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Access to energy and electrical devices is increasingly vital in humanitarian settings, especially in protracted contexts. Devices such as pumps, lights or fans convert electrical energy into motion or heat. Electronic appliances, such as mobile phones or laptops, control the flow of electrons to function. Electricity is essential for the protection of both the affected populations and host communities, for instance, lighting households, public spaces and sanitary infrastructure. Access to electricity enhances people’s quality of life, prevents or reduces protection risks such as gender-based violence, facilitates education and creates economic opportunities. In protracted contexts, households often use appliances such as light bulbs, fans and mobile phones. Schools use electricity to light classrooms and provide computer courses. Medical facilities depend on electricity to store vaccines or laboratory samples in refrigerators and freezers. Drinking water extraction, treatment and distribution require electricity. Small and medium-sized enterprises often base their activities on electrical hand tools and electrical light for businesses such as handicrafts, hair salons, retail shops and market stalls.
In humanitarian settings (and many low and middle-income countries), using the national electricity grid is not an option. The grid either provides interrupted and unreliable access to electricity or is too far away to connect to remotely located settlements or camps. Historically, generators provided off-grid electricity, emitting significant greenhouse gases. Increasingly, renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are used instead. The systems include solar mini-grids for the electrification of households and businesses, solar home systems linked to one household, solar streetlights and solar lanterns for public and individual lighting. Off-grid solar PV systems need batteries to store electricity and provide power outside daylight hours.
The increased use of solar PV systems and electrical and electronic appliances also increases the quantity of end-of-life broken and non-functional equipment. The collective and technical term for this waste category is ‘Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment’ (WEEE), as defined by the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes. WEEE is often abbreviated as e-waste, and the term e-waste is used throughout this section.
Despite being a small fraction of the total waste, e-waste can pose significant risks to public health and the environment as it contains toxic and hazardous materials W.2. These toxic materials can be released in an uncontrolled and unsafe manner if e-waste is unmanaged, managed informally (and unsafely), or if valuable materials are informally (and unsafely) recovered from e-waste. Although an element of domestic solid waste, e-waste must be collected and processed separately from regular domestic waste due to its hazardous nature P.2.
As with all waste, preventing waste generation is the best approach to reduce its potential adverse effects P.1. It is consistent with the waste management hierarchy which prioritises prevention and reduction. Reducing e-waste generation can be addressed at various stages in their lifecycle, ideally in parallel.
If electrical or electronic equipment is procured by humanitarian or development actors, sale contracts can include the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which has two distinct features. One is shifting responsibility for the end-of-life management of goods to the producer. EPR includes the physical responsibility to recycle and safely dispose of e-waste or the economic responsibility to fund safe end-of-life management. Both physical and economic responsibility can be partially or fully shifted to the producer and be directly linked to the specific traded goods or a defined quantity of existing e-waste. The second distinct EPR feature is enforcing or incentivising producers to include sustainability in the product design, such as its ability to be dismantled or repaired. Although the shift of responsibility for end-of-life management might rely on a producer’s voluntary actions, EPR may also be included in national legislation X.1.
If electrical or electronic equipment is purchased by households and institutions, the potential for EPR is limited. Opportunities to reduce e-waste include repair or, for equipment that can no longer be repaired, take-back schemes and safe disposal.
Exercising rights to existing warranties on electrical and electronic equipment is challenging in humanitarian settings. Products may have been distributed by humanitarian actors or brought in by intermediary traders. Relevant producers or suppliers responsible for upholding the warranty might not have an on-site presence. Furthermore, the product must be linked to the procurement (e.g. by a receipt) which is often difficult in cases of informal sales or in-kind distributions.
If electrical and electronic equipment are distributed, it should happen as soon as possible after the procurement and delivery of goods. Extended storage is unsuitable for some electrical devices (such as solar lanterns that require regular charging).
Opportunities for decreasing e-waste by repairing electrical and electronic equipment should be assessed; their viability depends on local repair capacity and the ability and willingness of end-users to pay for repairs. Informal repair shops often exist, especially in protracted humanitarian contexts. The quality and range of their work may need improving and extending to include the community’s most relevant repair and maintenance issues. Capacity strengthening could include vocational and advanced training for existing repair shops or the provision of specific repair equipment and spare parts. Occupational safety is an important training topic as workers can be exposed to fumes (e.g. during soldering) or toxic materials contained in e-waste X.4. As well as repairing household appliances, trained local technicians may be able to maintain public infrastructure (e.g. solar streetlights or solar PV systems in institutions). Technicians should also be trained in e-waste handling, such as sorting and separation and final disposal.
