E-Waste Management: Awareness, Strategies, Facilities, Sources and Treatment in Tanzania

Abstract

There is an urgent need to have the e-waste management and information security framework in Tanzania in order to rescue the country from the danger brought by improper management of e-waste and loose regulations for illegal importation of the devices from the developed countries. Tanzania like other non-industrialized /industrializing/developing countries is greatly affected by the e-waste problem as it can’t escape from the tremendous advancement in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector which contributes to the speedy growth of the e-waste in the country, worse enough the country does not have; formal recycling industries or any other formal method to manage the e-waste appropriately, legislations and regulations specifically for e-waste management  to protect the environment and human health. The e-waste dealt with under the scope of this paper are those produced from the ICT devices specifically desktop computers, Servers and Laptops. This study is about identifying the current practices in e-waste management in Tanzania. From this general objective, the following specific objectives were derived; identify the awareness of the electronic device users on e-waste issues, identify the existing strategies on e-waste management, identifying the available facilities for e-waste management, identify the sources of e-waste and finally identify the treatment of e-waste in Tanzania. It was realized from the findings of the study that in the e-waste management in Tanzania there was a lack of the following; Awareness to ICT device users and other stakeholders on the e-waste problem, Appropriate e-waste management mechanism, Use of proper data removal tool for complete sterilization of the data from the computers before they enter the e-waste stream, ICT experts involvement in solving the e-waste problem and formulation of the legislation, regulations and the framework for the management of the e-waste. Most of the Green IT and Green computing issues require ICT expert participation, centralized database that contain information of all ICT devices country wise, E-waste specific legislation, regulations and the framework for e-waste management that will address the issues of; illegal importation of obsolete ICT devices, implementation of the extended producer responsibilities (EPR)/ take-back systems and the component of information security.

Keywords: E-waste, ICT (Information and Communication Technology), ICT devices (Desktop Computers, Laptops and Servers), obsolete ICT devices, E-waste from ICT devices, Information security.