Africa will 'outstrip Europe' in e-waste volumes

Katharina Kummer Peiry, executive secretary of the Basel Convention on hazardous waste has told reporters that Africa is likely to overtake Europe in volumes of electronic waste within five years.

Increasing population in the continent as well as an increase in mobile phone use has led to a surge in electronic goods, exacerbating hazardous waste concerns on the continent. Gallup recently reported: "Mobile phone subscriptions have grown faster in Africa than any other region in the world." It seems clear that cell phones are becoming a major part of everyday life, and devices such as these are expected to surge.

Miranda Amachree of Nigeria's National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency said: "At the current rate by 2017 we'll be faced with so much e-waste, even more than in the EU." The Pan-African Forum on E-Waste at the UN environment agency in Nairobi focussed on this problem, saying that the continent is preparing to manage a shift from foreign e-waste, generated from Europe, to locally generated e-waste.

Posted by Claire Manning