Ideally, support for local repair should be done in collaboration or consultation with larger producers of electrical and electronic equipment and specialised organisations (e.g. Électriciens sans frontières). Producers may support local repair by offering repair tutorials and training, repair equipment or spare parts. They may be interested in setting up local repair points through corporate social responsibility programmes, in the same way that typical off-grid providers of energy products or services ensure after-sales services.
In humanitarian (and other) settings, households often keep broken and non-functional electrical and electronic equipment at home instead of disposing of them. This practice (sometimes called the ’hibernation of e-waste’) can occur for different reasons, for example, households may still see value in the broken equipment or expect that it can be exchanged for new and functional ones.
Information campaigns and take-back schemes are needed to collect e-waste from households and overcome the hibernation of e-waste. Communities are often unaware of the public health and environmental risks related to e-waste. Sensitisation campaigns can explain take-back schemes or collection procedures. E-waste collection can be done through door-to-door collection or take-back collection points. If possible, collection points should offer repairs. Householders can establish whether their equipment can be fixed and only hand over items beyond repair.
Financial incentives might be required to facilitate e-waste collection but must align with existing take-back market rates to prevent competition with the informal waste sector. Appropriate pricing can be achieved by conducting local market surveys and understanding the local e-waste informal sector/processes. To ensure the financial sustainability of e-waste management, financial incentives should consider the estimated end-of-life value of e-waste as well as its disposal cost.
Safe recycling and disposal of e-waste is unlikely to be viable for humanitarian actors and requires an assessment of national capacity. This may include public services provided by authorities and utilities or private-sector services from specialised companies. Although humanitarian interventions may include the repair and collection of e-waste, recycling and reuse are unlikely or limited to a few non-hazardous materials. Complete recycling and safe disposal are not feasible in humanitarian settings due to the technical complexity and hazardous nature of e-waste.
If e-waste is sold at cost to public or private-sector services, its valuable content (e.g. copper, gold and other metals) might partially offset disposal costs. The end-of-life value of e-waste should therefore be assessed before agreeing on disposal fees. In low and middle-income countries some components and materials found in e-waste cannot be safely recycled or disposed of in-country. The export of e-waste to other countries falls under the control and regulation of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes X.1. The Convention does not necessarily prevent export but does increase the complexity for private sector companies in charge of transport and can increase the cost of disposal.
The procurement of e-waste management services must consider relevant national regulatory frameworks and, ideally, verify the certification and quality standards of the private sector companies, even if not legally required X.1. Humanitarian organisations may have due diligence standards for such sensitive private-sector partnerships. Overall, companies should guarantee that e-waste is handled and disposed of safely concerning public health and environmental risks and that corresponding occupational safety standards for the company workforce are maintained. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) provides a general framework for environmentally sound processes and procedures, such as ISO 14001 on environmental management systems. In addition, specific certifications for the handling of e-waste exist, such as Responsible Recycling (R2), Recycling Industry Operating Standard (RIOS) and e-Stewards.
In humanitarian settings and many low and middle-income countries, the informal waste management sector may be involved in the collection and informal processing of e-waste. The incentive is the recovery of valuable materials from e-waste, such as copper, gold or other metals. Informal e-waste handling should be avoided at all costs; it can involve child labour, the unsafe burning of waste to extract the materials and the unsafe dumping of the residual waste.
Humanitarian organisations engaged in e-waste management must avoid competing with the informal sector. Instead, informal actors and activities can be included in e-waste interventions leading to formalisation and potential employment opportunities. People can be employed as regular staff or remunerated as paid volunteers or through cash for work programmes. Training and PPE must be provided to personnel X.4. If formal employment is not possible or desirable, the informal sector can still be formalised and strengthened by establishing associations. A waste worker’s association, for example, can increase the leverage and economic opportunities for an individual informal worker or a small group of informal workers by defining agreed prices, listing all collectable materials and enforcing working standards (such as the prevention of child labour or use of PPE).
The management and handling of e-waste require thorough health, safety and environmental measures, starting with training for personnel and the provision of appropriate tools and PPE X.4. Certain e-waste components require particular attention during handling and transport, especially lead-acid batteries (risk of toxic and corrosive leachate) and lithium-based batteries (risk of self-ignition through thermal runaways).
Lead-acid batteries should be kept out of direct sunlight. Sealed lead-acid batteries must not be opened and have to be kept in collection trays able to retain and withstand leaked acid. The acid of wet batteries must be drained and stored in secured containers.
Lithium-based batteries should be fully discharged prior to storage. They should be stored inside their original product or in closed, sand-filled compartments capable of withstanding the heat from potential self-ignition. Before transportation, lithium-based batteries should be stored for longer to ensure that they are fully discharged.
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