Waste Technology Deep Dives – Treatment of Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment(short WEEE or e-waste)

Practitioners from Kenya and Brazil will talk about what kind of e-waste they receive, how they treat it and where the outputs of their process go.
The webinar is the first in a series of Deep Dives into selected waste management technologies, organized by UN-Habitat’s Waste Wise Citiesinitiative, African Clean Cities Platform and the Wuppertal Institute, under the Urban Pathways Project. The presented technologies are supposed to give local and regional government officials, as well as interested stakeholders, an overview of available technology options (which of course have to be assessed regarding their compatibility with the local situation before implementation).
This webinar series is organized as globally the solid waste of 3 billion people is not managed in controlled facilities and therefore negatively impacting on the health of the surrounding communities as well as the environment. Some of the mismanaged waste is finding its way to water bodies, reaching the seas and oceans and contributing to global marine litter pollution. In the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the shortcomings of our solid waste management treatment become even more apparent, posing additional health risks.
A recent needs assessment study carried out by UN-Habitat with officials from local governments and waste management practitioners, identified “limited knowledge on how to deliver the tasks” as the 3rd most cited hindrance for delivering effective solid waste management (after lack of financial and human resources respectively). When asked for topics for capacity building, 80% of participating government stakeholders indicated a high interest in waste management operations, and 70% in technologies for waste recovery and recycling.