Tons of e-waste looming behind Davao’s developing society (Feature)
March 17, 2010 10:57 pm
By Lovely A. Carillo
DAVAO CITY, March 17 — There is as yet no statistics as to how much electronic waste or e-waste is being generated by Davao City, but behind that developing society are tons of e-waste resulting from too much consumerism.
“The challenge for us here in Davao City is to determine how much e-waste we are generating,” said Bert Barriga of the Davao City Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Council.
E-waste or electronic waste refers to the electronic junk produced by the modern society which includes old phones, computers, appliances and other gadgets. He said the global society generates as much as 40 million tons of e-waste every year.
The proliferation of e-waste in third world countries like the Philippines has been attributed to highly developed countries like the United States.
Barriga said that as of 2007, at least 500 million obsolete computers have been shipped by the US to developing countries.
He said it will cost around 30 dollars to recycle a computer in the US, but only 2 dollars to recycle the same computer in China.
“Our advocacy is to discourage people from getting too excited about electronics,” Barriga said.
Thus, ICT Davao is part of a big group promoting Sustainable Resource Management. One way to do this, he said, is through proper e-waste disposal.
ICT Davao is spearheading the biggest e-waste collection in Davao dubbed as “e-Tapok” which will be conducted from April 22 to May 21 at the Damosa IT Park.
Barriga said they are also looking for a way wherein companies that could not drop their e-waste at the venue can avail of the drop-off or pick-up method.
“This event is volunteer-driven so we are relying on a lot of people to help us succeed,” he said.
The organizer of e-Tapok is still in need of volunteers and sponsors who will provide trucks for hauling, advocacy campaign materials, and free air time for the promotional video of the project.
“Even bigger countries do not recycle their e-waste adding to the environmental pollution,” he said.
Barriga said Davao City is a developing city but with development comes an increase in e-waste production. (PNA)
DCT/LAC/lvp
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