The Philippines faces a growing electronic waste (e-waste) problem with the booming local consumption of electronic and electrical goods such as mobile phones and computers, warned the international advocacy group Greenpeace.
Greenpeace said the Philippines faces a looming e-waste problem similar to those of China and India. Recent statistics are pointing to a surge in the consumption of computers and mobile phones which could lead to the problem. In the Philippines, shipments of personal computers were estimated to reach 426,521 units in 2004 alone. Based on a study, research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) estimates a 12.1 percent increase in computer shipments by the end of 2005, for a total of 478,130.041 PCs.
On the other hand, the number of mobile phone users was recorded at 18 million in 2003. Digitalphilippines.org projected that mobile phone shipments would grow at a rate of 18.41 percent for that year. If the same growth rate was used, the total number of mobile units shipped in the country would reach 25, 237, 670.58 units by the end of 2005.
The rise in the consumption of electronic and electrical goods has created a corresponding increase in electronic scraps containing toxic chemicals. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, 12 million of the 20 million to 50 million discarded electronic products in the world comes from Asia.
Beau Baconguis, a Greenpeace toxins campaigner, said that many people are unaware of the health risks of these e-wastes. ?There is no question that the world has benefited immensely from the rapid developments in the electronics industry. But most people remain unaware of the negative health and environmental impacts associated with the disposal of electronic products.?
Because of the lack of proper measures for e-waste disposal in the Philippines, the discarded hardware is incinerated or dumped in landfills. Some scraps end up with backyard recyclers, which is equally hazardous, because surrounding communities are exposed to poisonous heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, and halogenated substances such as brominated flame retardants (BFR), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
Baconguis said that the Philippines is not ready to face the problem of e-waste. ?Many countries, including Thailand and the Philippines, are unprepared to deal with the negative health and environmental effects brought about by the disposal of large volumes of toxic trash which the electronics industry has generated,? he added.
The operations of the country?s few existing recycling facilities are unregulated. Clean Earth Solutions International, one of the country?s recycling facilities, admitted to Greenpeace researchers that they process wastes via a thermal plant, which is actually an incinerator. The use of an incinerator in processing e-waste violates the Clean Air Act as well as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
Baconguis believes that the solution to the problem is in the hands of manufacturers. ?Companies must stop using toxic components in their products and establish take-back systems.? Baconguis explained that a take-back system could significantly help in reducing e-waste because the manufacturers are in the best position to know how to process products and repackage it in such a way that it could be reused and recycled.
Baconguis also said that the Philippines needs to ratify the agreement on the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes -- the Basel Ban. The Basel Ban is a global commitment to immediately stop all hazardous waste exports for final disposal from members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries to non-OECD countries.
At the time it was drafted, the convention still allowed the export of hazardous wastes intended for recycling. This was exploited to the hilt by the world?s richest countries and resulted in the worst cases of legal toxic dumping. In 2003, Greenpeace reported that 90 percent of all hazardous wastes found their way to developing countries through this recycling loophole. However, the United Nations made an amendment to this loophole, that even for recyclable wastes, transboundary movement should not be allowed.
?Thailand and the Philippines should also ratify the Basel Ban. Otherwise, the mountains of e-waste that now exist in China and India may be a reality in our own region sooner than we think,? said Baconguis.
Greenpeace has three goals in addressing this problem: The first objective is to ?Clean up?, which means eliminating toxic chemicals in electronic products; ?Take back?, which means companies should be willing to take back their discarded products; and ?Ratify?, which means they will urge the government to ratify the Basel Ban immediately. ?On top of the ratification, we are pushing for the government to come up with a new legislation on extended producer responsibility,? said Baconguis.
Greenpeace is campaigning for the top mobile phone and computer companies worldwide to reduce, or if possible, eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals in their products. Samsung, Nokia, Sony, Sony Ericsson, and LG Electronics have made their commitment to eliminate the use of PVC and BFR in the manufacturing of their products. The recent addition to the list of companies is Motorola. These companies are aiming to substitute harmful substances with safer alternatives.
Greenpeace said that Dell, IBM/Lenovo, HP, Siemens, Acer, Toshiba, Panasonic, Fujitsu-Siemens, and Apple, so far, have yet to commit to the same initiative.