The problems associated with waste management, the volumes of which keep growing up at accelerated rates, are focused on the development of production capacities for their utilization. Recycling of used household and electronic appliances acquire particular importance.
Electronic wastes today have turned into a new ecological problem for humankind. New appliances replace the old mobile phones, digital cameras, personal computers, printers, scanners, various devices and gadgets and their owners dispose of their predecessors to the dumps. This results in a rather rapid accumulation of electronic wastes on the planet.
Although the electronic equipment, which served their term of service life, make up merely 5% of all municipal solid wastes (MSW), this type of waste is extremely dangerous for the environment and human health, since it is practically not disposed of and/or not recycled. A mobile phone, for example, is made up of 500 to 1000 different components. Many of them are toxic and contain heavy metals – lead, mercury, cadmium and beryllium, as well as such hazardous chemicals as brominated flame retardants. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is very often used in production processes. These substances pollute the environment and endanger the health of people working at such production facilities.
Percentage of electronic wastes has been growing up in the share of all MSW in recent years due to continuously updated technology. In Europe alone, the flow of electronic wastes keeps increasing by 3-5% annually.
Such wastes are also accumulated in Uzbekistan. In this connection the State Committee for Protection of Nature has elaborated a program of activities aimed at recycling solid household and electronic wastes in the country for the period from 2016 till 2020.
This was the topic of the press-conference organized by the State Nature Protection Committee of the Republic. After its completion representatives of the mass media visited the production facilities of the Tashkent plant for collecting and processing scrap metal and wastes of non-ferrous metals, which introduced the ecologically safe processing technologies.
At a meeting with journalists the specialists of the company said that in 2015 alone the company procured 160 tons of electronic waste for processing. Their objective is to create a system for collecting raw materials from the population, enterprises and institutions. Every citizen may contribute their share to the improvement of the ecological situation in the country by delivering such wastes to specialized scrap procurement points.
According to specialists of the State Committee for Nature Protection there is a need in the further development of legislative framework in this direction, introduction of preferential taxation conditions for enterprises for recycling electronic wastes and raising the accountability of the organizations and the population for separate waste collection.
Advanced e-waste technologies provide an opportunity to utilize useful materials extracted from domestic and electronic scrap for the benefit of the people.
