Alongside, Bee’ah Launches Schools And Universities e-Waste Collection Programme To Expand Its e-Waste Collection Reach
Tonnes of electronic waste, including unwanted equipment, computers, printers, fax machines, cell phones, and other electronic goods, end up in landfills across the UAE every year. In addition, an estimated over 220,000 empty printer cartridges were received at Bee’ah’s Waste Management Complex in Al Saj’ah, during the year 2011, to be safely stored and treated.
Advancing on this, Bee’ah – the Middle East’s leading and award-winning integrated environmental and waste management company – has launched an e-waste pre-sorting and dismantling facility. The facility is one of the region’s first, and is Bee’ah’s most recent addition to its Waste Management Complex in Al Saj’ah.
Chief Executive Officer at Bee’ah, Mr. Khaled Al Huraimel commented saying: “The electronic goods industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. Due to the high demand for smaller and better technology, the electronic waste stream is rising and becoming a concern in the Middle East.” He added: “The collection and treatment of electronic waste is a fundamental element of Bee’ah’s overall integrated waste management strategy and expansion to handle new waste streams in Sharjah. “
Toxic or hazardous substances in electronic waste are typically heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium, amongst others. Electronics also contain small amounts of precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, platinum, that are in finite supply, along with plastic, glass, lead and other metals. Apart from being essential to keep this hazardous waste as much as possible out of landfills, re-use of these materials reduces the need to deplete the Earth’s precious resources.
The Bee’ah e-waste treatment facility receives, sorts and dismantles electronic waste. In the case of computers and electronic devices, the facility team checks each device for its condition, sorts the items into piles for refurbishing, dismantling and destruction. Meanwhile, all the data storage devices, such as hard disks, are physically destroyed and a certificate of destruction and data confidentiality is issued by Bee’ah, upon completion of the job.
Further to the e-waste treatment facility, Bee’ah has expanded its printer ink cartridges recycling programme, going beyond just corporations, and now includes schools and universities. With the support of the Sharjah Education Zone (SEZ), recyclable carton collection boxes have been implemented in 60 schools and universities including Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology, Khalifa University and the University of Sharjah, with another 100 schools to follow.
It is estimated that around 360 million printer ink cartridges globally end up in landfill sites every year and takes almost 1,000 years for these cartridges to decompose naturally, due to the fact that they contain engineering grade polymers which are too complex to break down.
“We set up our e-waste collection and treatment programme, in order to address the community concern requests for a solution to the growing amounts of e-waste.” said Khaled El Kalliny, VP of Business Development at Bee’ah. “Generally, individuals hold onto their discarded electronic goods because of their perceived value. These end up as clutter, whereas instead, they could be put into much better use if refurbished and recycled,” El Kalliny added.
“In an effort to encourage the community to dispose of their e-waste correctly, we have placed e-waste and printer cartridges collection points in all major universities and schools and well as central points across Sharjah.”
These printer ink cartridges are collected and transported to facilities where they are then recycled or refilled. A certificate to confirm that these cartridges have been processed for recycling is then issued for the participating organisation.
Incorrectly discarding printer ink cartridges can also lead to a health hazard; the International Agency of Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified carbon black as a carcinogenic material which is used in toner powder. By improperly discarding printer cartridges, this carbon material can end up affecting the respiratory tract and cause irritation, with more hazardous health issues in the long-term.
Buying recycled printer cartridges and electronics will not only reduce the need for new raw material, but can also save individuals, businesses, institutions and organisations thousands of dirhams over the course of a fiscal year, will lead to fulfilling their corporate social and environmental responsibility goals, as well as impact the sustainability of the environment across the UAE.
Bee’ah’s e-waste collection and treatment service is now available in Sharjah. For more information on this service please contact 800-TANDEEF (800-8263333).
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