Workshop Nigeria Oct 2015

Background

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste) is categorized as hazardous waste due to the presence of toxic materials such as mercury, lead and brominates flame retardants which are considered as hazardous wastes according to the Basel Convention. E-waste may also contain precious metals such as gold, copper and nickel and rare materials of strategic value such as indium and palladium. These precious and heavy metals can be recovered, recycled and used as valuable source of secondary raw materials. It has been documented that e-waste is imported to developing countries where they are often not managed in an environmentally sound manner, thus posing a serious threat to both human health and the environment.

Organizers

Organized by the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. The organization of the workshop was supported by the partner organization “Independent ecological expertise (IEE)”, based in Kyrgyzstan.

The European Union kindly provided funding for the workshop.

Objectives of the workshop

  • To raise awareness on the importance of the environmentally sound management of e-waste throughout  Eastern Europe and Central Asia;
  • To enhance participants’ understanding of challenges and solutions related to transboundary movements and the environmentally sound management of e-waste;
  • To disseminate  technical guidelines and guidance document developed under the Basel Convention and PACE as well as information on policy tools, certification schemes and regional initiatives to manage e-waste in an environmentally sound manner, including success stories to turn wastes into resources, material recovery and recycling;
  • To obtain inputs from participants towards the needs, challenges and opportunities for the environmentally sound management of e-waste  in the region;
  • To provide opportunities for information exchange and networking among experts, parties and other stakeholders; and;
  • To facilitate collection and exchange of best practices with regard to environmentally sound management of e-waste among parties, including information on new technologies and cleaner production methods to prevent and minimize the generation of hazardous e-waste.

Target audience

National officials from 9 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, who are responsible and/or involved in the e-waste management process at the national level, specifically in the issues related to the Basel Convention. In addition, representatives of intergovernmental organizations such as UNDP, UNEP, UNIDO and OSCE, experts from Slovakia, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), World Resources Forum, Centre for Sustainable Production and Consumption, private sector, including VO Novo Export (Russia) and KAZ Waste (Kazakhstan), and the civil society organizations such as IPEN / Eco-Accord (Russia), and Foundation to Support Civil Initiatives (Tajikistan), OSCE Centres in Kyrgyzstan participated in the workshop.

Follow-up to regional workshop

A number of activities was implemented as a follow-up to the workshop:

  • Case study on the extended producer responsibility in Belarus (English, Russian)
  • Technologies for environmentally sound mercury recycling and recovery of mercury-containing electrical and electronic equipment in the Russian Federation (English, Russian)
  • Preliminary and brief initial assessment of electronic waste for Central Asia focusing on Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (English, Russian)

Contact information

For questions regarding the training please contact Tatiana Terekhova (Tatiana.Terekhova@brsmeas.org).