerosene. It is a clean alternative to fossil fuels, which contribute to climate change. Solar energy has clear benefits, of course. Power Africa, an initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (U.S.A.I.D.), and various partners aim to have 25 million to 30 million new solar connections across Africa by 2030.Ĭompanies mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia sold 3.7 million solar energy products, including solar lamps and rooftop systems, in the first half of 2018, according to a report from the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association ( Gogla), a nonprofit organization representing the off-grid solar industry. Solar products account for a fraction of overall e-waste, although the amount is growing as the industry booms. In East Africa, the vast majority of expired lead acid batteries are car batteries and power backup systems, used during frequent blackouts. “The chance of having contaminated groundwater is very high,” said Ghanima Chanzi, an engineer at the Water Institute in Dar es Salaam who wrote the paper. Samples showed levels of chromium, copper and lead far above the World Health Organization’s safety levels. Water and soil around the Msimbazi River are already polluted from battery, steel, paint, food processing and other factory waste, according to a paper published in 2018 in the Journal of Scientific Research and Reports. The process pollutes the soil and water with lead, which can lead to brain damage and other health problems, according to a report from Phenix Recycling, which operated briefly in Tanzania. Then they sell those batteries to factories that melt lead scrap in furnaces to be resold to dealers. In Dar es Salaam, for example, laborers who collect heavy lead acid batteries used in cars, power backup systems and rooftop solar systems frequently break them open with machetes and drain the acid into the ground by hand.
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