DENR teaches proper e-waste disposal to save lives
QUEZON CITY, Sept.8 (PIA) — Households are warned against the careless disposal of their old and non-working appliances and gadgets, as they may not only cause hazard to our environment but health as well.
This was stressed by Eli Ildefonso, Deputy Executive Director of the National Solid Waste Management Commission in this morning’s edition of the radio program “Talking Points,” which is simultaneously aired over PTV-4 and Radyo ng Bayan.
According to Ildefonso, this type of waste is also called electronic wastes (or e-wastes) that fall under “special wastes.” The director shared some tips on the proper disposal of the e-wastes.
“There are recyclable collection events that some malls organize. In these events, they are able to invite buyers for unserviceable printers, monitors, TV sets, among others. The malls usually post announcements on special dates for such events – these are usually Fridays and Saturdays, on a regular monthly basis. Some other establishments even do it on a weekly-basis,” Ildefonso said.
When there are no mall events, garbage collectors collect the e-wastes and dispose them. Some local government units (LGUs) have ideal infrastructure support systems such as centralized materials recovery facility, where e-wastes are brought. “The municipal office which handles that will surrender the e-wastes to recycling companies.”
On the other hand, Ildefonso discouraged the public against bringing their e-wastes to junkshops. “It is not advisable to bring the e-wastes to junkshops, because they only tend to chop the items, then choose only the plastic parts and leave the metal parts to garbage collectors,” he said.
He further shared that junkshops often do worse in disposing batteries of motor vehicles, which have high lead and other heavy metals content. “When you sell that to junkshops, they will chop it, then the hazardous chemicals will be piled in their backyards or back areas of the shop, and flow to nearby vacant lots or creeks. Can you just imagine the heavy metals that might contaminate our food chain?” Ildefonso said.
The most ideal approach is to bring the old, broken electronic items where you also intend to buy a replacement. “On cellphones, for instance, if you plan to change your battery, bring the old one to the store because they will not only dispose it properly, they can ‘de-manufacture’ the item. That means they can disassemble the parts and re-assemble them to produce new equipment.
Ildefonso said that the key word now is no longer “Waste or Garbage” but “Re-sources” which can positively turn items for disposal into re-usable materials.(PND/MBR-PIA GHQ/PIA-CALAPAN CITY)
Tags: DENR, PIA, Solid Waste Management
